1/15/2008 Callao, port for Lima, Peru

From: Sherman Rootberg
Date: Jan 15, 2008 9:28 PM
Subject: 1/15/2008

1/15/2008

Callao, port for Lima, Peru

Today started out great. After the fog horn sounding all night we woke up to the fog horn still sounding. When we looked outside, we saw nothing. The whole outside was gone. It looked like a Rod Serling one step beyond program.

After a while we neared the port of Callao, or so we were told. We could not confirm it by sight. We could now hear lots of ships horns. It was a symphony of ship horns. The whole place was horny. However, we were going no where quick. We had to anchor because no ships were being allowed to enter the harbor in the fog, or so the captain told us over the sound system.

Many people had tours that included flights. Most on the ship do take some kind of tour. After a long wait we were told that the port authority had informed them that we might be allowed in at around 11:00 AM. We were supposed to have had a four hour tour that was starting at 8:45 AM. If they reschedule at about 11:45 AM that would mean we would not be back until 3:45 PM. Totally unacceptable. We would miss lunch and probably starve to death or not. Decisions, decisions. Whether tis better to see and starve or never to see at all? To suffer the excruciating pangs of hunger or not to see, to see never more, the usual crap they show us. Then of course there is always the other option. Call and bitch a lot and get put on a later tour. That sounded best, so I did it and we ate lunch before we left.

About 1:00 PM we did get on a bus for the tour of Lima. The guide spoke perfectly and was easy to understand, but she might have known too much. We had been waiting all morning, not because of the fog, as we had been told. As we were leaving there were buses coming back from a tour for another cruise ship, the Prinsendam. It had pulled in early in the morning. It was also parked at the other end of the harbor where cruise ships are supposed to go. There is junk being sold at stands there. Where our ship is, it is extremely noisy from the constant heavy traffic of trucks and cranes and the beeping when they back up. The cranes are very loud as are the containers as they bump and bang them. If we open our outside door there is also the wonderful smells of diesel, exhaust, and sewerage. We waited all morning because another ship had been in our space. Regent must only be paying for the cheap dock while the other line paid for the good dock. I really love it when they lie to us. I am going to write this one down. I guess I already did.

The tour took us to Lima about 45 minutes away. We saw an old mansion down town. It is supposed to be the oldest colonial mansion in the western hemisphere. It was built in 1534 and the same family has owned and lived in it since then. It was very large but no chamber pot. The family still lives in the parts of it that are blocked off.

Next we went to the main square. On the square was the government palace, city hall, archbishop’s palace and the Lima Cathedral. Of course there were also several tanks and uniformed men with automatic weapons. The guide told us there used to be too many demonstrations but now it’s much better that the government has totally repressed the population.

We then went into the Cathedral and were shown many chambers and chapels. After that we went to a nearby cloister. All of this was a lot of walking and some stairs. I was very ready when we got back to the bus.

Next we went to Miraflores. On the way we went by many nicer homes. There we did see some nicer cars and nicer homes. Every single building, whether private or commercial had a wall or gates of some kind surrounding it. On top of those walls or gates was barbed wire or in many cases there were electrified wires.

Miraflores was a far more wealthy place. There were many very large houses. There were also some real sized cars. After driving around we stopped at a park overlooking the ocean. It was on a hill and had a series of tile mosaics that were supposed to look like Gaudy’s in Barcelona. They were cute but not nearly Gaudy. Then it was back to the ship. Traffic was heavy and we didn’t arrive until 5:30 PM

I spent the whole day going to Lima and never did see one bean. I expected the place to be lousy with them. And they don’t even pronounce it right. When we say Lima it sounds like (lime ah). They say (leem ah). No wonder they talk funny. Peru means Turkey.