Friday, January 3. Lima the port of Callao I woke up feeling much better and we had breakfast in the marquee although the service was abysmal. The port for Lima is Callo, which is a suburb of Lima. It is a commercial port and has no gentility for cruise ships. There was a 40 minute shuttle to Miraflores if you wanted to do you own thing. You could not walk to the port entrance, but had to take their shuttle bus. And disembarkation was again to a public square with no facilities, not even a Silversea representative
I started packing before we went off for our 9:15 am tour, a cultural one visiting to archaeological sites.
The first was in Lima itself: Mateo Salado and was not terribly impressive and we had to insist on going up to the top of it, as a guide, Maximo did not want us to go up there. Mateo Salada was a significant ‘huaca’ revered for its association with the Qhapaq Ñan, the vast Incan trail that linked the entire empire. Originally, the Mateo Salado functioned as the administrative-ceremonial hub during the Yschma civilization before the Incas seized control, establishing the section connecting this ‘huaca’ with Pachacamac, situated to Lima’s south
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We then drove to Miraflores and the private site of Huaca Pucllana . This was much more impressive being a temple built of millions of Adobe bricks around 100 A.D. the other site had been modern and was of 1100 A.D. so we enjoyed the second site but we’re not allowed to wander off by ourselves at all. Huaca Pucllana is a great adobe and clay pyramid located in the Miraflores district of central Lima, built from seven staggered platforms. It served as an important ceremonial and administrative center for the advancement of the Lima Culture, a society which developed in the Peruvian Central Coast between the years of 200 AD and 700 AD.
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Then back to the ship for lunch in the Marquee where we had a pizza for the first time. Back down to the suite and some serious packing for an hour or so. Then I went for a swim and we enjoyed coffee and a cake on our balcony watching the containers being lifted off the rusty ship beside us. On the other side of us was the ship from Belfast. Villa Vie Residences, that was doing a world cruise with people buying apartments on it for the three years. They had been stranded in Belfast for some 5 months, while the engine was repaired.
David had problems with reception not wanting to except the $9 we owed but them wanting to keep $200 for a month or so to guarantee this was paid: what a palaver, eventually he paid the $10 in cash. Then a final cocktail in the salt bar which was surprisingly empty before dinner in the marquee with its magical lights. This was followed by a Peruvian show - not really Peruvian. After this, we completed the suitcases to get them outside the room by the 11 P.m. deadline. During the afternoon we had a long chat with happy Harry our Butler who was a bit like a puppy dog and wanted so much for us to give him 10 out of 10 in our rating.
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Next morning we were off the ship at 06.00 to get the shuttle to a random Plaza in Lima. The shuttle took some finding, but we managed to find our Journey Latin America guide at the Plaza without any problems