Other side of the Rimac

We spend most of our time in Miraflores and San Isidro, which are some of the really nice neighborhoods of Lima.

But Lima is a huge city. There are nearly 9 million residents and it is very spread out. Some of the sections are quite poor, and driving out of the city you see shantytowns perched precariously on the sides of the hills, which are themselves not much more than giant sand dunes. The very poor build dwellings for themselves one wall at a time, often starting with woven mats as walls and roofs, adding cinder blocks and corrugated metal as they can afford them. Eventually, the city may bring in electricity and build a road. I don't know what they do for water and sewage. Often in poor neighborhoods they have to purchase water from delivery trucks.

There is underground water, here. And Lima is where it is because of the Rimac River. You can see it in this photo. Though the center is shallow, there were parts where the water was clearly deep and swift.

Note the red and white stripes painted on the hillside. Those are the colors of the Peruvian flag, presumably chosen because they represent the colors of a local type of flamingo.

This neighborhood is across the Rimac River from the side with the presidential palace. The pedestrian street has just been installed. In fact the edges had not been completed.

It's a relief to have a pedestrian street in a city where there are way too many cars and half of the drivers are complete maniacs (the other 50% are just trying to survive). They don't respect lanes, or lights, or rules. Many accelerate when they see a pedestrian, and do everything they can to get in front of anyone else. Many intersections have no lights, yield signs, or stop signs - so getting across is just a big game of chicken.