Pacific coast

I got some complaints that I don't write very much lately. Well, I've been on the move, and I haven't had so much time. And I was also ill last weekend -stomach problems, I guess you don't want to know the details-. Anyway, I completed my visit to Iquitos including a tour around Belen. This is the lowest part of the town, by all means. The locals call it the Venice of the Amazones; my judgment, it is more of a slum, with very poor people living in pretty bad conditions. As the river is low right now, some of the floating houses are actually sitting on the ground -which is basically trash-, so not a very nice view. Interesting though, not for the pleasure of sight, but as a first hand ilustration of how hard life can be. I hired a local to show me around, and ended up paying him a little fortune, 20 soles. I miscalculated a bit the prices, and I only learned later that the dish of the day in a nearby restaurant could cost 3 or 4 soles. Of course, he was a very happy man, and well, what can I say, 20 soles is just 5 Euros. You won't get very far with that in Belgium. And I would probably have paid more to an agency anyway. The following day I flew from Iquitos to Lima, finally leaving the jungle behind, and arriving in the dessert. I wasn't aware of that, but it seems that most of the Pacific coast of Peru is a pure dessert. Only the valleys around the rivers that flow from the Andes are some sort of oasis. But for the rest, it is as dry as it can be.
I wasn't too impressed by Lima. I saw a few nice colonial buildings, including some churches, the plaza de armas, and a couple of museums. I also got a guided tour around two more modern neighbourhoods, Miraflores and Barranco. Ruby, a limeña I met recently in Leuven showed me around. (¡Muchas gracias de nuevo, Ruby!). This more modern part was probably the nicest, with some parks by the sea and some very colourful houses.
A few other things. Music around town was suddently more familiar. I heard La Oreja, Hombres G, Alex Ubago, and even Ana Belén. Still, it wasn't quite as when I heard la Gallina Turuleta in Colonia, Uruguay. Another thing, taxis here are not metered, so you need to arrange the price with the driver before you jump in. Typically they try to charge a few extra soles to tourists. And yeap, the memories of the Spanish presence are still quite present. History is divided between before and after the Spanish domination. Life in the capital was dominated by Spanish born, first class citizens, until the 1820s. Pizarro's tomb in the cathedral doesn't seem to raise very good feelings. I heard already quite a few times that "the Spanish stealed our gold". And then, of course, a matter of national pride, independence. I am currently staying at a hotel a hundred meters away from the place where Jose San Martin arrived in Perú. He met here with Bolivar as both were leading revolutions from the South and the North of the continent, so a very important place for Peruvian history.
By the way, this place is called Paracas, and besides the historical importance, it is only a fishing and touristic village near a natural reserve. I had a tour this morning around some islands near by and the reserve itself and I saw thousands of birds of many types I cannot even remember. There were also sea lions, penguins, flamingos, and even dolphins. The islands are covered of course with droppings of all those birds, although every 5 years they come and remove them. It seems they are very good as fertilizer. In fact, the business can be so profitable that sometime in the 19th century 80% of the Peruvian GDP was based on "droppings economy". The importance has dimished though, as there are more chemical products in the market. But the droppings are still exported.
While in the reserve, we drove on a road made of salt. I wouldn't believe the guide, but we he stopped and scrached a bit the ground. It had actually become black because of the tyres of vehicles driving through. Amazing. And as it never ever rains here, there's no problem of getting diluted with the water. Interesting, isn't it?
Tomorrow I'm moving further South to Ica and then Arequipa. Hopefully some more interesting stuff down there.