Arriving at 1am on Friday in Lima was no deterrent from having a full weekend. After a nice sleep to 9am, Girogio’s father gave me a ride into the shop to see the boats he was building. Two 58-foot catamarans which have taken on a nearly finished shape sat side by side. One did not yet have the roof of the main cabin and aft deck mounted yet, but I got to see that get put in place. Giorgio and a crew of about 20 men, all of whom were pulled from their specific project on either of the boats came together to lift, move, flip and place the last lid on the boat.
Late that night, Dave arrived from Denver and if you know the Lima airport, customs can either be very fast of very slow. Like 1.5 hours slow. I got the fast lane this time, the super slow lane last time and Dave got the slow lane this time. Giorgio’s mom Chela, his wife Brenda and I waited for the tall lanky bearded and as we had guessed, dazed man to come through the international arrival doors pushing a cart heavily laden with expedition bags.
After another solid eight hours of sleep, a breakfast of fresh squeezed (literally by Chela) orange juice, warm bread rolls, cheese, and some unique jams of fruit from the jungle. Giorgio, Brenda, Dave and I drove down to the marina and took the first 58-foot Giorgio built out for a sea trial. This is a unique boat. It’s being purchased by an American, but he lives in Venezuela which has some strict importation laws. So, the boat will not get a mast, kitchen appliances, some hatch covers, and a few other odds and ends that need to be purchased in Venezuela when it arrives.
We motored south along the cliffs under the typically overcast skies over the rolling oceanic swells witch were fairly benign considering they had at least 8,000 miles to build up before reaching the shores of Peru. The most unique thing that I had not yet seen built into a vessel like this was a place to hang a hammock on the aft deck. Of course we had to give it a try.
Back ashore, we were ready to eat so Giorgio and Brenda introduced us to a wonderful buffet called Puro Peru (Tel. 477-0111; Av. Republica de Panama 258 – Barranco; http://www.puroperu.com.pe ). This was brilliant because it gave dave and me the opportunity to sample a wide varity of Peruvian dishes from different parts of Peru. A favorite of mine was a small red pepper, a renello from Arequipa.
After getting home in the mid afternoon, with full bellies, lying down – for just a moment – was an impulse that could not be resisted. Our nap ended up lasting about two hours which put us in a bright and chipper exploratory mood to head back out into town.
We drove around some and parked in the trendy tourist rich neighborhood called Miraflores. It was pretty late by the time we were walking around the central park but a number of vendors were still out, some with vintage historical reprint photos of Lima, the standard array of knit hats, scarves, sweaters, llama dolls and small wooden puzzles. This is what caught the interest of Dave and Brenda alike. The merchant did well with them selling each a wooden cube puzzle. He showed us once how to do it. Brenda cautiously unwrapped her competed puzzle to memorize how to solve it, but once it got completely strung out as we sat down for dinner at the local Peruvian fast food burger joint called Bembos, we were unable to solve it, though a fair effort was made by yours truly on the drive home and I think I got it about half way along after quite a bit of working with it.
