Livin' it up in Lima

According to conventional backpacker wisdom, Lima is a dirty, smelly, polluted city, choked with smoke belching traffic and generally not a nice place to stay. I can't remember how many people had told both Em and I that Lima was best avoided, but being the stubborn pair that we are, we decided to go there nonetheless. There were a number of reasons for this other than outright bloodymindedness; it sounded interesting, we needed to go there to see Oscar (a Peruvian friend we'd made in Mancora some weeks before) and the Footprint guide said we could get some top Chinese food there. I have to admit, the last point was pretty much all my doing, but I was suffering from serious quality-Asian-food-withdrawal symptoms!

We decided at first to stay in the area of Miraflores, more upmarket and safer than central Lima. We stayed one night in the Hostal Torreblanca for a wallet shattering $55 per night (bear in mind we'd been staying in $10 places up until then!) and, feeling that we weren't getting our money's worth, upgraded to the lovely four star Hotel Boulevard for a marginally more expensive $70 - but boy did you get more for your money! We had our own lounge, air con, the lot. We justified the extravegance as it was about a year since Em and I got together, and a bit of luxury was just what we needed after the exertion and chill of the Huaraz trek.

We did manage to stray from the hotel a couple of times, despite the fun we were having in our little suite. We went out bowling one night, not very Peruvian but loads of fun, and we managed to meet up with not only Oscar but Ruth and Jon who we'd met in the Galapagos Islands. We spent a fair bit of money in Lima too, although we eat like kings, which brings me on to the food section of this blog..... Emma tells me I can't make this too long as it'll get boring for you people not travelling Peru, but I owe it to potential visitors to Lima to share the wealth......

So, if you want great Chinese food, head for the Salon Capon on Jr. Paruro 819 in central Lima - not in the nicest part of town, but really great food, and at a reasonable price. Much better than the random "chifas" (Chinese restaurants to you and me) that you find all over South America. The other really great meal we had was the next day, courtesy of Oscar's guidance (una vez mas... ¡gracias para todo Oscar!) at Señor Limon in San Isidro (near Miraflores) on Av. Prescott 415 - by far the best seafood we've eaten in South America, and for a reasonable 35 soles (about $10 USD) for an all-you-can-eat buffet. Yum..... There you go, that wasn't too long, was it??!

The time that wasn't spent bowling, eating or lounging in our luxurious quarters we instead used to explore the centre of town, and some interesting sites and museums. We found the city to be no more polluted or dangerous than any of those we'd visited until then, and found it to contain some really interesting sites - the catacombs under the chuch of San Francisco were fascinating, for example, although we couldn't work out from the (Spanish) tour why there were loads of skeletons that had been arranged into various piles of bones around the place. Interesting nonetheless!

With Oscar and his good friend Silverio we also visited Lima Zoo, not the nicest smelling zoo in the world, but with loads of local animals and a fair few that we didn't expect to see. Some of the favorites were the pumas and tapirs (click here to see a video of a very amusing tapir, strange beasts that they are), and Emma was delighted when she discovered they had a tiger and a lion, although she wanted to set them free.... Nice idea, but I'm glad she didn't have the keys....

After five fun-filled days in Lima though it was time to hit the road once again. The budget, such as it was/is, could stand no more luxury.... as such we headed to Ica for sun, sand and the unlikely sport of sandboarding. Sounded like fun, all the more because Emma and I had neither ever set foot on a snowboard. Dangerous? Nah......

Note to those of you that are mainly looking at the blog for the photos, it seems that we were having soooo much fun in Lima that we didn't take very many at all. Sorry. Will have to try harder!!

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