Lima!

Update from Tessa!
We´ve been in Peru for about 24 hours now, and we are completely sure we made the right choice in vacation destination. At first we were dubious and totally overwhelmed. Basically the flights to Peru were great. We even got bumped up to an earlier flight from LaGuardia to Miami. The flight to Peru was bumpy but overall very fine. But then we arrived...

Basically when you arrive the airport, you go to immigration (totally fine), get your baggage (also fine) and then go to the international arrivals pickup to look for the ride the hostel sends. When we first walked out to the international arrivals I immediately saw a sight for with my last name on it. Hurray but once we started walking I noticed we were walking with a very well dressed man to a very nice towncar. Hmmm, probably not going to the hostel. I asked the man what the full name on his sign was. Turns out he was looking for a Pablo W, not me. When I went back to the gate I saw my full name on a much more appropriatelly cheap looking sign. So now we are walking with the driver to the right car. Oh but the right car is extremely far away from civilization and kinda dodgy looking. So then we start driving in possibly the scariest neighborhood I have ever been in. And its night time. And no one else is on the road. And the car is acting funny. It´s about 11:30.

We pass a very sketchy looking auto repairshop/ gas station. I breathe a sigh of releif "Thank God we aren´t going there", then we pull a u-turn and go right to the shop. Shit. I have my game face on but I totally freaking out. Then the driver says he needs us to pay him now and then he can fix the car. Devin looks at me and I know we are thinking the exact same thing. We are going to give him money and he is going to take off with our bags and we will be stranded in the barrio. But everything works out and he takes care of the car. Then we drive to the hostel at breakneck speed in the empty dark streets. Bums and dogs are everywhere. One man was peeing on the street. I look at Jack and he looks as concerned as I am. Oh no!

But then (insert choir of angels) we reach Miraflores and everything looks much better. We make it to the hostel and are prompty greeted by a dozen backpackers who are heavily intoxicated. I was completely overwhelmed. Loud music, pisco sours all around and then then pretty much the whole hostel went out partying, and we three had peace at last :)

Jump to today! 100% BETTER!

I couldn´t sleep in and was still kind of jumpy from the previous night so I was up at 7:30. And then woke up Devin and Jack to keep me company. The morning was much much better. We enjoyed a nice simple free breakfast at the hostel and decided to take a walk to the supermarket to get some locks for our lockers. After walking around Barranco and successfully finding the market (but not locks) we headed back to the hostel to plan our day. On the way we saw two girls we recognized from our hostel. Turns out they are just as overwhlemed as we are. Justine and Anna are from England and lovely! We decide to team up to manage the situation better.

We decided to go to Central Lima and check out the Plaza de Armas and the Monesterio de San Francisco. We made it in great time. About 1 minute after we get out of the cab a guide approached us about a city tour. Luis is awesome, knows everyone and gets us into everything we even imagined we may want to see. We went to the Cathedral, the tomb of Saint Rose de Lima, Museum of the Inquisition, the national bank (which had amazing ceiling of stained glass, the old post office, many beautiful buildings, an ancient Incan city wall, and another church. We ended at the Monesterio de San Francisco where we took a tour of the church, monestary and the creepy catacomb which was filled witht bones of over 25000 Limeños.

We had a delicious lunch at the place Luis recommended across from San Francisco which totaled a big $2 US and included an appetizer, main course and refresco. Throughly stuffed we returned to Barranco´s Backpackers Inn and recouped for about half an hour. The staff was wonderful and made our arrangements for tomorrow to get to Arequipa for us which was a huge timesaver.

Then Anna, Justine, Devin, Jack and I embarked to explore Miraflores. Miraflores is beautiful. We window shopped at the Inka Market and wandered around John F. Kennedy Park and Parque Central . Interesting note - JFK is huge down here. The park in Miraflores is dedicated to him, schools are dedicated to him, school kids have his name on the back of their track suits. We aren´t sure why.

JFK park is nicer than we could have imagined. Tons of vendors, food and shopping. We found out way to "Pizza Street" where we were badgered by waitresses to pick their establishment and plied with free drinks. Who can resist? We finally decided to eat at Fuzali´s and had a fantastic meal of cerviche, chicken and other delicious treats. We compared England and the U.S., Jack quizzed us on the saints we learned about earlier in the day and we enjoyed some more pisco sours. At this point we realized we were exhausted and returned again to the hostel.

We really feel like we get it how to navigate the cabs, barter with the shop keepers and in general take care of ourselves (in a group of five). Jack, Devin and I are feeling really great about being in Lima and are throughly excited about the rest of our trip!

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