I got up at 08:30 hrs. and headed straight for the Post Office to see if I had any mail delivered to the Post Restante (a service where the post office holds the mail until the recipient calls for it). I joined two Australians in the huge, multi-departmental old building looking for the Post Restante department.
We found it in a side door on Jirón Camana. The woman handed me a pack of letters filed under HA and those under ST. I got a good letter from both Glenn Fenton and Declan McGowan, Glenn with home news from West London and Declan with useful information from his experience in Venezuela. Because our open return air tickets were into Mexico City and return from Caracas in Venezuela within a year, Declan had to fly via Caracas to London Heathrow Airport when he left Costa Rica.
I tried to phone Piers and James, but they were still in bed after yet another heavy night on the town. I walked down to the huge Plaza San Martin which is the Lima equivalent of Piccadilly Circus.
The Plaza San Martín is one of the most representative public spaces of the city of Lima, Peru. It is located at the ninth block of Colmena avenue, within the Historic Centre of Lima which was declared a World Heritage Site in 1988 by UNESCO. It is located near the Plaza Mayor of Lima and is connected to it by the Jiron de la Union. Its central monument gives homage to Peru's liberator, José de San Martín.
The Plaza San Martín was inaugurated on 27th July 1921, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the independence of Peru. The design, ornamentation, furnishing, and gardening of the plaza was designed by Spanish architect Manuel Piqueras Cotolí. The benches and handrails were constructed out of marble and the paving, of granite. There were also four water fountains, bronze streetlamps, and flower-filled gardens. The design for the monument to José de San Martín was chosen in a contest in which the design created by the Spanish sculptor Mariano Benlliure emerged victorious and illustrated San Martin during his voyage across the Andes.
Some pro-Nicaraguan “Death to Imperialism” propaganda graffiti was daubed on the central statue. I change money on the corner with an honest bloke who made me count it all before taking my $US dollars, at 106 Intis per dollar.
I looked for the offices of Aeroperu and Faucett, but they must have been closed with their shutters down. In July 1981 AeroPerú was largely privatised (the govt kept only a 20% share) and a merger was mooted with its private rival Faucett Perú. This got as far as the airline's dropping competing routes but eventually came to nothing and the routes were restarted.
I went into HADA Tours, which claimed to be authorised agents for both airlines, to find out some prices. I was told that Lima to Cuzco cost 3,617 Intis, but if I bought a ticket that day then I could get it at the old price of 2,261 Intis. This I decided to do, sitting waiting while an overworked Elizabeth made phone calls, wrote out tickets and sorted out the payment for about five people at once.
I bought a ticket for Wednesday 6th April 1988 at 07:00 hrs. I then walked back along the busy Jirón Union, which was the main shopping street and pedestrian precinct. I browsed in a few record shops and supermarkets on the very European-style lane. The other shoppers were well dressed in casual Western fashions, weaving in between the street pedlars and beggars.
Back at the hotel I tried to ring “The Steptoes” again but I just missed them, and Mrs. Davis said ring back in five minutes. When I tried to phone 15 minutes later the receptionist told me that the telephone was out of order.
I spent some time trying to get some tokens to use the public pay phones. I found out that you could get them for 2 I/- (Intis) each from the newspaper vendor nearest to the phone. By the time that I managed to ring again there was no answer at all from the house in Miraflores.
I went back to my hotel room, wrote my diary up to date and then went to sleep until 16:00 hrs. Then I finished reading “A Song in the Morning”, a great book with a very emotional ending. I got through to James at 19:00 hrs. and found the lads in a state of despondency because while attempting to change money the bloke had done a runner with their $50 US dollars cash.
I joined the English boys from the room next door, plus another English bloke who was on a round-the-world jaunt. We went to Jerry’s on Carabaya again, after a brief look for a good alternative. The meals were huge. The others weren’t so keen on getting fried bananas with their main course.
The English girl from yesterday also joined us. She was over here buying Peruvian arts and crafts for her own business which she was setting up with help from the National Enterprise Board. We moved on to the Macchu Picchu for drinks, which was one of the few establishments that was open after 21:00 hrs.
Despite telling us that they were closing they made no attempt to get rid of any customers and kept supplying beer until midnight when we were the first group of the mainly local crowd to leave. The group at one table which was obscured by empty beer bottles had begun to sing. We ducked out of the small Judas gate and returned to the Europa Hotel.
Author Jack Higgins was asked what a Judas Gate is. He said “There is a painting, I think Victorian, which shows a very large double gate. Inset in this gate, is a small door or gate which you can open and step through without the inconvenience of opening the larger double gates. In the painting, Judas is seen stepping through on his way to betray Christ.”
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