Woke up early, got
ready and headed down for breakfast. They had a nice continental
setup. I tried a new fruit, at least in its original form. Passion
fruit, looked like an orange on the outside but was full of seeds and
a jelly-like milky filling as well. Sort of looked like a pomegranate
but the seeds are grey, it was delicate, sweet and a little tart. The
banana/plantain was good as well and I had a fried egg with ham and
cheese on bread as well. They had multiple fresh juices, one was
peach I believe. It tasted exactly like the juice in the can when you
buy fruit cocktail. We had booked a driving tour of Lima the night
before and we met with our guide and walked around the park we had
been to the night before, Parque de Amor. The mayor had started a
longest kissing contest in this park in the past because everyone
would come here to make out. 42 minutes was the record! We also
learned that Lima gets only 5-6” of rain a year because of thermal
convection, and because of the sheer cliff banks formed by a tsunami
100+ years ago. The convection is where two wind currents meet, and
the cliffs are so high from the tsunami it causes foggy, misty
conditions a lot, but no rain. It was very grey and overcast today.
We drove through Miraflores, San Ibismo and other districts. Lima is
beautiful, crowded and the main things that stuck out were fences and
bars on windows everywhere. Many houses had sharp barbs on the metal
fences and some had electric fences also. Also, it looks very poor in
some areas, with really old power boxes and wiring everywhere. Lima
is growing at the rate of 1.5 million people per year! Crazy. The
drivers are crazy. There doesn't seem to be rules of the road,
everyone just goes.
We drove by olive
trees in the park, some pre-Incan ruins, and went down to the Plaza
de Armas to see the catacomb museum. We were slowed down quite a bit
because many people were demonstrating in the park about not wanting
to mine for gold and pollute the water, so they blocked the calle for
several minutes as they slowly crossed the roads on their way to the
park.
The plaza was
neat. Beautiful architecture, very old. There were police everywhere
b/c of the demonstration, full riot gear, horses, automatic weapons,
etc. But it wasn't too scary. We took pictures with the police. There
were some Australians in our group and a girl from Chicago that
looked exactly like a friend of mine, Nicole Rhoades. Some schoolkids
were giving the thumbs up as they walked in front of my camera for
pictures and they loved that I said “hola” to them. The catacombs
were neat. Old frescoes, Portuguese tile, beautiful gardens, domes,
architecture, etc. Then we moved on. We regrouped back at the hotel
and went out on foot to find La Mar, a restaurant I had researched,
owned by a world renowned chef, Gaston Acurio. We found it
eventually, after passing it and walking around for a bit, but not
too much trouble. The hostess was maybe the most beautiful woman I
had seen in Peru. She sat us at the bar to wait for a table. I
ordered a pisco sour, the national drink, as pisco was invented in
Peru. Our table was ready, we sat, I ordered a five course ceviche
digustation and a potato dish called causas. Ceviche is basically the
national dish. It was delicious. Very nice, swanky, world class
restaurant, and the two of us ate for about $55 USD. We walked back
along the ocean and went down to the beach for a bit. The steps down
the steep cliff were hopefully good practice for Macchu Picchu. On a
side note, found out that it is Macchu Picchu's 100 year anniversary
of being rediscovered. We walked to the Miraflores shopping district.
It was very busy, bustling and lively. I found sunscreen, or
bloqueador, an adaptor, contact solution, and 2 types of memory cards
for my cameras. We then went to have a beer, but were coerced to a
tattoo shop by a big American fellow who was excited to see us and
wanted us to get tats at his shop. We didn't. He seemed high on
cocaine, but was nice, but also said that he had moved here to get
away from the cops back home. He had a friend getting a tattoo and we
met her outside as she was done. Andrea is a native Peruvian who goes
to school in Pennsylvania and her parents made a lot of money in
owning real estate in Miraflores and selling it. Miraflores and Lima
in general are very high real estate prices. She joined us for a
beer, and we talked about the trip mainly, then walked a bit with her
until she got a cab and then we walked back to our hotel.
Back at the
hotel, Ali, the front desk girl tried to help us get plane tickets to
Iquitos, but no go. We got frustrated after the websites wouldn't
accept our credit cards. We tried 4 different ones. Something about
secure MC and verified visa, an international thing we had not
anticipated. But Fernando, the super nice front desk guy, promised to
help us figure it out in the morning since the airlines weren't
answering their phones either. We figure worst case scenario is we
get cash and go to the airport. We'll see... Took my first malaria
pill today and looking forward to the morning! Side note: Our new
friend told us that Lima is nicknamed “Donkey's Belly” because it
is always grey, especially in the winter.
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