Exhausted
While we´d been with Judy in the Continental office, we´d tried to get some free accommodation from them for all the inconvenience. Now, okay, you might think this is pushing it a bit far, since our flights on to Bolivia had all now been re-booked (albeit one day later than planned), but it was worth a try.
We didn´t succeed, but she did tell us of a “nice hotel only ten minutes away” which would be ideal for getting back to the airport to confirm our flights at 4.30am the next day (uuuggghhhh!). We checked it out on the web at Lima airport and it seemed okay (have a look yourself, Hotel Melodia), and so that was it – time to have a beer to celebrate and prepare for the fight for our patronage which is what it´s like trying to get a cab in these parts.
Outside the airport we came across a chap who was happy to take us – there´s a surprise. Yes, he knew the hotel, and yes, for 15 Soles he´d get us there. No sooner had we got into Joe Le Taxi´s (as he became known) cab then we went over the first speed hump – and the whole of the exhaust from the manifold backwards came away. He stopped, we both got out, and it didn´t look good, but he was undettered. The promise of 15 Soles was enough for him to hunt around for a bit of string (which he didn´t find), and so with one of those shrugs of the shoulders that only Latinos can do, we hopped back in and off we went.
Now, even on the most perfect of smooth roads, riding around with one´s exhaust dangling off is not a good idea. In Peru it´s positively lethal!!
Off down the main drag, with a noise that a Formula One racing car would make (only we were travelleing at about a quarter of the speed of all the other vehicles), with policeman blowing whistles at us, other cabbies frantically waving and hooting and onlookers gawping at this noisy sight. Wow, what an introduction to Lima.
We really didn´t expect to reach Hotel Melodia in Joe le Taxi´s cab, but we did, and left him outside wondering how he was going to get to a garage. We almost suggested he take a cab himself, but instead gave him an extra five Soles for his trouble. (90 pence in Peru will probably pay for a brand new exhaust system).
What we didn´t know was what Hotel Melodia was like at this point. Yes, there were plenty of melodies, but not of the musical kind…….
Tags: Eug & Em arrive in South America
mihai