Sunday, March 13, 2011 – Monday, March 14, 2011
Another new country! After six hours in the Guayaquil airport, including a fifteen minute chair massage, my flight left for Lima. We arrived around 9:30pm and I waited 30 minutes plus in the huge line at passport control. There was a mission trip from the States going to Iquitos (the Amazon in Northern Peru) for a few weeks. Seem to be a lot of mission trips in Peru. Once I retrieved my backpack and cleared customs, my drive was waiting to take me to Pariwana hostel in Miraflores.
I finally arrived at the hostel around 10:30pm ready to get to bed after a quick call home, but I ended up chatting with two girls from Colorado in my dorm for about an hour. After a warm shower, I curled into bed hoping my stuffy nose wouldn’t prevent me from sleeping.
The majority of today was spent in the hostel. I woke up around 10am and had a great omelet for breakfast (the hostel has bread and jam for breakfast but there are lots of other options available for purchase). Needing to sort out a few logistics, I used the hostel agent to book a bus ticket from Arequipa to Cusco and, after finding out that my flight reservation from Lima to Arequipa had been canceled, bought a plane ticket for tomorrow. Wanting to pay by credit card since the most I’ve been able to withdraw at the ATM is 700 soles (worth $250) or $200 at a time (each one subject to bank fees), I had to go with the agent to her other office.
By this point it was already past 1pm and I was anxious to see some part of Lima. The hostel is near a busy intersection with McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Burger King and Starbucks, but there is a green park in the middle of them. Miraflores is a modern part of this city of 9 million. Given my extreme fatigue, I decided I’d rather go for a nice lunch then explore the old city of Lima (a 30 minute cab ride away). A short, cheap taxi journey took me to Pescados Capitales, a restaurant recommended in my Food and Travel Magazine article on Lima, noting that the menu is based on the cardinal sins and is the source of the latest gossip.
The modern restaurant with high bamboo ceilings and long bar was packed. Luckily they had English menus so that I could understand the information, since the menu was much more than a list of available dishes. I asked for a recommendation from my waiter and he suggested the typical sole ceviche (the famous Peruvian dish). My mouth is still salivating from the delicious infusion of lime, onion and a touch of spice on the raw fish which came with the traditional sides of corn and some type of orange-colored ginger-flavored mashed potato. I ate slowly, savoring each bite and cooling the heat with diet Coke. When the women at the table next to me ordered a purple drink I enquired about it. My friendly waiter brought me half a glass of the chicha morado, a juice prepared from purple corn, sweet and unfermented. As I finished my meal, I requested a copy of the menu in Spanish, since the article made such a big deal about the hidden messages inside and I figured it would be fun to read once I learned a bit more Spanish. I thanked my helpful waiter and left Pescados Capitales thoroughly satisfied with my experience.
Feeling the exhaustion of my cold and early mornings on the ship, I headed back to the hostel for the remained of the afternoon. I made a quick stop at Starbucks, having not seen one since Viña del Mar, for a latte before returning to the dorm. I’ve been sitting here relaxing and writing. Turns out it was a good time that my flight reservation was cancelled because now I leave at noon rather than 6:30am. Can’t say too much about my impressions of Peru at the moment since I haven’t really seen much. Am looking forward to getting to the smaller cities as Lima seems overwhelming, tons of people, cars and pollution.
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