Back in Peru

Lima roundabout

After a very uneventful journey from Brazil, though a 4 hour lay-over in Sao Paulo culminating in a 4.00 am departure is not funny, I arrived in Lima. I went to Immigration and requested the maximum allowed 183 days as a tourist, and had to explain why I wanted so much time - had a motorbike here, wanted to see more of the wonderful country, blah, blah, blah ... - and was reluctantly granted the full visa, but told that in future my time would be reduced (meaning I will have to border hop to Ecuador to renew, so no big deal really!) as it appeared I was trying to get residence. I explained that I did not fulfil their residence requirements so had to make do with only 6 months a year here.
Customs in Lima is like no other I have ever come across! Previously you collected your bags and proceeded to the Customs area of the hall where there were several queues leading to gates with a button by it - you pressed the button and waited. A green light meant you were clear to leave, a red light meant you had to submit your bags (including hand luggage that had been checked before boarding - though I assume you have had time to move any "suspect" items from your checked luggage to hand luggage in the baggage claim area!) for X-ray screening. If the operator didn't like what they saw they then opened and searched your bags. Now, however, every piece of luggage has to be X-rayed before you can leave the airport!
My hostal had a taxi waiting for me, who remembered me from a previous visit, so we headed for Brena - right in the middle of morning rush hour! Traffic in Lima is always a nightmare (with 8 million residents it is a big city), but rush hour is something else - however the Police do actually help. Most major intersections have officers on duty and they will over-ride the traffic signals by allowing traffic on red to proceed if there are no vehicles approaching the green lights! This helps enormously, as does stopping "green light" traffic from encroaching onto the intersections in the exits are blocked!
Although it was early for check-in I was allowed access to my room and after a shower and shave decided to head out and explore a little. The young lady on reception was very solicitous and even offered to help me find a taxi, but I decided to walk instead, and eventually made it to Larcomar (in a taxi as it was much further than I thought!), a large shopping Mall built into the cliffs overlooking the sea.

Larcomar, in the cliffs at Lima

I had hoped to get some GoPro accessories there, but despite three shops stocking it none had much of an accessory range! So I had lunch, and then tried to get a sim card to use while in Peru. The nearest outlet was several blocks away so I walked there - the Claro cellphone provider shop didn't have any! - and found a large Department store that had sims, but the system was down so I had to wait 30 minutes until it was working again!!

I walked a little further on my way back before getting a taxi back to my hostal, but came across one of Lima's delightful parks that is over-run by cats! I had heard about these but was not prepared for the reality of it. I was under the impression that these were feral cats, but they all happily accepted petting, as well as the food left in large containers all over the park.

Really chilled out cat

I saw at least 50-60 cats, but there were probably a lot more.

They all seemed very contented

They also appeared to live in harmony together ...

Park-goers petting a cat

... and didn't mind being picked up and stroked. It appeared they even had sandy areas left especially as "toilets" and I certainly didn't notice any smells.

I got back to my hostal and the lack of sleep the previous night made me decide to have a siesta, which lasted 3 hours - but when I woke up the need for more sleep overtook the need for dinner, so I fell asleep again and slept through the night!!