Lima, or a bad start with a good ending

We arrived in Lima late in the day, about 6PM or so. We were coming from Cañón del Pato, and were dirty, tired and dreaming of a hot shower. A few days earlier, our new friend Dean, a Texan who’s driving a big and awesome Unimog from the 70s with a one bedroom apartment in the back, told us that there was a “Club Germania” in Lima, that allowed overlanders to camp for free. They had wifi, hot showers, and a great restaurant, he said. This sounded better than our other option, a hostel that has space for three or four vehicles and lets people sleep in them. So there we went.

After a couple of hours of rush hour Lima traffic, we showed at the gate of the Club Germania. The reception, let’s say, was not stellar. First the guard told us that he couldn’t let us camp there, because his boss was already gone and he was the one who authorized people. Fine I guess, that’s the way things are, bummer for us, but I would have understood. But before we could back the van out of the entrance, the guard asks “Where are you from?”. In general, when people ask me this, I say “San Francisco”, since that’s where I’ve lived for 18 years now and that’s where I am coming from. But here, and when talking with other South Americans, I say “Argentina”. You know, because that’s where I am ultimately from, and because in my idealistic mind I expect that I’d be, I don’t know, more welcomed that way, treated by family perhaps. We are in the Patria Grande anyway, no?

“I’m afraid they only let Europeans camp here” the guard said.

I picked my jaw up from below the brake pedal and said “What?”

“Only Europeans. They don’t allow Latin Americans to camp here.”

“Wow. Unapologetic racism, huh?” I actually said this, pretty much exactly. I then said I was sorry the guard had to work for such an organization, and we left.

So, if you are a non-Aryan overlander reading this, and you also heard about camping at the Club Germania, keep that in mind!  To the Club Germania, pro tip: If you are a German social club, in South America of all places, you might want to be careful about appearing racist. Not that other groups are allowed to be racist, but you know, because HITLER. Take it from a guy whose full name is very similar to that of a Nazi criminal. And no, I don’t think this is funny.

After this, we found that our second option was full, and the few other places where we asked didn’t allow dogs. So we ended up sleeping in the van, near the beach, in front of some restaurants. Unshowered.

The next day was a bit better. We found a hotel that the internets said accepted dogs, but didn’t in real life, but made an exception and let us in anyway. It wasn’t in a fantastic part of town, except that it was very near Matsuei, a sushi restaurant that turned out to be one of the most famous in Lima. While having dinner there, we started talking with two guys, and I happened to mention a noise that the van has been making. One of the guys recommended his cousin’s Dan shop. Not only he recommended it. He took out his phone, called his cousin, and made an appointment for us the next morning. We went there without a lot of hope–the noise was coming from what I thought was the power steering pump, and fixing that would have been an involved process. And I didn’t feel like staying in Lima for enough time for this.

The shop was a nice surprise: big, clean, full of competent mechanics. They had six or seven lifts in there. Dan himself turned out to be an awesome guy–we spent there about four hours, while we mostly talked a lot, cleaned some parts, checked and replaced some fluids, and found that the noise was just a loose belt, which was quickly fixed. All this at no charge, I only paid for the bottles of fluid we used. Gracias Dan!

After this we met Miguel, who lives in Lima and has a really nice Westy. He found us a place to stay, the House Project, a hostel managed by a bunch of pretty cool guys, and called his other Westy friends. We had am impromptu meeting outside of the hostel, with four Westfalias and five Westy owners. We might go camping with them this weekend, on our way out of Lima.

So, we could be camping for free in a nice place, with wifi, swimming pool and racial purity. Instead of that, we made a bunch of new friends. I think that was a good trade off.