Lima, South America

So why the sudden change in itinerary?  Well, David and I have been dreaming of going to Machu Picchu for years, we even came really close when we first came back from the Disney tour in Asia, but hesitated and let "common sense" tell us to wait.  We had been talking about it on and off all through this trip, and the only reason we kept saying no was the cost of the plane ticket, which to anywhere in South America is always expensive, even from nearby in Central America. 

Our excuse in the end was the deteriorating weather in Central America, which is coming into the rainy season.  But really we were just hungry for another taste of excitement and adventure.  Nicaragua was lovely, but after everything else we had seen in Guatemala it had a sense of the familiar about it, despite the significant differences.  We had intended on going into the jungle, which would have been a new experience, but once we found a reasonable ticket from San José to Lima and then home (for $800), we found we couldn´t resist the temptation of four weeks in South America.  Apologies to Panama, which I do feel bad about missing, not to mention the Corn Islands in Nicaragua and the Nicoya Penninsula in Costa Rica.  But flights to Costa Rica are always cheap, so I´m sure we will return to the region again one of these days.  Well, we will have to, because I already spent $3 on a Panama flag patch for my backpack, and I´m far too cheap to let that go to waste.  ;)

From our hostel in Alejuela, it was a five minute taxi to the San José International Airport.  (Travellers tip:  most people assume that they need to stay in San José to wait for flights, but the airport is actually in the city of Alejuela, where the hostels are literally minutes away.)  After changing our colones back into dollars - one dollar equalled 535 colones, which made calculating prices a challenge even for a math nerd like me - we were in the air and heading for Mexico City.

Now, for those of you who might have a vague sense of Central American geography, it might seem like Mexico City is in the exact opposite direction of Lima from San José.  And you would be right.  But those were the cheap tickets.  The cheapest direct ticket we could find was almost $600 more expensive!  In Mexico City we had a lovely seven hour layover.  They didn´t even have a Cinnabon to help the time pass (we had skipped the one in Costa Rica, because Cinnabon is not made for breakfast.)  They did have an interesting museum displaying some of the ruins and artifacts from different Mayan and Aztec and Olmec sights in Mexico.  But the best part was the flights in and out.  The city is just massive.  They estimate over 21 million people live there, and GDP of the city is higher than many other countries in the world, including Taiwan.  Someday I want to go back and see more than just the airport.

But with a flight to Peru, it was hard to feel melancholy at missing Mexico City.  Our flight to Lima was a bit odd.  The announcements were always made in Spanish, with a much abridged English version following.  Just after takeoff we heard them say something about Acapulco, which didn´t make much sense.  But 40 minutes later, we did, in fact, land in Acapulco.  It took a bit to figure out that we had stopped to refuel.  We were stopped about 45 minutes on the tarmac before we took off again.  Weird.  The view of the bay was sure impressive though.

Our flight was to arrive in Lima at 11:15pm, but with the refueling delay we didn´t arrive until 12:15am.  By the time we got through customs and immigration, it was well after 1am.  Luck was with us though, and just out of the gates we were approached by a taxi driver who actually gave us a decent price to get out to Miraflores, one of the nicer areas in Lima.  On the way we stopped at a red light, and a kid about 12 years old rushed into the intersection ahead of us, and began to juggle with sticks that were on fire.  While I was surprised to see someone so young at that time of night being so...resourseful, the fact was if I had had any small change in the local currency I would have given it to him, it was quite a show.  And I guess it wouldn´t have been so impressive in the daylight.  Anyway, we had emailed a hostel to tell them we were coming, but when we arrived they told us they were full.  (When I checked my email the next day there was an email from them saying they would have a room waiting for us.  Maybe the night watchman was too tired to pay attention?)  Our taxi driver was more than happy to take us to a place he knew, where he no doubt made a small commision for bringing us.  But while the place was $40 a night, more than the $25 we had been hoping to spend, it was now 2am and we were ready to take whatever there was.  The room was actually one of the nicer places we´ve stayed on the entire trip, with actual furniture in the room, big comfy beds and a scalding hot shower.  We didn´t notice much of it though, we fell straight into bed and were instantly asleep.

The next day we walked up the road and found a proper hostel to move to, which was still $30 a night, but big cities just tend to run more expensive.  Better yet, when we finally got into the room later that afternoon, we found we had been given a room with a private bathroom, when we had only paid for a shared bath!  Little things like that are the delight of the backpacker world.  We were also located right on the main square, closer to the shops and restaurants and with a great view from the common room of the hostel.

We were only planning on staying one day in Lima, having a few errands we wanted to get done.  But as we started walking around, we realized how much we were enjoying the city.  Lima is large and modern, with a population of over 8 million people.  Some big cities, such as Guatemala City and San Salvador, had seemed unfamiliar and therefore somewhat dangerous.  But Lima seems familiar somehow, sort of like if New York were on the Pacific coast.  And oh what a coast!  We walked down to the beach, where high cliffs look down onto rocky but vast beaches populated mostly (at this time of year, June is winter south of the equator!) by surfers.  We quickly realized we wanted to stay a day longer, just to have time to soak it all in and not just do a mad dash around doing errands.  So we relaxed our pace and just enjoyed exploring.  People were everywhere, we felt safe on every street (Miraflores is a fairly well to do neighborhood), and we just felt excited to be exploring a city in South America!  I´m not sure what it is, but every time one of us mentions the fact that we are in South America I get a charge of adrenaline.  It seems so exotic and exciting!

For lunch we have been going to these hole in the wall places, which all serve basically the same things.  You get a juice of the day, an appetizer, and a main course.  Ordering is a bit of a challenge, since we recognize only a small percentage of the menu.  Today David ordered what he hoped would be (and in fact was) calimari, as well as a pounded chicken with fries and a salad.  I had an amazing ceviche, which is fish that has been soaked in lime juice, which "cooks" the fish through a process of oxidation.  It is very tangy and acidic, and very delicious, served on a bed of red onions.  I didn´t know exactly what I was ordering, but I also ended up with a thin piece of steak with a fried egg on top.  Our juice, as best as we could tell, was blackberry juice infused with cloves.  It sounds weird, and actually was weird, but was also quite delicious.  For all that food, you pay 7 soles, which is just over $2.  Awesome!  There is nothing better than food that is both delicious and cheap, and we haven´t had the combination since we were in Mexico.  We´ve had a good look through the food section of our guidebook, and there are definitely some more things we want to try.  Did you know potatoes come from Peru?  They have over 5,000 varieties of potato, which is hard for me to comprehend, but I´m definitely hoping to try a few.  Actually, I did have a hunk of a sweet potato with my ceviche, which was bright orange with purple skin. 

This morning we went over to the archeological sight of Huaca Pucllana, which is in the city limits and was an easy walk for us.  We expected a little dumpy place, but it was actually quite impressive.  A huge temple structure, all made of adobe bricks.  The site isn´t Incan though, it was built by a matriarchal society called the Lima about 400AD.  The large temple and surrounding plaza is under heavy restoration, but even as the men with shovels and wheelbarows roll by you are allowed to walk around.  At one point we walked past a pair of plastic bags on the side of the trail, which our guide pointed out to us.  They were filled with pieces of pottery and dried up corn and other vegetables, all of which had been left as offerings and were now being uncovered by the workers.  It was all quite unexpected and fascinating.  The walls, which again are completely made of adobe (sand, water and crushed sea shells) have been so well constructed that they have withstood 1500 years of earthquakes.

A few other observations. 
- Where every other place we have been to has their share of stray dogs, in Lima it is cats.  They run around the parks by the dozen.  But they don´t seem feral, they seem friendly and we´ve seen several people feeding and petting them. 
- This evening we had a churro in the park, which had a caramel filling down the center.  Yum. 
- Down by the beach is a park called The Park of Love or something along those lines.  There is a gigantic statue of a couple laying down making out.  I´m always surprised by images like that in Latin America, which has such a reputation for being conservative, but we also saw a billboard ad with a woman with a breast hanging out.
- We keep running into the waiter who served us lunch our first day.  Not only around his restaurant, but also walking down streets across town.  He must think we are stalking him.

Tomorrow we bus to our next stop.  And it is a good one!