October 25, 2011
Well Tuesday morning I grab a quick coffee at McDonalds and then grab a taxi to see some other ruins nearby. I tell the cabbie where I want to go and then ask how much and he says "10 soles" which I think is too much considering I can be driven all the way to downtown Lima for that much so I counter at "6 soles" and then he counters me at "8 soles" and then I say "5 soles" at which point he laughs as he realizes I am not haggling the way most people do. The more you try haggling with me the less money you will get until you have to take me across town for free.
He drops me off in another neighborhood where the ruins are and tells me "Ciudado" (Be careful) and as I understand he is telling me it is a bad neighborhood I say "ladrons?" (Thieves) and he says "Si! Si! Ladrons!!". So I am at "Huaca Huallamarca" which isn't nearly as big as the pyramid I saw yesterday but was worth the visit. After that I grab a cab to downtown Lima and get dropped off at the main plaza square which is where the president of Lima lives and they have a changing of the guard ceremony everyday at 12 noon outside his building and kitty corner to his place off the main plaza is the "Cathedral of Lima" where Francisco Pizarro's coffin and remains are so I head in there first. There was controversy over whether this was really Pizarro's remains after he was assassinated on June 26th 1541 but after doing analysis on the bones and all the stab markings into the bones they realized it was his remains.
After that I went to the "Monasterio de San Francisco" which has catacombes underneath it but they don't allow people to take photos in there. After that I was wandering around some of the streets downtown and came across the Peruvian Congress building and beside it was the "Museo de la inquisition" which was the location of the spanish inquisition between 1570-1870. Later on I tried to find that big market that our guide was telling us about yesterday but couldn't find it so just caught a cab back to Miraflores. You really have to know your cab prices here or they try to rip you off or you have to counter them at 50% of whatever they say and you are probably in the ball park.
Jennifer is coming by at 5pm after her work shift is over and I am going to sleep for an hour now after I throw up some more pictures from today.
Well Tuesday morning I grab a quick coffee at McDonalds and then grab a taxi to see some other ruins nearby. I tell the cabbie where I want to go and then ask how much and he says "10 soles" which I think is too much considering I can be driven all the way to downtown Lima for that much so I counter at "6 soles" and then he counters me at "8 soles" and then I say "5 soles" at which point he laughs as he realizes I am not haggling the way most people do. The more you try haggling with me the less money you will get until you have to take me across town for free.
He drops me off in another neighborhood where the ruins are and tells me "Ciudado" (Be careful) and as I understand he is telling me it is a bad neighborhood I say "ladrons?" (Thieves) and he says "Si! Si! Ladrons!!". So I am at "Huaca Huallamarca" which isn't nearly as big as the pyramid I saw yesterday but was worth the visit. After that I grab a cab to downtown Lima and get dropped off at the main plaza square which is where the president of Lima lives and they have a changing of the guard ceremony everyday at 12 noon outside his building and kitty corner to his place off the main plaza is the "Cathedral of Lima" where Francisco Pizarro's coffin and remains are so I head in there first. There was controversy over whether this was really Pizarro's remains after he was assassinated on June 26th 1541 but after doing analysis on the bones and all the stab markings into the bones they realized it was his remains.
After that I went to the "Monasterio de San Francisco" which has catacombes underneath it but they don't allow people to take photos in there. After that I was wandering around some of the streets downtown and came across the Peruvian Congress building and beside it was the "Museo de la inquisition" which was the location of the spanish inquisition between 1570-1870. Later on I tried to find that big market that our guide was telling us about yesterday but couldn't find it so just caught a cab back to Miraflores. You really have to know your cab prices here or they try to rip you off or you have to counter them at 50% of whatever they say and you are probably in the ball park.
Jennifer is coming by at 5pm after her work shift is over and I am going to sleep for an hour now after I throw up some more pictures from today.
