To Pisco and Lima

Its a very sad day to leave Cusco which has been such a good friend. We take a 60 minute flight to Lima, the alternative to a 21 hour bus journey through the mountains that separate Cusco from Lima. We are meeting Mabel in Lima and we have a cheap flight from Lima to Santiago. In the meantime the naughty doctors have messaged to say they are holed up in a paradise hotel in Paracas just south of Lima.
We jump straight on the bus from Lima and make the three hour trip to Pisco and then Taxi to Paracas and the aptly named Paracas Hotel. This is truly a garden paradise with bands of gardeners seeing to the vast flower beds that surround all the cabins at a ratio of 1:1 with the shrubs. To top it all there are many swimming pools and if you lift a finger a waiter comes to attention and ice cold drinks are rushed to cool your brow. When you think you have seen it all, mother South America always comes up with a surprise and this is no exception!
The hotel is a good 60 years old judging by the black and white pictures showing all the towering palm trees as shoots. Paracas is also the playground of the rich and famous who have large houses along the bay from the hotel, mostly guarded by razor wire and hot and bothered looking security guards. The bay area reminds you of Egypt with great hills and sand dunes rolling down to beautiful blue crystal water, capped with a blue sky with some rare clouds. There are wind surfers and kite surfers; yachts people are busy in the bay with the gawdy sails highlighted against the dunes and blue sky. The houses in millionaires row which run around the bay are witness to the fortunes that are the vanguard of a few mega-capalists who have wealth beyond the dreams of the average Peruvian. They are in the million dollar bracket and there is a boat escort for most of them whether it be a fishing boat or a yacht parked at the end of the drive.
It is also fiesta time in the town of Paracas and there is an insane South American band marching around the town. We try to follow the band but it is always blithely in the distance and as we turn a corner expecting to see it, low and behold it has disappeared around the next corner..it feels like being on the set of 'Don't look now'. We do eventually catch up with the band and also Vanessa (although victor is at home in Lima) who we met in the Colca Canyon and the band is playing as we munch our way through 'strangely black' scallops in the cafe in downtown Paracas. There is the screaching trumpet and bumping Tuba which wail up and down relentlessly on the same vaguely recognisable tune, 'swaggering tunelessly', but it/they, has/have the charm and enthusiasm to carry it off, urged on by bandalleros in 'ridiculously' large hats and full of Pisco..i'm guessing? Its great to catch up with Vanessa who is accompanying some 'high ranking' madridaeros to the Hotel Paracas on their own 5-star 11 day circuit of the entirety of South America...it makes me feel thorough!
Eventually we have to leave this oasis of pleasure to go back to the grime which is Lima. This is made a little easier by the venue for our soiree in Lima, the Sheraton Downtown and the fact that we are catching up with 'marvellous Mabel' who is back in South America again. We go for dinner in Miraflores, a cliff top restaurant overlooking the great sweep of beaches below, waves crashing on the beach and the smell of the surf all the way from the west Pacific, beautiful.
In contrast, Lima is a grubby place in the centre...there is a layer of car exhaust mixed with cooking fat on every surface in the town centre and it is really run down. Even the marvellous colonial buildings look really dejected and like they really have had a belly full too....all very depressing and in stark contrast to the magificent austerity of Cusco and Arequipa...i just want to leave...we get the quick plane to Santiago!