Trip to Paracas

Today was a travel day as we left Lima for Paracas, a small town on the Pacific coast about 4 hours south of Lima.  To get there, we drove down the Pan-Pacific highway, a road that goes from Alaska to the southern tip of Argentina.

On our way out of Lima we passed the largest women's prison in the country.  It's most famous inhabitant is the former first lady of the country who, along with her husband, the former president, is in jail for corruption.

Peru is divided into three main areas:  the coast (15%, the Amazon (60%) and the Andes (25%).  Peru is divided by the Andes Mountains.  On the east side of the mountains it is green,  contains rain forests, jungles and lush countryside.  On the west side of the Andes there is nothing but desert.  The Andes create a natural barrier, it rains on the east side and it doesn't on the west side.

It is difficult to believe you are in a desert when you are in Lima.  Many parts of the city are heavily irrigated and the grounds of many hotels, apartment buildings​ and parks are actually quite lush. Once we left the metropolitan area, the landscape is totally brown and it runs right up to the Pacific  Ocean.  Nothing grows without irrigation.  It is called the driest desert the world yet it is directly adjacent to the ocean.

While riding down the Pan-Pacific we saw irrigated fields that contained artichokes, corn, yucca, carrots, garlic, pumpkins, asparagus and avacados.  There were also large chicken farms - white chickens for consumption that only live 45 days and brown chickens for egg production.  Chicken is the main meat eaten by the Peruvian population. 

Many squatters  who are from small villages  in the Andes live in shacks near the agricultural areas.  These shacks have no electricity,  running water or cooking facilities.  There are no schools for their children.  

The major reason the squatters move is wages - they can earn $10 to $15 a day as opposed to $5 a day in their home villages.  It was rather depressing to ride through this desolate, desert  countryside but then we arrived in Paracas which thrives on the fishing industry and checked into this beautiful lush resort.

 

What a dinner we had at our hotel in Paracas. The meal was not memorable but the experience had us laughing so hard!  Here is the sequence:

- waiter 1 comes to the table to get our drink order. We all order water. Deborah orders a gin & tonic and David orders an Irish whiskey.  A blank look comes over the waiters face so David orders scotch but then asks what kind of scotch they have. The waiter leaves, goes behind a wall (see below) and never returns.

- waiter 2 comes over and wants to take our order and we try to explain that we are waiting for waiter 1 to bring cocktails.  The waiter disappears behind the wall.  We are now speculating about "the wall" but assume it is where the bar is located.

-waiter 3 comes to our table and wants to take our order. We explain again that we are waiting on some information and our drink orders.  

- we have now been in the restaurant quite awhile. David gets up and goes behind the wall where waiter 1 disappeared. Waiter number 3 watched him nervously. We worry that he too has disappeared but he eventually comes back with his drink. Deborah still does not have hers and Gerry and I, who have decided what wine we would like have never even ordered.  

-we see waiter 3 talking to another waiter and pointing to our table. This young man becomes - yes you guessed it, waiter number 4.

-Waiter 4 brings our water, takes Deborah’s drink order again, takes our wine order and delivers all of it. He then takes an order for 2 appetizers for David and Deborah and all 4 of our meal orders. He delivers their appetizers and our main meal. Deborah orders bread which we never got and their meal comes as we are finishing ours.

Whew!  We were laughing so hard. But I must say we were trying with Spanish and they were trying with English. Probably not the best combination.

The Wall!