Day 3, Wednesday June 18 in Lima
The morning was Groundhog Day 3: 7am practice, Susan with Tim and Steve Dance and I practiced…We had only reserved 2 practice slots but Steve found an open court so we both got lengthy warm ups. Steve played his quarterfinal singles and won; Tim played his first round match and lost a tight one, 60 76 (5); match tiebreaks and no-ad scoring are being used, so they were only a few points from a match tiebreak. Susan and I had the day off.
After breakfast I went back to the club to drop off my racquets for stringing and buy some practice balls (about $7 for the stringing per racquet and the same for the balls!). I only looked at a couple of matches and both involved players wearing shirts with their country’s name on them…hmmm. I also ran into Kelly Stobbe from Canada who made a last minute decision to come down here and play doubles and mixed.
Tim had played at noon, so after he was done we had a quick lunch and decided to go to the Historical Center which is quite a long drive from Miraflores. We walked to the Radisson and asked for a taxi and instead were able to get a ride (for a fee of course) with the hotel driver which worked well. He agreed to wait for 90 minutes for us to look around. (The drivers here are aggressive; turn signals are rare and lanes are merely a suggestion.) The Historical Center is a Unesco World Heritage site. The buildings date back to the 1500’s and are ornate and well preserved.
We first visited the Basilica Cathedral of Lima, which houses the tomb of Francisco Pizarro, a Spanish Conquistador who founded Lima and conquered Cuzco. He was eventually assassinated in 1541, age 62. His bones are inside the cathedral. The cathedral is large and there are many ornate alters. There are several crypts, one where many archbishops, canons and other illustrious people are buried.
After leaving the Cathedral we walked around the square, past the Government Palace, which had colorfully garbed guards in front of it and just past the square, walked into the Basilica de Nuestra Señor a Del Rosario which was lovely inside.
We met our driver and went back to the hotel and of course to Wong’s the grocery store since it was a bit late already to go out. I made chicken/lentil/potato soup (it was really cold and damp today) after I picked up my strung racquets at the club. The stringing fee was the same as the cost of a can of balls…25 soles or about US$ 7. The club was hopping at 6:15, lots of people watching and eating.
We assume we play singles and doubles tomorrow but the schedule is not out yet (it’s 9:10am), but regardless…7am warmup!