Placa de Armas y Nuestro Hostel

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Today started much better than yesterday, for one I wasn’t totally hung over and I also knew a little more about the hostel and about where I was so that I could feel just a little more confident than I previously was arriving here without a clue as to where I was or what was around me haha. Brett and I got up and had some tea at the hostel, I did a little reading and we had some bread with jam for breakfast along with the Japoneses that are staying here. We talked a little with them and afterwards I took a shower which was much needed since sleep was again arduous and extremely sweaty and wet. At one point in the night I had to get up and towel off because I was so sweaty. I took the towel and wrapped it around my shoulders and neck and tried to get some more sleep. It wasn’t easy and the burn on my neck and shoulders added to the discomfort. After my shower we set off to buy some plane tickets from Lima to Cusco in order to hike our Inca trail in a few weeks. The tickets on kayak.com were 300 bucks, however we walked to this actual Peruvian Airlines “store” if you will and we got tickets for $106 each. That was a hell of a deal and definitely beats a 21 hour bus ride in my book any day. After we bought the tickets we caught a taxi to the city center of Lima and the Placa de Armas and went and saw a few sights there. There wasn’t much to see in terms of sights, there was a cathedral in the Placa which was very cool to see. We didn’t go in because it was very hot and crowded, however it was ornate on the outside and in some of the pictures you can see the stone work. Many of the buildings were brightly colored and were unlike anything I had ever seen in the US. It reminded me vaguely of Spain or France. We walked around a little and sat on a bench in a little park area and ate the sandwiches we packed for lunch. It was so hot; we had to put sunscreen on numerous times to avoid a worse burn than we already had. We decided to try and walk to a museum that we thought was fairly nearby called El Museo Cultural del Peru. So we walked in the direction that we thought it was in, and came upon another Placa, the Placa de San Martin. Right near the Placa is the Grand Hotel Bolivar which is a very posh hotel; we went in and had a drink, a Pisco Sour. This is one of the national drinks of Peru; it consists of Aguardiante de Pisco which is a liquor, sour mix and egg whites. It was sweet but strong and hit the spot on a very hot day when we were looking for some refuge from the heat. We kept walking after the hotel in the direction of the museum and as we walked the area we walked in became more and more sketchy. It didn’t seem dangerous during the day, just a little more urban and slummy than what we had been used to thus far in Lima. Basically it was exactly what I thought Lima would be, not this posh area where we are staying, but the regular Lima where normal denizens live. I asked a few police officers along the way where this place was, no one really had a firm idea which led me to believe that the police in Peru don’t give a shit about the cultural history haha. I asked every cop if it was safe for us to walk around and every single one said that in the daytime it is fine however we shouldn’t go there at night. TRUST ME WHEN I TELL YOU THAT I WOULDN’T BE CAUGHT DEAD THERE AT NIGHT. Because en realidad, we would be dead at night hahah or at least roofied and robbed. But none of those things happened today. We walked up this dodgy street towards where we thought the museum was and EUREKA!! It was there! However when I asked the guard at the door if we could come in he said that the museum was closed! They only open Tuesday through Sunday. And of course today is Monday. So a little disappointed we departed, however we were much more confident in ourselves that we navigated the mean streets of Lima and actually found the place we wanted to find. We attempted to walk back to the area where we were originally at in order to find a taxi, because believe it or not the taxis here don’t have set rates. You have to haggle before you get in to determine the fare or the taxistas will rip you off. So anyways we tried to get back to our original drop off point however we didn’t make it, we ended up not going far enough north and too far west, so seeing as how we were closer than we had thought, we got a taxi for 11 soles and headed back to Miraflores. We stopped at the grocery and got some meat for dinner as well as some more beer and water. All the essentials. When we came back we chilled for a little while some of the guys here in the hostel and I had a banana and some water. After our chill time, Brett and I went to the promenade and did a Crossfit workout which was a running endurance workout that consisted of sprints for 20 seconds each set with decreasing rest time from 60 seconds down to 10 seconds. It kicked my ass but felt really good. After our workout we came back to the hostel and made dinner, a chicken stir fry which was delicious….we have been getting to know our hostel mates tonight and just hanging out here and drinking beer. It’s a warm Peruvian night here and we are all just chilling, we’re not going out and I wish you all the best back home. Salud y hasta pronto.

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Comments

[Tammy]

Awesome pictures!!!!
Can't wait to see more.

[Vanessa]

Todo un narrador eh!!!
Hola Tom!!! Qué tal por tierras sureñas! Qué envidia poder pisar lugares nuevos!!!! Sigue escribiendo, así nos acercas un poco más a esos sitios! Y por dios que no te roben hahahaha!

[Tom Carr]

vanessa!!! como estas!? espero que tengas bien!! todo esta bien conmigo, voy a update mi blog muchas veces y creo que voy por espana muy pronto. voy a decirte.