Monday, June 18th – Day 8 – Lima to Ica

Woke up, ate the usual breakfast at Casa Bella. I walked the main avenue and looked for a UPS or something to mail some stuff back home to myself. I found a DHL and they wanted $130 USD for sending one box, and they only offer express. After much walking and asking, I found Serpost, the post office, and sent it for $30 USD. It was quite the process and took about 20 stamps!

Mark and I then went to look for extra batteries for our cameras, I found mine, at a good price, but the system for buying things there is screwy. You have to go to three different stations most times, and we found ourselves in a line that allowed senior citizens and handicapped people to cut you no matter when they arrived in line. Interesting. Nice, but inconvenient for us when we didn't realize.

Mark forgot his camera, so we didn't know what battery he needed, so we headed back to wait for our laundry to get done and pack up. It had started to mist, and for some reason, all the sidewalks in Lima are slick, almost like polished stone. So with the rain, and mark in his flip-flops, he almost bit it several times, he had to walk in baby steps almost, it was crazy! Almost like walking on ice.

We got back, I charged my new batteries, showered and facebooked. Got a copy of my yellow fever inoculation that had been lost and printed them out. Also downloaded a Spanish app that didn't require an internet connection. Mark went back to the camera store only to find out that they didn't carry that kind any more. So we packed up, checked out, said goodbye to Marisol, mi amor Peruana, and caught a taxi to the bus station. Next stop, Ica! Mark had done some research and thought Ica would be the place to hub out of instead of Pisco b/c he read the nightlife was better. The bus was s/55, had a cabin attendant, recline-all-the-way-back seats, movies, wi-fi, and was nice. We rode 4 hours to Ica, got off @ the station and walked toward the main square. Ica seemed the median between Lima and Iquitos. Many mototaxis, but they had hard shells and some were even small cars, like an Aveo or something. We got to the main square, it's almost 9pm, and booked our day trip to Isla Ballestas, “The Peruvian Galapagos” (s/160)($53). After that, we walked around the square and surrounding streets, and found a hostal for the night. We checked several places and found one with a double room, wi-fi, and hot for s/45 for both of us ($15 total). We dropped our stuff and walked around town looking around and trying to find a bar and the “Ica nightlife”. None to be found. We found a pool hall that was mostly empty and sketchy. And a loud dance club with a bunch of 18 year olds dancing, and only about 20 people in the place. We went back home after 1 beer at the club. We couldn't get out of there fast enough. Went for a short walk to see some of the city, and called it a night at the hostal.