Travel Peru, Peru Blog

Deisy and I had to run in order to catch the double decker bus.
“Double decker bus in Lima, like in London?”, I asked her when she told me about it.
“Oh, yeah! Open-top double decker buses, indeed”.
“Then, we should go for it as soon as possible”.
“Chévere!”, she called out joyfully.

Next morning we nearly lost the tour due to a traffic jam.
There was nobody on the first deck. “It might be because it is hot right now”, I guessed. “No way! Even in winter most people prefer to be upstairs”, my friend retorted.
We went up after a young woman greeted us.
Getting on the top, I couldn’t help recalling the film “The Dead Poets Society” as Robin Williams encourages his pupils at class to climb the desk to have a different perspective.
There were a few people; most of them were foreign tourists. As it’s been my wont since school, I chose a seat at the very back row, while I heard a sweet voice in spanish and english from a loudspeaker. I didn’t pay attention to what she was saying, though. I was just looking everywhere as if I had never been in this city ever.

Around Miraflores
After departing from the Kennedy Park and leaving behind the church Virgen Milagrosa, the bus came down into the Malecón or boulevard Miraflores (please read “Early Morning, next day”).
At the back of each seat there was a warning: sit down and buckle up your belt throughout the trip, please. However, I couldn’t keep from crossing right along the row to have a better view. Some pedestrians waved to us and got great glee out of seeing us taking pictures of the Indian markets at Petit Thouars avenue.

We were on our way to an ancient sacred place or “huaca” named Pucllana. As the bus turned to the left, I could see far away the truncated pyramid built with adobe brick. It´d have been a wonderful picture, but suddenly the bus made another turn. Goddamit! No time to say anything else since I heard Daisy’s yell: “Watch out”. My head twisted just as quickly only to encounter a tree branch on my way. I crouched down just in time. That was close! My legs were quivering. It wasn’t a bad idea to sit down for awhile, after all.

Downtown and the Catacombs
Modern buildings gave way to colonial and eclectic architecture as the bus rolled down the road towards downtown. Speed slowed down in front of the Palace of Justice because there were construction workers building the new underground public transportation network.

We went by the Plaza San Martin and headed for the Main Square in order to sightseeing the Government Palace as well as the cathedral and a few balconies that surrounded the square (more about balconies at the title “Balconies: streets on the air”).
All passengers got off before the Convent of San Francisco. Time to switch cameras off since it was forbidden to take pictures inside. Murals, paintings, altars, and carved wooden ceilings were speechless evidence of artful craftsmen and artisans from the 17th and 18th centuries.

The guide warned us of the low ceiling while we stepped down to the catacombs. Even tough the cellar was dim lit by a few torches, it was clear enough to look at the piles of skulls and bones because this place was a colonial cemetery. In fact, it was a cemetery until 1821, the year Peru got her independence from the Spaniard crown.

On our way back at the top of the bus, dozens of images came cutting across my sight. “This was a different way of sightseeing, and it was chévere”, Deisy claimed.

For further information, please log on:
www.mirabusperu.com (only in Spanish)
www.museocatacumbas.com (also in English and French)