A short sleep, followed by a good breakfast, and a long siesta gave us a chance to catch up on energy. We got moving around noon and walked around Miraflores, one of the more affluent and touristy neighbourhoods of Lima.
Trendy yuppies and well-heeled tourists wander this part of town. We tried our best to fit in and walked to the sea front at Larcomas, past restaurants, and bars on wide busy streets. Taxis honked constantly, looking for business. The sea front features a trendy promenade of cool places full of beautiful people sipping coffees and eating fashionable snacks while marvelling at the cliffs plunging to the misty Pacific Ocean. A walk up the road led back to Park Kennedy with more shops, casinos, backpackers' hostels and cat-filled greenspaces.
There is a sense of chic prosperity in this district. Yuppies, hipsters, skaters and fashionistas inhabit the place. A summit of Latin American and Arabic ( strange combination ) presidents occupied the Marriott, which explains the over-the-top police presence, but it also gives credence to Miraflores being the best face of Lima.
We finally met our tour leader, Pablo Gonzalez, along with the rest of our group of travellers. Pablo seems well-suited to his job: he is personable, bright and organized. And he possess a wicked sense of humour. I think I'm going to like this man. I don't envy his job, however, because he basically has to nurse-maid 21 people throughout various parts of South America. As for the group, first impressions are good. They are mostly Canadian, most of them from B.C., although there are people from Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and New Brunswick as well. Lou and I are the only ones from Ontario, which surprises us a little. There are even a few Americans in the group: wonder what they will think of all of us crazy Canucks? At dinner, I had the chance to converse with Jack, a retired teacher from Saskatchewan and Suzy and Glenn, a couple from Vancouver. I'm sure we'll all get to know each other quite well before too many more days go by. We'd better hope we all get along: this trip is going to be a marathon ! But we're off to a good start.
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