Global Roamer 2: January 2011

Monday, January 17, 2011

GR2 IS FREE

John has Global Roamer out of customs. I haven't seen her yet, but he has already had a coffee in her!!!

My goodness how time flies when you are having fun, and boy doesn't it drag while you are waiting. It is now Monday 17th January and we are still in Lima. We got our approval from the Ministery of Transport, but too late in the day before customs closed. Being a Friday we now had to wait until Monday. Of course nothing is straight forward and simple here so obviously it took more hours at customs before they decided that as we had a fridge we needed approval for the gas. Fridge gas is not allowed into the "clean" environment here. (woops!! don't mention the smog cloud floating over Lima). So more paperwork has to be drafted and more approvals applied for. This doesn't take hours....it takes days, and guess what!!! Approval arrives on Friday after customs has closed!!! We are not happy chappies.

A bit of diversion is called for. We hire a car....quite an exercise in itself, and drive north. Another interesting exercise through Lima's traffic. Definitely not for the faint hearted. Driver's here would be right up there for the top title of world's worst. Once on the Pan American heading north the relief was huge. It was great to be on the road again, even if it was the wrong vehicle. We travelled up the coast (sadly with no maps or Lonely Planet, as they of course are in GB2) and stayed overnight at a local beach resort town. We even visited an amazing old site....see all our photos

Hopefully there will be good news soon.......................................

NORTH OF LIMA - PHOTOS

Love the taxis

Outer suburbs Lima

A different take on beachside property

Pan American highway

Holidays at the beach

Exclusive beachfront properties

Look at those rows

Amazing ruins at Caral

Love those outfits....hope the goats appreciate them

Markets galore

Chicken anyone? I'm going vegetarian again

Great Ocean Rd - only sandy

Amazing road

How the upper class holiday

Views aplenty, but no street appeal!!

The newest suburbs!!

Outer suburbs of Lima

LIMA PHOTOS

Outer suburbs from San Cristobel. Hilltops are obviously not exclusive properties here.

View from San Cristobal. We can see the Pan American highway snacking through town.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

LIMA PHOTOS

Lima Beach

Security in Lima

YET ANOTHER UPDATE

Tomorrow is finally the day that we can pick up our motorhome!!! Fingers crossed. We finally have approval from the Ministry of Transport and on Monday we are going to customs and will hopefully drive away. Much as we have enjoyed Lima, we will be glad to leave.
We DONOT recommend anyone bringing their Australian vehicle to Peru.
Yesterday we caught a local bus (the whole round trip was the huge sum of 80c each) and rode from the expensive areas of Miraflores and San Isidro to the far side of the city full of squatters and slums! This is where we had to get off the bus.
The city centre is based on 2 lovely Plazas, surrounded by lovely old Spanish buildings. We have explored it twice. Firstly on New Years Eve when it was closed to traffic and full of people and bands, and then yesterday.
In the weekends we have been staying at the lovely Barranco Bed & Breakfast, and a hotel nearer the ports etc during the week. At least it is cheap at $30 a night. We have eaten lots of local cuisine. The staple diet seems to be pollo (chicken)...it is cooking everywhere.
Sadly we will not make it to the Dakar Rally. There is no way we can catch it up now!