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Published: January 31st 2016
Lima Coastline By Night
Taken from Miraflores looking south.We weren't on an overnight bus this time from Ica to Lima, but it was still pretty hot and uncomfortable. Avoiding drinking water to avoid having to go pee on this bus with no toilet, I also felt a bit light-headed on the way there.
Which may explain the state of semi-awe I was in during our taxi ride to the hostel. It was nice to be back in a proper city again - for the first time in over a month and a half, since I was in
Santiago, I saw skyscrapers and modern buildings. It felt nice to be somewhere developed again.
So when we arrived in the neighbourhood of Miraflores, I almost couldn't contain myself. Towering glass hotels and apartment blocks perched on a long stretch of cliffs with a number of very green, well-kept parks looking over the Pacific Ocean - this was proper nice. This was the first of many surprises I was to encounter here in Lima - I think I may stay here a bit longer!
My original perception of Lima was that it would be another
La Paz - dirty, run-down and dangerous - so once again I was surprised when I discovered
Plaza de Armas
There seems to be a Plaza de Armas in every city in South America; Lima's is quite impressive. on our walking tour, that downtown Lima was not the shithole that I had envisaged it would be. Instead, its well-kept pedestrianised streets and pleasant plazas were extremely busy with the hustle and bustle of last-minute Christmas shoppers, flanked by colonial buildings and pretty balconies.
The transport system we took to get from Miraflores to downtown Lima - the 'metro' - is a magnificent idea and an excellent compromise. While building a proper metro would involve billions of dollars, the digging of tunnels and the building of tracks and trains, Lima's 'metro' consists of the middle section of the main highway (so where the median barrier would normally be) being completely dedicated to regular express buses with several stations en route. Like a normal metro system, these buses never have to contend with traffic and cost much less to build - trains without the tracks.
As for the walking tour itself, the guide was generally amusing but tended to go on a bit too long about certain things (e.g. how to tell if something is really made from baby alpaca wool or not). There was basically a lot of information overload. He did however make a good point about how
Ceviche
The best I've had so far at Cruz Azul. Delicious. overblown the dangers of downtown Lima were - walking around, it certainly didn't feel dangerous at all.
Following the completion of the walking tour, I tried
chicha de horada, a local drink which tasted a bit like the
maize beer I had in South Africa - so in other words, not something I will probably have again. We also did a tour of the Monasterio de San Francisco and its slightly creepy catacombs which contains the remains of 70,000 people who wanted direct passage to heaven by being buried underneath the monastery. It was pretty cool, especially the stacks of human bones on display - some of which were carefully arranged. A bit too carefully arranged.
We decided to head to Larcomar - a shopping mall in Miraflores that is built into the cliffs - for dinner and a movie that night. Spectre - the latest James Bond flick - had unfortunately finished its run so we settled for just dinner at the mall's food court instead. And what a dinner it was. I would say that it was probably the best food-court food I have ever had - a fried pork sandwich with roast pumpkin and limed onions with sweet potato fries and guanabana
Huaca Pucllana
Temple built by the Lima culture between 200 and 700 AD. juice. Amazing.
The mall itself was probably the flashiest thing that I have seen in South America bar parts of
Sao Paulo and Santiago. I just did not expect to see so much wealth in Peru after everything that I had seen so far - once again, I was pleasantly surprised.
And for the first time since probably
Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay, I felt safe and comfortable walking around Miraflores, whatever the time of day. It was a nice feeling to have, not having to always look over your shoulder.
An interesting observation we made in Miraflores was the composition of the population; there were lots of tourists and very European/fare-looking Peruvians which was in contrast to the small, dark, Amerindian Peruvians that we had seen in the south the country. It was a bit strange...but I guess this was upper/middle class Peru we were looking at.
The walk back from the mall along the cliff-lined coast is pleasant and safe - and admittedly a little romantic...
On Christmas Eve, I decided to visit the nearby ruins of Huaca Pucllana.
Built over 300 years by a pre-Columbian civilisation known as the Lima culture, the place was built as temple and administrative centre between
Parque del Amor
Popular make-out spot and Lima's version of the Parc Guell on the cliffs of Miraflores. 200 and 700 AD. The tour was relatively interesting and the structure itself was impressive - human sacrifices were made at the top of the temple and shark was regularly eaten by the people living here. In saying all that however,
Machu Picchu does really ruin any other ruins you see afterwards.
Among more of surprises I was encountering here in Lima were three more.
Firstly, in Peru, Christmas Eve is when families have their big festive meal as opposed to Christmas Day. Therefore the hostel put on a special Christmas dinner for all the guests, who were spending Christmas away from their families. We would be each other's families this year. Included in the meal was turkey, an interesting salad of apple, coleslaw dressing, peaches and ham, and a fried rice / fried noodle combo. There is a bit of Chinese influence on Peruvian food - evident from the number of
chifas (cheap Chinese resturants) found in Peru - as well as a Japanese influence; in fact, one of Peru's former presidents was of Japanese origin.
Secondly, joining our family for Christmas was Peter, an Irishman I had met in
Sucre who now happened to staying in the same
Barranco
Arty/hippie neighbourhood of Lima and where the best nightlife resides. hostel as us.
Thirdly, I thought that
panettone was an Italian thing - apparently not. It is a Christmas tradition here in Peru as well and was on sale everywhere.
The meal and post-dinner drinks were fun - and I admittedly got quite drunk. But hey, it's Christmas!
It wouldn't quite be Christmas if you didn't pig out on Christmas Day itself, so Merian and I prepared a delicious Christmas Day brunch of blueberry pancakes, honey-glazed ham, fried bacon, scrambled eggs and of course, some panettone. The rest of the day was just spent chilling out, watching movies and playing cards. A nice relaxing Christmas Day at the hostel.
That evening, a group of us decided to head out for a few drinks. Barranco is where much of Lima's nightlife is concentrated, so that is where we went. We went to a bar called Ayahuasca (named after the hallucinatory herbal drug ceremony) where we sipped on some
pisco sours and tried some Peruvian titbits including
causa (mashed potato balls stuffed with crab) which was delicious, Peru certainly has the most varied and the best cuisine of all of the countries I have visited so far. While some of the
Bajada de Banos
Path leading from Barranco down to the beach. group stayed out longer for some dancing, Merian and I were quite tired from the previous night, so we called it a night.
Boxing Day. Merian and I decided to head back to Barranco, this time during the day. The walk all along the coast was lovely and was good exercise as was the neighbourhood itself, once we got there. Older and more colonial-looking than Miraflores, Barranco has a pleasant, arty/hippie feel to it. Enjoying
dulce de leche and
chirimoya ice cream in the main square, the abundance of security and police around here and Miraflores ensured we felt safe on what was a beautiful, sunny afternoon.
Heading down from the cliffs to the beach, I have to say that it disappointing. With a busy road right behind the beach, it spoiled the ambience somewhat, and the water didn't look particularly clean either. It didn't stop the throngs of locals from taking a dip however, on what was a public holiday.
That night, we decided to treat ourselves and went to the flash restaurant looking over the ruins at Huaca Pucllana. It was definitely the poshest restaurant I had been to so far - and the most expensive. The
Pasaje Santa Rosa
Elegan alleyway off Plaza de Armas. Lima's cathedral is in the background. tiradito (Japanese-style take on ceviche) I had for my starter was sublime; the
tacu-tacu of bean paste and rice was disappointing.
In a posh restaurant, wearing our best backpacker outfits, looking over the lit-up ruins...one could describe the night as - what's the word...a little romantic?
The feasting on Peruvian cuisine continued the next day as we checked out the #9 rated restaurant in Lima, which was just down the road from our hostel. Famous for their ceviche, I will go on record as saying that the ceviche I had there was the best I have ever had. I love it! The garlic octopus was also delicious although it got a bit too garlicky by the end. Something that is served everywhere here - especially on cerviche - is limed onions. I normally hate raw onions - but the lime seems to take the edge off them and is delicious. So simple but so effective.
That evening Michael, one of our Christmas family at the hostel, Merian and I got to practice our Spanish with some Argentinian girls who had checked in that night, while playing cards (we were playing Scum of course, and we added a couple of
Humping Teapot
Teeheehee! At the Mueso Larco. really awesome rules to it to boot). When you meet someone and you're able to speak someone else's first language, but not well; and they are able to speak your first language but not well, you get this feeling out of each other, almost like a staring contest, to see who can speak whose language better. Whoever wins this contest determines which language is spoken - so your pride does get knocked a bit when Argentinian girls start speaking English with you. Although to be fair, I wouldn't have been able to understand their Argentinian-accented Spanish anyway!
On my last day, Michael, Merian and I visited the top-rated Museo Larco where I saw more intact pre-Columbian artefacts than anywhere else before. The highlight for my childish mind was the erotic pottery. Pots carved in the shape of penises, vaginas, blowjobs and various sexual positions. Humping pots! LOL!
Better than the museum however was the food served up at its adjoining restaurant. The "duck cerviche" was delicious and so well cooked that the duck meat just fell off the bone. The setting was outstanding as well - an outside patio alongside an immaculately kept garden with vines sheltering the patio.
Larcomar
This cliffside shopping mall looking out to sea is quite possibly the flashiest thing I have seen in South America. That evening, there was just one last thing we had to try - a famous sandwich shop where food and juice is served on a bar situated almost directly on the footpath. Roll up, roll up! Here I had a
butifarra (Peruvian take on a hot ham sandwich, served on French bread) which didn't let me down. No street food setting would be complete in Peru of course, without car alarms going off. There is always one going off within close proximity - they are so sensitive here that even approaching a car might set it off.
My stay at Backpacker's Family House was generally fantastic. A nice, chilled out place to hang out, play cards, watch movies, to eat, and to cook. But my stay there unfortunately came to a ridiculously bitter end, which soured my whole experience with the place.
Every hostel has a check out time - the time that you are meant to be out of your room. However this was the first hostel in over nine years of travelling that had a
hostel check out time. Meaning that you have to be physically out of the entire hostel with all of your belongings, by
Skulls & Bones
Neatly but scarily arranged bones of some of 70,000 people thought to be buried in the catacombs of the Monasterio de San Francisco. 5pm on the day you check out. With a bus at 11pm, this meant I had six hours that firstly had to kill, and for which I had to find somewhere to leave my luggage. Apparently this is because they can only have a certain amount of guests in the building at one time, in accordance with municipal law.
Which is ridiculous. I couldn't even leave my bags there. The worker there who was so kind and helpful during my stay, had suddenly turned on me. There was to be no bending of the rules - after staying there almost a week, I was unceremoniously being thrown out onto the streets as a for my patronage. I was furious.
Firstly, what are the chances of the cops coming into the hostel to specifically count guests? And even then, not all guests are likely to be in the hostel at the same time, especially between 5pm and 11pm.
Secondly, and most ridiculously, why couldn't I leave my bags there? Is there really a rule on how much stuff you can store in hostel at any one time? The whole situation was simply a joke.
Thankfully, Merian had to move hostels because
Backpacker's Family House was full that night (they apparently didn't officially book her in even though she told them and even after they had confirmed the extra night with her), so she moved over the road - the guy running the hostel over there luckily saw more sense and kindly let me hag out there and leave my stuff there until I had to go.
And when I eventually did have to leave Lima and Miraflores, it was with a tinge of sadness, as it was also time for Merian and I to part ways.
We had had a lot of fun and a lot of laughs over the last ten days and part of me didn't want to leave. But just like when I split from Sybe and Fleur back in
Cusco the time had come where our paths were now going in different directions. The time had come for me to continue my journey alone - the first I would be alone for almost two months - and that journey would be up the coast for some beach and surf time in Northern Peru.
Hasta luego,
Derek
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