Lima Central – our final day in Peru. Adiós amigos!

Since our plane is leaving this evening (Friday), we decided to explore the centre of Lima – some half-hour drive from where we’re staying – to make sure we finished as we’d travelled – that is, full-on!

Our Uber whisked us to the second square of the city and lo and behold, we could not go into the square because a demonstration (una manifestation!) was gathering, and riot police were surrounding the entrances to the square. At that point, everyone seemed quite relaxed – that’s a shoe cleaning man offering to clean the police people’s shoes …

We found the demonstration of medics by the enormous noise, and at that point, it seemed much more noise than action, although there was a counter demonstration against vaccination:

Why were they demonstrating? I asked someone but couldn’t hear the answer because of the noise – I found it here instead: (this is a translation):

In response to the approval of Law 32210 (Law that modifies Law 27878, labor law of the dental surgeon, to expand and specify the rights it regulates), which authorises the dental surgeon to perform the medical act instead of the dental act; various medical organisations, scientific societies and civil society organisations, led by the Medical College of Peru (CMP), will hold a National Medical March this Friday, January 31.

They will gather from 10 in the morning in the Plaza San Martín in the historic centre of Lima. This demonstration will have the participation of doctors from hospitals nationwide, who have expressed their support for the CMP and who will unite to reject the approval of this Law that they argue “threatens the health of the population.”

So – we left the scene, sympathetic to the cause, and went on our way via a church which had an unusual Christ we thought:

We continued to see riot police on every corner as we strolled to the Plaza Mayor which we couldn’t enter either:

Sue didn’t think these were police dogs:

We have been enormously impressed at the array of different kinds of police in Peru, particularly the traffic cops who are often women: just look at those boots!

Our stroll continued for a few hours via a stop for a juice (photos below), Barrio Chino (the Chinese came here in the late nineteenth century to build the railway) and various pretty ugly churches, until the heat got to us and we decided to retreat to our swanky neighbourhood. Suddenly, there were riot police absolutely everywhere running past us:

The march had come to meet us – and them!

I have to say that this is most over-policed march I have ever seen: there were more riot police than demonstrators I would recckon. Obviously those doctors have a dreadful reputation.

We were surprised to see the police bus sporting an advertisement on the side:

So – there’s yet another perspective on Peru! We’re off to the airport shortly so thank you so much for the following the blog. We’ll be back with another adventure later in the year – though it will have to be very exciting and diverse to beat Peru!