Lima

For some reason Peru was the country that I always thought of when I was studying Spanish so I was really excited to get to Peru but Lima was a little bit average. To be fair one thing we did discover is that we cannot go two nights without sleeping and not get hideously sick so our time in Lima was really marred by the fact that we both felt awful. As cities go though Lima is really sprawling, with what seems like no city planning. Its a desert city with two rivers running through it that are really polluted by illegal mining. It is also a really grey city and is often covered by sea fog so much so that the native people who lived there before the Incas didn't worship the sun like other indigenous cultures because they never saw it. The pacific ocean that touches the coast here is a dark green and is always cold because of the ocean currents. Lima should definitely be visited but just not for the 5 days that we spent there. Although it did take us 5 days to realise we had gone against the grain of the travel path in South America and we to devise a crazy route to get us back to Buenos Aires and still be able to see the major things on our list. In saying that we didn't waste any time in Lima, we just had a lot more early nights and sleep ins.

The first day we arrived in Lima we took the tourist bus from the airport to our hostel in Miraflores, which is in one of the richest fanciest and possibly most boring neighbourhoods in Peru but its where most of the hostels are because its safe. We dropped our bags and headed out to grab breakfast I definitely feel like the Spanish spoken in Peru is easier to understand but I still ended up with ham in my eggs.

After breakfast we headed to some ancient ruins a 1500 year old pyramid called Huanca Pucllana. It was built by a pre-Incan civilisation out of mud bricks with gaps between them to absorb earthquakes. It was pretty fascinating but we were probably too tired to really appreciate it, so we headed back to our hostel for a nap followed by really expensive, but definitely worth it burgers for dinner. Not very Peruvian.

The next day we headed out for a free walking tour. The tour picked us up from our hostel and we assumed we would be walking around the Miraflores area but instead we found ourselves on the bus system that had initially been designed as a light rail until the government ran out of money and just put some overcrowded buses

on a private road in instead. Downtown Lima turned out to be really beautiful and although the walking tour was a bit average at least it showed us how to get around, plus we got a tip for a really good vegetarian restaurant with a menu of the day that included a salad, main, drink and a little jelly pot for dessert all for about $6 NZ. It was amazing. After lunch we headed to San Francisco Church for a tour, it's old and beautiful above ground and below ground contains a creepy collection of bones in claustrophobic little tunnels. James was into it but I couldn't wait to get out.

On Tuesday we headed back downtown with the vege restaurant on our minds but alas it was a public holiday so it was shut which was devastating. We found a restaurant In the touristy area instead where we got our first of hundreds of the classic Peruvian dish lomo saltado. Interestingly enough Peru has had a large number of Chinese immigrants over the years which has influenced their food, so lomo saltado is stir-fried beef onions and tomatoes in soy sauce served over chips, as in fries, with rice and can easily have the beef picked out for us poor vegos. It also comes in chicken and alpaca but not guinea pig. That afternoon we headed to the arty bohemian neighbourhood of Barranco to do another walking tour. This was an amazing place on the cliffs overlooking the ocean with lots going on, stall and dancing and street art. We watched the sun go down before braving one of the local buses home.

On Wednesday we had a Spanish lesson which was just like paying someone to hang out with us. She took us to the local markets and then to a cafe and we chatted in Spanish which went better than I thought it would. In the afternoon I had booked us in for an Stand up paddle board surf lesson. In hindsight we should have just gone surfing as it turns out we are no good on paddle boards in the waves and both resented our instructor yelling “paddle, paddle, paddle" at us. How can you paddle when you can barely stand up. Still I think it was probably the highlight of being in Lima and definitely cleared out our sinuses. We celebrated being able to breathe by walking back to Barranco for dinner, a treat since we hadn't managed to stay up late enough to get dinner out after our first night. Unfortunately on a Wednesday night not being a public holiday there was not a lot happening, but we weren't deterred and had our lomo saltados at a restaurant overlooking the ocean. Actually I had a vege lasagne but my nose had blocked up again by then and I couldn't taste it, I'm sure it was delicious.

Thursday was our last day in Lima and we met with Julie our Spanish teacher again for some more Spanish conversation. This time we walked around a department store before going to a cafe. They were expensive lessons compared to what I've heard you can pay in Bolivia but I think they helped our confidence a lot. After that we strolled down to a mall that was a must visit apparently. In all fairness it was beautiful built into the side of a cliff over the ocean but the problem with malls is that they are the same wherever you go, and this one didn't have an H&M so obviously it wasn't the mall for me. We did branch out of our lomo saltados and have more burgers through which again I can only assume were delicious as my poor nose was still blocked. Shopping malls are also not what I had in mind when I pictured Peru either and it seems the disparity between the rich and poor here is pretty extreme.

This was a pretty negative post reading back over it, but hold onto your hats because its about to get wild...