Saturday May 13, I believe
After flying all the way to Miami to catch a red-eye to Lima, we are finally here. We were collected at the Lima airport at 430 a.m. by a chatty A&K rep (Julio) who handed us our portfolios and itineraries and plane tickets for upcoming flights, then got us checked into the beautiful Miraflores Park Hotel. Then off he scampered into the night.
Hector and I slept a few hours and now I can't remember a word Julio told us. I do remember our driver being stopped twice by the police, with Julio giggling and saying they were just trying to shake us down because we were in a nice car. He told them we were from the US and they made themselves scarce. Hmm. I didn't know that had any pull, I would have suspected the opposite. And now I have a vague recollection that we are on our own until 2pm Sunday. We strolled about this afternoon, I just finished a great massage with Antonio and Hector's having his now. I suspect we'll do room service dinner.
The hotel is right on the Pacific but the fog is so bad that we can barely see 100 yards. Apparently this is more common than not here. Our room is very nice, they call it a suite but that's a stretch. It just has as much furniture as a suite, but it's all in one room. The bathroom is spectacular, however- an important component. So we'll see a bit of the old downtown tomorrow, then we depart for Cusco early on Tuesday.
1 comment:
Glad to hear about the bathroom. We Finns need a good bathroom (comes right after a good sauna in terms of quality of Finnish life). The most confusing bathroom I ever experiences was the one in the Monastery in Milan (did I ever tell yo about that? I hope not!). I never really understood how anything worked in that huge labyrinthical palace of plumbing. Then there was the bathroom at my little flat in London. You opened a creaky, frosted-glass door and were in a room not unlike the Chamber of Horrors at Madame Tussaud's (sans Jack the Ripper, natch. Grey cement wall and no mirror made for a ablutionary experience not unline one of those infamous acid-tripping isolation chambers from the movie "Altered States." Dark, dank and probably dangerous, I took very quick cold baths while living there (also hoping to avoid any chance of my Italian bisexual roomate breaking down the door to chat with me while wearing his girlfriend's tutu (she was a ballet dancer). Another noteworthy bathroom was the one on the second floor of an old office building on Main Street of Fall River. My Mom's hairdresser had her parlor there, and as a kid, I often hung out waiting for Mom, reading Casper comics and watching "Not For Women Only" on the ancient black and white that sat in a corner of the shop. Down the hall was a huge door with a glass panel, upon which were painted the words "rest room." Opening the door, I found myself in a high-ceilinged chamger with walls a sickly-green color. On the ceiling was small skylight. The unvanquished rays of sunshine that managed to ebb through the dirth on the glass gave the room a nightmarish glow. In the corner, I device from another era. A huge wooden box suspended from the ceiling, with a chain hanging at the side and a pipe leading down to a wooden and porcelein contrivance. David Lynch never had it so good! I was quick to get out of there, as it was like heading into the a Sartesian fantasy of hell. Echos of footsteps sounded in the hallway outside....
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