Lounging in Lima

It could be the dense grey blanket of perma-fog that constantly envelops Lima or perhaps its the dreariness of its Americanised chain-store neighbourhoods, but Peru's capital didn't inspire us to be very active.

In fact, we barely left the four-block radius of our hostel in the sanitised Gringolandia of Miraflores during our three-day visit. The exception was a walk down to the waterfront to check out a shopping mall that had been built right into the sea cliffs - which looked like they could erode into the sea at any second.

The surf looked quite good, with perfectly formed waves rolling into shore at neat intervals, but the beaches weren't much to look at, as most of them were covered with masses of what looked like imported pebbles to stop the sand being dragged away.

Miraflores' population looks to be at least 50 per cent American. The neighbourhood is crawling with security guards, some of which cruise around on those hilarious segways, to give the transient gringo the feeling that this part of Peru is safe enough for them to walk around on the street in a daze flaunting their iphones and novelty oversized SLR digital cameras.

For Peruvians, its clear that if you can afford to hang in Miraflores, you've made it. You walk your designer pooch complete with matching lead and jacket, go to cafes to sip lattes and purchase overpriced artesania goods from fancy shops or at the markets in Parque Kennedy, named after the decidedly un-latio JFK.

Fortunatley we were able to break up the foggy malaise with back-to-back futbol  matches from the Copa America tournament that is being played this month in Argentina. Whenever a match was on TV, our hostel seemed to play host to an itinerant gang of drop-ins hailing from one of the countries playing. This provided a great boost to the mood - there's nothing like watching a room full of Peruvians or Argentinians go crazy when their team scores a gol.

The commentators added to the excitement, blatantly favouring one team and saying nasty things about the other. Every time a goal is scored (unless it is against Peru) they yell "GOL" at the top of their lungs, for as long as they possibly can. It's as if every time they are trying to break some prior record of how long they can yell GOL for. Sometimes they can still be trailing off the word after a full two minutes!

Other Peruvians have not made life so fun. People in administrative positions are constantly on mega-power trips, and do their best to make the simplest task as complicated and confusing as possible. For some reason, everyone is obsessed with stamps. I have not had so many documents stamped (often with multiple different imprints) and signed, then stamped again since the 1980s before computers.

At the pharmacy you request a product and instead of being given it, you are handed a little bit of paper with a number. You take this to the next counter, where it is stamped and you pay for it, and you receive a stamped receipt. Then you move to a third counter with your stamped receipt, where it is stamped again and you finally receive your purchase.

Another not-very-nice habit of Peruvians is to loudly point out what race you are when you are walking down the street. We have had scores of people see us, point, stare and yell GRINGO at the top of their lungs. This extends to people you might deal with in shops, and other public places. Occassionally, like when a guy at the bus terminal addressed us as gringos, I point out that we were not gringos as this was a term only applicable for North Americans, but mostly we just ignore them. And its not just us whiteys that have to contend with racist taunts - anyone of Asian appearance has to put up with CHINO or CHIFA being yelled at them.

The gringo abuse isn't likely to abate any time soon, as we are off to see Peru's biggest tourist attraction - Macchu Pichu. We have just flown into Cuzco, where we managed to save 75 per cent off the price of a taxi by walking outside the gates of the airport and waiting along the roadside. We are expecting to run into hoards of backpackers gearing up for the Inca Trail. Hopefully we will manage to take cheap public buses to the ruins and slide in for a visit at a non-peak time, if one exists!