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Thursday, January 16th, 2014 – This was our third day in Lima, Peru – the ship was scheduled to leave at noon so we had a little bit of time to get off the ship in the morning. We had been warned and warned and warned – the area outside the port gates was very dangerous and we were not permitted to walk there. Security guards were all around to make us go back to the ship if we started to walk through the port to the gate. Holland America furnished passenger vans and full sized buses to transport people from the ship to the gates where security was waiting to usher us into private cabs or onto tour buses. We were told that most places in Lima were very safe but not this part outside the port gates.
This morning we met a woman, Geri who wanted to get a few bottles of Inca Kola to take home to her friends and I actually wanted a few bottles too. I tried it on the boat ride to Palomino Island the day before and wanted to buy some more.
Geri said she thought there would be a market or store near the gates – she was going to take the shuttle van to the gates and then walk to find a little market to buy some. Everyone told her it was dangerous but she said she loved a good adventure. I decided if she was going to have an adventure, I would too. Bill tried to talk the two of us into waiting on the ship and he would go get some for both of us – but Geri insisted on going so I wanted to go.
Bill wasn't happy about us going but we got on the shuttle van with us to the gate. (First he made us take our computers, jewelry, cameras and purses to our cabins.)
When we got off the van the security teams blocked us and told us we were not allowed to leave the spot where the security guards and police were. I can't even estimate how many police and security men were there to escort people from the shuttle into the cabs and onto the buses.
We walked past the police and kept walking with Bill not-very-happy about Geri and me tagging along. We only got a few feet from the gate when police stopped us and told us we had to go back, it wasn't safe. Bill talked to the police in Spanish for a few minutes and they kept telling him we couldn't walk past the gate.
Finally a rather large and menacing looking police officer said that Geri and I could not go, not under any circumstances - we had to go back where all the security people were and wait inside a locked building with glass doors (heavily guarded) but Bill could walk down the street if he was escorted by two police officers.
Then he called over the two escort officers - two little tiny, very petite police officers. Both were very attractive brunettes – Bill could have picked them up and carried one under each arm! They didn't even have guns; they weren't even armed!
We have laughed and laughed about Bill having to have two tiny policewomen escort him a half-block to buy our soft drinks for us. Bill, a twenty year Special Forces/Green Beret. Body-protector for Ambassador Bremer in Iraq. The police assigned two tiny brunettes who weighed about 90 pounds each to protect the great-big former army-guy!
Bill said he wished I had my camera and taken a picture of him with his two police escorts. Neither one of them came even close to reaching his shoulders – they were both shorter than me! Unfortunately, we didn't have our cameras with us since Bill made us leave them on the ship!
NOT IN JOURNALING: When we got home I found Inca Kola in the imported section of my grocery store and bought some. It is not the same. It is not close. The Inca Kola I got here tasted lemon-lime flavor and I didn't like it at all.
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