Tues 6th Jan: The Bus to Puno

The bus doesn´t leave this afternoon until 3.30 so I have some time to kill. THere´s a pre-Inca stepped pyramid in one of the suburbs not far from here so I take a taxi over there. The taxi ride itself turns into a bit of an adventure as the driver isn´t sure where this pyramid is and ends up getting lost. The price of the trip is fixed beforehand so I don´t mind the detour. I show the taxi driver a map, he asks for directions off the street. We criss cross, backtrack and eventually the pyramid appears before us. THe driver glances at me and gestures towards the pyramid as if to say "Voila monsieur". We both smile, he out of relief, me out of amusement.

After this the visit to the pyramid was a bit of an anticlimax. It looks impressive. Its heavily restored but all ou could do was walk to the top and back down again. There wasn´t much information about the place and it was all in Spanish. This site was slap bang in the middle of a residencial area. It was unusual to visit an ancient site with high rise blocks all around.

The taxi ride back to Miraflores was a lot quicker. This taxi driver knew where he was going. I picked up m gear from the hostel and took another taxi across town to the bus terminal. The taxi drivers can be very chatty asking you where you´re from, about Ireland etc. A lot seem to be from other Peruvian cities, Arequipe, Cusco, in Lima for the work. They light up when you tell themy ou´ve visited their city, and of course its alwas "muy Bonito". You have to be careful taking taxis in Lima. There are a lot of unregistered guys operating who, on occasion, have been known to take people to parts of the city they had no intention of visiting and introduce them to friends of his for which tat person will have to pay for the privelege. However once you are aware of this the unregistsred ones stand out and you simply avoid them.

On the bus we headed south through Lima, out into the suburbs and onto the desert of the coastal plain. We passed by some more random shanty towns. Some smaller ones appeared deserted as if everybody just took off. On the tv the film "In America " was showing, about an Irish family settling in New York. This family was freshout of Ireland et they were all fluent in Spanish. Outside we were passing ramshackle housing of the shantys of Lima while on telly we had to endure the rundown tenements of the suburbs of New York. Once it got dark outside the lights in the bus were turned off and people settled down to sleep. Nothing more was shown on tv. The only distraction was the sound of the engine which struggled badly on any incline we encountered. Eventually the engine´s hum lulled me to sleep.