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Published: September 29th 2011
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THe Hostel Cat
Hours of Fun for Sam! LIMA - Capital of Mighty Peru
After a spot of cloudy sunbathing we caught our last peruvain collectivo out to the Pan-America highway. After a short wait we jumped onto a bus to the capital for 10sol (around 2.50!).
We arrived to blazing hot sunshine pouring onto a hectic city backdrop. Unfortunately, Kjersti wasn't feeling too well so we hightailed it to the hostel and spent the rest of the day chilling out.
We awoke the night day and unfortunately Kjersti's was still feeling rough, so it was then my turn to do the hospital run. Within the space of 3hrs, we managed to navigate not one but two hospital (the first one was for locals only), get consulted, treated and discharged all for less than a tenner. (Makes the NHS look a bit rubbish really!) I also managed to successfully use my limited spanish to explain the symptoms.
We returned to the hostel for a chill out day, quite luckily one of the live in-workers at the hostel had just got a kitten so i was content for pretty much the rest of the day whilst checking on bob.
Miraflores
The next day we spent chilling out and getting to know our local surroundings. We walked out and into Miraflores, getting a bit lost along the way but enjoying the scenery.
For me, Miraflore was one of my favourite cities so far, the combination of built up urban city similar to that of the hectic metropolis Paris but coupled with wide open roads, lined with bouncy grass filled walk ways and tall's trees reminiscent of Barcelona's beauty. I think a big factor was that we'd arrived in summer so the weather was beautiful and the evenings nice and long. (Something we didn't think possible in Peru after being in rainy Cusco for so long!) It was amazing being in the midst of beeping cars and tall builings and being about to take a 20 minute wonder out to the sea front.
That evening we walked out to the Parque Kennedy in the centre of Miraflore, a long stretch of gardens with various little stalls selling jewery, popcorn and other bit and bobs. For some reason we had yet to find out why the park was packed full of friendly cats, which meant hours of fun! (I think this
was another reason why i enjoyed the city so much.)
The following day with bob back to full health, we set out to the beach in our swimming gear and flip flops and hired ourselves surf boards for 30 sol = abt 8quid for 90mins. This was my first time surfing, so i got a few tips off the guys hiring out the boards and get out into the water. Surprisingly it wasn't too cold, the surf was quite good but hard to judge where and when you needed to be, we both managed to get up on the boards about 2-3 times and i only had one near death experience, which was nice.
After getting dried off and changed we headed out to a local park down Av. Arequipa - Parque de la Reserva. It was really beautiful and not the kind of thing you would expect to find in the urban sprawl of a city. fifteen huge water fountains in various shapes and sizes, including a water tunnel that you could run through and various others all surrounded by trees and flowers, families wondering around and soaking up the sunset.
Today, we headed away from
the sea and off to find the city centre. As we left Miraflore's the city density bult up and put out that hot city heat that we're used to on rare sunny days back in Manchester. We wondered around until we stumbled upon china town where we had some food and followed the tradition of getting a bit lost for a few hours before we found the main Plaza De Armas, by this time completely frazzled!
That evening, we meet up with one of the other volunteer's we worked with at the Yanapay project who lived in Lima. The three of us and an American fella we'd meet at the hostel, all went out to the shopping complex on the beach front where we got a perfect view of the sunsetting over the pacific. Natalie, told us about a festival that was going on in one of the suburbs - Barrirro, celebrating the date of it's creation. The celebrations we do with loads of paint, water and alcohol which, as everyone knows is always a perfect combination. We squeezed our way through the masses of people to watch some of the bands and performances going on, with some very
kind people painting our faces on the way! It was jolly good fun, if not very messy! A great way to end out last day in Peru after 3 months.
The next day we woke up early and caught our taxi out to the airport for our 4hr flight to Buenos Aires. I have to admit i was sad to see be leaving to Peru after all the time we'd spent their, it was such a beautiful, diverse, cheap and amazing country. I look forward to making it back out at some point in my life.
We left with a headful of fond memories to last a life time..
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