Lima, Peru – July 13th – 16th, 2017

After an awkward airport viewing of a Netflix sex scene, we arrived in Lima. It had been an uneventful trip, especially since we decided to catch the Airport Express bus to Miraflores (where the tourists go) rather than fight the taxi’s for a reasonable fare (like last time). We wandered around Miraflores for a solid 20 minutes before finally stumbling upon our unmarked guest house. Our room at the guest house was literally about 8 square feet larger than the size of the bed (clean though, so no complaints).

After an overpriced touristy breakfast at an adorable café, we relaxed a bit before Andy ventured out to get a Peruvian SIM card for the phone. It took a while, but he was eventually successful and came back just in time to partake in a cardio ski workout (in preparation for our… spoiler alert… Chilean ski-cation in August). No kidding the workout, combined with the elevation, almost killed us. For the rest of the day, we mostly killed time walking around and eating at a nearby Indian restaurant, while we waited in anticipation for our friend Matt to arrive. We were pretty stoked to have a friend join us for the next couple weeks. We visited Parque Kennedy, also known as the cat park, where literally hundreds of stray cats have found a home thanks to the cat food and adoption potential provided by a local non-profit. We also walked along the water, enjoyed the sights and enviously watched the paragliders and surfers in action. Matt arrived late in the evening, as expected, and we promptly went to bed… to be fair I may have already been sleeping.

Restaurants and Cat Parks! Not sure how we feel about the combo Starbucks and Chile's.

The coastline of Lima including El Parque Del Amore or Love Park.

We rose fairly early and made breakfast at the guest house before making our way to a Lima walking tour of downtown. The tour met at a bar where there was free beer tasting – a bit early for drinking if you ask me, but… when in Lima. Thanks to the free status of the tour, it ended up being more of a herd than a tour, but well organized nonetheless. We took a bus to downtown Lima and visited a large number of parks, historic buildings, and plazas, learning about the history along the way. We also stopped on several occasions for food and drink tastings – coffee, a potato dish, and lots of different types of pisco. About half way through the lengthy tour I started feeling a bit peaked, but pushed through, hoping my growing stomach discomfort would subside. It didn’t… but eventually the tour ended and we made our way back to Miraflores. If it wasn’t for the friendly local that came to our rescue, we may never have made the return bus trip thanks the confusing ticket turntable.

Downtown Lima Tour.

The sustainability fair in Miraflores! Pretty cool to see them raising awareness on environmental issues. The bottom-right photo shoes the hundreds of surfers taking advantage of the long break - we were wishing for an extra day to surf. 

While I laid in bed clutching my stomach (I blame the eggs from breakfast which came from a random corner store with a stack of room temperature eggs piled about waist high), Andy and Matt ventured out again to visit the Miraflores area and coast. Later, we all grabbed a quick meal before turning in for the night – it was going to be an early morning. Since Matt had just over 2 weeks for the trip, we decided to use Peru Hop for our bus travel from Lima to Lake Titicaca. Peru Hop is a tourist bus company that drives a specific route and lets you hop on and off (hence the name) at different stops along the way. In between major stops, they take side trips to remarkable places en-route that you would normally pass over with a local bus company. The first leg of the trip, from Lima to Paracas, started before the sun the next morning. 

Safely on the luxury bus, stomach ache in toe, we were on our way. Before leaving the city, we stopped at Monumento al Soldado Desconacido. Lima is remarkably clean and beautiful, but it wasn’t until we arrived at the city overlook that we realized that the tourist areas of the city are surrounded by shanty brick buildings housing impoverished people (almost 80% of the city consists of these neighborhoods). There is massive class separation. While in Miraflores we saw catered birthday parties for infants and 5-star restaurants which market to the richest of the rich, yet the perspective from the overlook was quite different. Surprisingly, some of the most desirable locations (in terms of ocean and city views) are occupied by shanty towns. We learned from our bus guide, that this is because Peru has a law that if you can prove that you or your family have lived on a piece of land for over 20 years, the land is legally yours.

Quick stop at the Monumento al Saldado Desconacido before heading towards Paracas.

P.S. Lima is at sea level.