Childhood Memories (July 7, 2006)

Today was the day that we were going to visit my old school and house. We had made arrangements last night with a taxi driver to meet us at 9am and we were going to pay him by the hour to drive us wherever we wanted to go. Unfortunately it was raining, so we couldn’t go up to the San Cristobal lookout over the city (the driver said we wouldn’t see anything other than rain), and we headed straight to Collegio de Roosevelt. The first thing I noticed that was different about the school was the big brick fence surrounding it – before it had been a fence with bars that you could see through. I had to talk to the security guard through a thick pane of glass and explain that I went to school here from 1978 to 81and wanted go in to have a look around. He had to make some phone calls and took my passport, but eventually Lincoln and I were given visitors passes to go in, and were brought to see the Administrator of the school, a very nice Peruvian lady that spoke excellent English. She gave us a tour around the grounds and explained what all the new buildings were, and also told us that the school is celebrating its 60^th anniversary this year. I immediately recognized the primary and secondary school buildings, but there were a few others that were new. The field in between the two schools seemed much smaller than I remembered which could be because I am bigger now! There are lots more palm trees, and a pond with some turtles in it. It really is a nice school, and Lincoln was suitably impressed. After giving us a tour around, the administrator said we could wander around on our own for as long as we wanted. I took lots of pictures for my family and did some reminiscing before we left for the next stop – my old house.

My first view of the house was quite disappointing – a new brick wall had been built in front of it, instead of the nice white one that used to be there and there was a big sign saying “VENDO”. It was for sale. I expected the place to be empty, but when I rang the bell someone from a construction crew answered the door. I told him that I used to live here and wanted to come in and have a look around. He said that they were tearing the house apart but I could come in if I wanted to. How sad! The insides of the house had already mostly been torn out, but the structure remained. It is such a shame to be tearing down such a nice house. There had been quite a few changes made to the house over the years – a large second floor had been added, a pool had been installed in the backyard, and a big outside cooking area added as well. Lincoln and I wandered around through all the rooms as I told him what they all used to be. I’m glad I came to see the house when I did because in another month or two it will be completely gone. I think they are going to building a condo complex it its place, like they did to the Greeno’s house around the corner (friends from when we lived here). Their house was also really nice, and I can’t believe it was torn down. There seem to be quite a few new condos in the area; I guess condos are in bigger demand than big fancy houses. We walked around the block and I was happy to see the park we used to play in was still there, as well as the big tree that I used to climb. Velasco Astete is a much busier street than I remembered, and there was tons of traffic on it. Things sure do change a lot with time.

Sadly we left the house and continued on to our next destination – the neighbourhood of Barranco, which is supposed to be a nice area that has good nightlife and is right on the ocean. We just wanted to drive through and see it, and our driver took us to a nice lookout with a view up the coast towards the city. Next stop was Miraflores, where we had our driver leave us so we could wander around and have lunch somewhere; Lincoln had his heart set on a Tex-Mex restaurant that he had found in the guidebook. Miraflores is full of big stores and nice restaurants, and is also close to the beach. We thought it had a very San Diego-ish feel to it, with surfers walking around, very nice houses, parks all along the ocean, and the smell of sea salt in the air. On the way to the restaurant we found an excellent Internet café where we were finally able to upload the backlog of pictures we have accumulated (sorry for the delay folks!). The restaurant did not disappoint and we were happy to eat the only Mexican food we have found on our trip so far. A couple of blocks away was the Parque El Faro, which is up on a cliff overlooking the ocean. There were a few paragliders launching from here, and we could watch surfers in the waves below. We decided we could easily picture ourselves living here! Back in the main shopping district of Miraflores, we looked in a couple of department stores. I am in search of some replacement shorts for sleeping in because mine have developed a big hole in the bum (they were old ratty ones I was intending to throw away at the end of the trip anyways, but they are not going to last). Unfortunately it is winter here, and even though it is not very cold, all the pyjamas that are in stock are long pants made of fleece or flannel. No short to be found anywhere. We couldn’t even find any decent men’s boxer shorts that I could buy. Defeated, we caught another cab back to the hostel.

Because we liked Lima so much, and there are so many neighbourhoods and places to explore here, we were debating staying another day. Our options were to take a night bus tonight, a day bus tomorrow morning, or a night bus tomorrow night. There were still a couple of museums we wanted to see, and we wanted to get some laundry done, so in the end we decided on the night bus tomorrow and bought out tickets from the travel agency beside the hostel. We figured we were probably paying more than if we went to the bus station ourselves (like what happened in Cuzco – the difference was significant), but we were too lazy to take a cab to the bus station and back, and I’m sure we paid for it! We went to the Metro to stock up on our trekking food, and then went back to the hostel for the night. We were both still full from the lunch we had in Miraflores that we didn’t even have to go out for dinner.