Day 2- Lima, Peru

Today I woke up far too early and put on the same sweaty, smelly clothes from yesterday. I also had leftover makeup on, and my face broke out but I didn't have concealer with me. Strands of my hair were also suspiciously crunchy. Let's just say, I looked incredibly attractive! Our hostel luckily provides free breakfast, so I dragged my nauseous self downstairs. During the time it took John to be able to eat 3 pieces of bread, a banana, and drink a cup of tea I managed to eat 3/4 of one banana. It was a struggle to even do that. I had to mentally will myself not to get sick. I also then realized that it was crazy hot, and humid. So, with that wonderful start to the trip John and I set out. We walked around the streets and shops in the Barranco area, and exchanged some US dollars into Peruvian nuevo-soles. It was very exciting to give the money changer man $100 of something and then get $280 in return. I love it! After the morning stroll we went down these stone steps across the street from our hostel. The steps led us to a bridge which then led us to the beach! The ocean here has almost no waves, and the beach consisted of large stones instead of the usual sand. It wasn't conducive to being barefoot, so my first time touching the Pacific ocean was actually just me dipping my hand in, but I was excited nonetheless. Once we walked back up the steps, John bought some nuts from a local vendor. We then went back to the hostel and I asked our worker Carmen if she could call us a cab. She then informed me our luggage would be arriving around noon- yayy!! But wow American Airlines, 12 hours behind our arrival into the city- way to go! While waiting for the cab we hung out in the hostel's lobby and got into a conversation with a British ex-pat about the rain forest and horseback riding in Cuzco. Then the cab came and took us to the Plaza de Armas- Lima's main square. It was an amazing place- It has many brightly colored colonial style buildings, fountains, gardens, restaurants, street vendors, and huge cathedrals. Since it is summer down here everything is green and vibrant too. I had no idea what to expect of Lima really, and it is a far more beautiful city than I realized. We went into the Catedral de Santo Domingo during Sunday mass, and it is crazy to think that Francisco Pizarro (the Spanish conquistador) founded this church when he came over to oppress the local people back in the 15th century. It is also the oldest church in the entire country of Peru! After that we wandered over to the yellow colored Monasterio de San Francisco- a home for monks in the 16th century. We bought tickets and went on a tour. It started out normal, typical, looking at paintings and ornate ceilings. Then we went down these narrow steps into the dark catacombs- the ones in Rome have nothing on these! Without any forewarning you go underground and then suddenly BAM! Bones. Bones everywhere! So many real, human bones. That place HAS to be haunted! I noticed that all the bones were in huge piles but separated by body part. For example, we'd see a mass pile of legs, then a stack of skulls. Some skulls still had teeth and chunks of hair. One had a jaw open like it was in pain and screaming. Graphic. I wonder if they separated the bones after they were bones or while they were still... fresh? Who knows!

After that interesting venture we went to a nearby park, Parque de La Muralla. It was alongside the Rimac river and the reggaeton song "Calle Ocho" was blaring by this festival area full of inflatables and rides for kids. The park had some of the ancient pre-Incan city walls on site, and a restaurant full of Asian tourists. Beyond that though, John and I were the only gringos to be seen. The park had an excellent view of these houses on a nearby hillside- it was very colorful. When we were exiting the park a local man randomly walked up to us asking us where we were from, and introduced himself with a big smile and just said "Bienvenidos a Peru!" The Lonely Planet travel guide book made me paranoid that this was the scenario where he was distracting us with conversation while his friend was pickpocketing us. However, John and I had locks on our backpacks, so even though I glanced behind me I had no need to worry. It was actually a nice feeling to know that unlike French people, the Peruvians don't harbor bitterness towards tourists.

Lunch time! John led us to a place near the plaza (of course it was full of locals since John picked it, and as such was a sign it had decent food) called Restaurante Machu Picchu. I ordered us an appetizer of cancha, or partially popped Peruvian popcorn, mmm! John got some Inka Cola- a locally made soda which outsells Coca Cola in Peru each year (Coca Cola was mad about this and so bought them out) and tastes kind of like bubblegum, very sugary. For my meal I ordered chaufa de pollo, a very tasty dish of rice, eggs and chicken stirred together in a tasty sauce. So good. The first meal I'd had in about 24 hours was bound to be good though! As for John, well, he decided to go all out and ordered cuy picante- also known as roasted guinea pig! It was served in a shape that you could still tell where its cute little face was, and its tiny paws too! After lunch I had my first experience with public restrooms in South America- even though you pay to use the restroom, more often than not there is no toilet paper, soap, or flusher, and you cannot flush the toilet paper anyway. This of course is conducive to pleasant odors and even better personal hygiene! Oh well, I came prepared for this. Anyways, we left the restaurant and walked around the busy streets looking in on a few tourist shops. The majority have the same thing for sale over and over, and most of the workers were hovering and pushy, but they did have some really neat items. I got a scarf with a llama design on it and also a little mini llama statue. Plenty of practice asking "cuanto cuesta?"

Next we wandered over to this shopping area by the river known as Jirion de La Union. It has street vendors and fruit stands- so John bought a mango. There was also a festival of some sort going on and so the park was full of people, food, and live music. I love the music here, very upbeat and lively! Also for less than 1$ I bought chocolate covered strawberries on a skewer and John got a local dessert recommended by our guidebook called suspiro limeño (as seen in the photo). We then went on a hunt for Saint Rose of Lima's birthplace, all for the sake of my mom, and ended up in a sketchy area of the city. When we found it, it was closed, but I got some photos anyways. On our later unsuccessful search for the Museum of the Spanish Inquisition we were hassled by some 6 year old girls who really wanted a sole. By this point in the day we had walked close to 10 miles and were exhausted. After negating the idea of going to an art museum and a mirador (lookout) on a hilltop in a poor area of Lima we decided to hop in a cab and say adios to central Lima.

We were dropped off at a very pretty park called Parque de La Reserva, it really should have just been called "Fountain Park" or something though because there were close to 15 huge and unique fountains there. It was easy to get some neat photos, and John took some of me walking through this canopy of water. Some of the fountains coordinated to music, and apparently at twilight one of them has a laser light show. Tons of kids were there at the park playing in some of the fountains- a fun way to beat the heat. I noticed here for the first time that many of the older women still dress in the traditional Andean clothing style- a flat wide brim bowler hat with dark pigtail braids, and a full woven skirt with colorful stockings and flats.

Once John and I had our fill of seeing moving water we cabbed it back to Barranco. We freshened up, were reunited with our backpacks, and I showered and decided to blow dry my hair. Somehow when I pulled it out of the wall I ended up getting electrically shocked. It scared me so much I started crying, and my arm felt weird for a little bit. Despite that, feeling clean and refreshed inspired us to set out at sunset for a lap around the area. The main square at Barranco has many street vendors and John got a locally popular pisco sour alcoholic drink for us. I also bought Matt an alpaca (llama) woven bracelet and my mom a Peruvian Nativity. It is a little odd to see Christmas trees, nativity sets and Feliz Navidad everywhere since it's so warm and palm-tree filled here. It's crazy to think Santa came to my house in Kentucky only two days ago! So for dinner, John and I decided to go down to the beach walk again. A woman approached us and told me we could get free pisco sours if we ate at her restaurant. We agreed (I'm holding it in the photo). The restaurant was called Toto's oddly and was on a balcony which overlooked a narrow, stone street which led down to the ocean. Salsa music was playing in the background, and it was a great atmosphere. For dinner John ate seafood- some octopus thing with creyfish and something with shells which I would never eat. I got aji de gallina, a local dish of chicken and potatoes smothered in a decent tasting cheesy sauce with rice all over it. Once our meal was done and we had gone through the usual South American custom of hunting down your server and trying very hard to make eye contact in order to say nos trae la cuenta por favor (bring us the check please), we strolled hand-in-hand around town (how cute). Now we are both back at the hostel being nerds and writing in our journals. My feet are sore and I'm absolutely beat! We have no AC so the windows are wide open and I must say you can hear everything happening outside! Should be interesting.