The bus company is called Cruz del Sur, they are more expensive than others but the standard is amazing.
From the bus station I took a taxi to my host's flat. Marco lives in a nice district. His flat is big, clean and comfortable - a great beginning in Lima :) Marco himself seems to be a great guy, we talked for ages when I arrived. I learnt many things about the country. For example, the safety situation was very bad in Peru in the 80's. There was a "mafia" communist party called Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path), they were cutting off electricity to protest against the government. People didn't have electicity for up to few days.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shining_Path
They were putting bombs in the city and killing many people. At the same time (84' - 85'), the inflation in Peru was 1000% so people in the country were struggling.
http://www.livinginperu.com/news-7000-peru-peru-helping-poor-curbing-inflation-governments-main-goals
In 1992 the leader of Sendero Luminoso Abimael Guzman was captured by the intelligence forces of a new president Alberto Fujimori (who was president of Peru but he was Japanese!!). Since then, the safety situation improved. Phew......
In the evening Marco showed me the city. Lima is beautiful. I remember my host from Quito saying "don't go to Lima, you will waste your time, there is nothing to see in Lima". Luckily I always have to find out for myself. He was wrong and I would miss a lot if I didn't come here. Plaza de Armas, president and mayor residences, cathedral, many beautiful churches and the most important for me - the absolutely amazing "Circuito Magico del Agua". It is a park with many huge, "dancing" to the classical or electronic music fountains with spectacular light effects.
There are no tall buildings in Lima, due to earthquakes. Marco said that there is an earthquake every day, just that usually you don't notice it, however sometimes it is scary. The last big earthquake occured in 1974 when a lot of houses were distroyed and many people died. The big ones happen every 35 years, which means that the next one is just about to happen... (I got a little bit panicky here!...). Last week there was a big earthquake of 7.8 on the Richter scale in the Ica region, south of Lima. At the same time in Lima it was 4.5 on the Richter scale which was already scary.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richter_magnitude_scale
Marco said that people here learn at school how to deal with this kind of natural disaster and what to do when it starts (I got a quick lesson).
I also tried a typical warm drink called emoliente, made of linseeds that grow in Peru, with herbs and lemon. It has a sticky consistence, it is very tasty and it makes you feel warm on the cold nights.
A next set of my pictures:
Trujillo
