Day 3- Lima, Peru

Today started out with a quick photo shoot of the view we have from the street our hostel is on (in the below image), then we continued to walk into the streets of Barranco where we found a man wearing a yellow vest. Just hanging out in the middle of the street exchanging money with foreigners might seem odd, but it's his full time job. It was a little strange, but very convenient! With our sewn-in hidden pockets full of nuevo-soles, we were ready to begin the day. We took a cab to a place about 20 minutes away known as Huaca Pucllana. This place is a location full of ancient pyramid-like structures from 200-700 AD, and is right in the middle of the city. It "features walls of adobe bricks, built in a bookshelf fashion, which were found to be earthquake resistant. It was constructed by the pre-Incan peoples of the Miraflores district in Lima as a ceremonial site. Today it is an active archaeological site." Shockingly it wasn't a landmark or anything special until about 50 years ago when the government decided to kick out all the poor people who lived on it and turn it into a national historic sight. When we got there in the blazing sunlight we were happily greeted by our tour guide. He was a very sociable guy and we learned a lot about the history of the place. We learned that they used the structures primarily for religious reasons, and they had found remnants of child sacrifices there! Crazy stuff. They also stacked the bricks vertically instead of horizontally, which is how it has lasted through the many earthquakes Lima has. When you climb to the top of the structures you can see the ocean and the surrounding mountains, so it also made for a great view of Lima in general. While we were there construction workers were there too rebuilding parts of the sight since all of the bricks are just made out of sun-dried clay.We also learned that in their society, women were the leaders. When our guide said this I nodded my head thinking it was awesome and said "that's right", and then he continued to say that despite this, most of the human sacrifices were women. John of course made some snarky comment and the guide thought we were hilarious. I guess he gets a little bored with his job, but I'm glad we could entertain. Anyways after we looked around the pyramids and at the creepy mannequins for a while we went to a little farm area and I saw my first llama of South America! We also saw a little hut full of guinea pigs getting plumped up to be someone's dinner someday. After the tour finished we perused the gift shop and got some much needed water.

We then took a quick cab ride to the next location we had highlighted in our Lonely Planet guide book, which was a place to shop and barter known as El Mercado de Los Indios. We walked around the numerous open air shops, perusing the Peruvian souvenir goods for the first time. I was impressed by how inexpensive and colorful everything was- though it was a little annoying to have the workers constantly following you around and pressing you to buy their products. (I later realized that only in more tourist cities are the workers this obnoxious.) It was probably more beneficial to the workers who weren't paying attention because I was more likely to stay at their stand longer if I didn't feel pressured. I ended up buying a ceramic vase item for Danielle, as well as a Christmas ornament. John got a traditional brightly colored woven blanket. I didn't have my usual buyers remorse that tends to happen to me when shopping because we paid in Peruvian soles- definitely a plus! After we wore ourselves out from shopping it was time for lunch. We were in the fun, beautiful, and more artistic area of the city known as Miraflores, but unfortunately no food places were to be found for several blocks. Luckily, we stumbled upon a tourist info stand where the nice lady kindly informed us of a street to go to that had many food choices. When we got to the very decorative and colorful street we were instantly targeted as tourists (thanks to our pale skin and backpacks, haha) and so the pushy waiters were running out into the streets with their menus, trying to convince us that their place was the best choice. One man was extremely pushy, possibly the most pushy waiter we experienced on the whole trip (and trust me, we experienced many), but unfortunately his restaurant seemed to have the best menu and prices, so even though it hurt our pride to give in to his annoying ways, we sat down there to have lunch. We didn't make it very far down the street, haha. John kindly ate there for my sake, since it was an Italian place, even though he disapproved of its status as a "tourist restaurant". He dealt with it though because after being so sick yesterday I needed some substantial food! During our meal a man came by playing three instruments at once, and John of course used his crazy zoom lens on his amazing camera and got some choice candids. (The photo on the right is the view from our table)

After a nice and relaxing lunch we went out to hail a cab. (This process of "cab hunting" was a new experience for me that day, but it would later become a very frequent occurrence- You go up to drivers and say "how much would it cost to go to ___"?, scope out their price, and compare. If you don't feel like actually comparing you can just lie and tell the cab driver that the other driver close by was going to do it for 5 soles less, and then they will usually jump down to your price and comply. However, you do have to know how to speak decent Spanish for this to happen!) We then took this oh-so-craftily hailed cab to a more distant location, Parque de Las Leyendas Zoo, which allowed us to take a long and scenic oceanside drive. I had a 30 second chat in Spanish with our cab driver about sand dredging, which made me happy because I actually understood him. Once we arrived John and I realized that we were the only tourists (white people) around. It was a neat feeling though because we felt like we were finally in the "real Lima" or something. Admission to the zoo was inexpensive, and we walked around for a long time and saw many different animals. One thing I noticed is that the big cats weren't necessarily contained all that well, and they were crazy close! It made for good photo taking, but it was somewhat scary. We witnessed a bear sitting in a hilarious pose eating a banana randomly, and also some jaguars get into a little tiff. I was impressed with all the monkeys there and how active they were being, and also with the fact that I could get within 4 feet of a huge Bengal tiger. John and I also had fun attempting to pick out good candy from the vending machine- we had never heard of a single one of the brands before.

After we had our fill of being in the heat we got another cab to take back to the main Plaza de Armas. Since it was rush hour the cab ride took an eternity. Our driver took a different route than the one we took to get there and we went through some somewhat sketchy parts of the city. Thanks to the paranoia instilled in me by the pessimistic guidebooks I harbored a slight fear that we were being taken to a remote location where we would then be mugged and abandoned. But, that of course was not the case! It was just a usual crazy, jilting, terrifying cab ride! Once back at the plaza we went shoe shopping for me since John thought it'd be a good idea for me to buy shoes I didn't care about ruining for the rainforest trip. After having semi-confusing discussions about shoe types and sizes with the workers (I am a size 39 apparently), I ended up getting some brown gym shoes. John then went outside and bought an empanada, and since we were tired we took another scary, near death experience cab ride back to the hostel. We stocked up on more cash from our in-room locker and then at dusk we went to an ocean view mirador (lookout) that we had noticed from the balcony of our hostel. The walk there was very scenic and we got some good pictures, and the mirador itself was very pretty at that time of night. We then had a quick dinner at a local place, and returned to the hostel where I arranged for us to have a cab pick us up at 4am the next morning. Ugh! I hadn't been feeling sick all day luckily, but for some reason I started feeling nauseous again before we went to bed. Also our hostel had a little bar in the common area, and so John got a Cusqueno beer- and now, sleep!

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.