We woke up late, just in time to check out and put our bags in storage. We ate breakfast at the hostel and then walked up Arequipa St and then down a residential street to an archeological site called Huaca Pucllana.
It´s the site of a massive temple. It had been built near the ocean, one of the people´s greatest gods, but the coast had moved over time so now the site is farther inland. The section that we saw is only a tiny portion of an enormous area full of temples (complete with bones of sacrifices) on which the city of Lima was built. The portion that had been somewhat excavated and restored was a hill only thirty or so years ago and had to be bought from a rich family that owned much of the land in the area in order for archeological exploration.
Our guide, Alejandro, was very good and spoke English very well (especially considering he claimed to have learned it through giving tours). The whole site was fascinating and it was great to see it, as it was our first archeological site of our trip.
We wandered back to Parque Kennedy after grabbing some coffee, hanging out until it was late enough for lunch (usually 12:30-1:30pm, as we´ve realized). Alejandro had suggested a good, cheap cevicheria, where we learned about set menus--of increasing price (but only about S/6 to S/ 9)--with different options for sopa, segundos, y postre. The ceviche was wonderful, and the rest of the meal was so good.
From there we walked to another area of Miraflores and sat in a park watching the numerous sanitation workers do upkeep. They all wear masks or fabric to cover their nose and mouth while working. All over Peru.
Running out of places to go, we decided to search for an ice cream place we had passed previously. I swear, it disappeared and we could not find it no matter how many times we wandered through the same area. So we grabbed snacks from the grocery store (pan) and walked back through the park. We noticed some guys pointing and taking pictures of us, so we returned to the hostel to wait for the bus.
We played go fish, finished our bag of goldfish (from airport snacks), and talked to the strange american with the bracelets. We mentioned that we´d had ceviche. He countered with a story about how he´d gone somewhere with four different sizes of ceviche, so he got the second to largest. Very interesting guy.
There was a miscommunication in terms of timing and, thinking we were late, we hurried to grab a taxi to get to the Cruz del Sur office downtown. The driver was chatty, but his accent was difficult to understand. He also asked us if we were married. Odd. It only took about 20 minutes to get there even though it was 4pm, and we were just in time to hang out a bit longer waiting for the bus. There was a show playing in the waiting room with adults in the roles of children. Very odd.
Showing posts with label Lima. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lima. Show all posts
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Day 3: Catacombs and Crack
That night was worse than the one before, as we had become gradually more well-rested and thus more sensitive to the very loud street noise outside. Oh big cities.
We woke up fairly late, around 9am, and asked the hostel guy for help booking our bus tickets to Arequipa for the following day. Turns out he was working on his birthday. When we left the hostel, I told him "Feliz Navidad". Clearly, I need to work on my Spanish.
At a small café for breakfast, I had the misfortune of getting that Zombie "in your head" song stuck in my head. For a long long time. And now it´s stuck in yours. We hopped a minibus al centro and from there walked to the Church and Convent of San Francisco to see the catacombs.
We went on the English tour, which was a poor idea, as the tour guide was simply reciting memorized phrases (such as "watch your step" to mean "proceed into this room"). On the tour with us were a few high school football players and their coach/Spanish teacher, who said they had raised money to build a house for a family near Lima. The guys were kind of douchebags, making fun of the guide and generally being stupid boys.
Carrie was appalled by poor condition of the artwork and lack of restoration, and I asked the guide (in Spanish) about the lack of air conditioning to preserve the artifacts and paintings. He said it´s too expensive and there´s no funding for it. It´s very very sad, as every single museum/cathedral for the rest of the day was the same.
We got to go into the catacombs, which were totally awesome. Don´t think we were allowed to take pictures. I especially liked the bones arranged in designs and in very deep piles.
Next, we took a taxi to el Museo Arqueologico in Pueblo Libre, a little far away from downtown. The old driver took us through el barrio and it took at least 20 minutes to get there. There we saw tons of things, ancient artifacts, etc. However, we were far too hungry to be too interested, so we walked quickly through the rest of it and took a more expensive taxi back to the Plaza de Armas. Carrie said it was due to supply and demand. I was just kind of annoyed about it.
So we found a tiny restaurant that served three course meals for S/ 5.50 and just blind ordered. The food was fantastic, but we ran out of time to eat it (along with the two different juices we ordered--Carrie got papaya, I got luchino, which is strawberry banana, I think). We ran to catch a tour bus that we had decided to take so we would feel more comfortable being shameless tourists. However, the time on the pamphlet we had was 10 minutes too late and we missed it.
So we got tickets for the next bus, 75 minutes later, and sat down in la Plaza to wait. Carrie used her Czech-- "I´m sorry, I can´t understand. Ice cream."--to get rid of three guys who tried to talk to us.
At 6:15, we got in line for the tour bus and were told that our ticket was for the 7:30 tour. The woman at the desk had written down the wrong time. We went to bitch at her in broken Spanish and in English, but she said it was full. Bullshit, I think, as the last one hadn´t been full either. Thankfully we got a refund (all S/ 16) and it was still light enough to take a minibus back to Miraflores.
The minibus was an experience, as it took at least an hour through bad traffic to reach Miraflores. At least four different people got on to beg or play music for money. Interesting system. Ambulances had difficulty making it through the traffic.
We got off the bus and went to get a pork sandwich at a stand in the park. Carrie fed an adorable cat that was watching us, so it kept trying to get the sandwich. Was annoying. But adorable. Ran to the other sandwich place for guanabana juice (it´s totally laced with crack) and walked back to the hostel.
As we were checking email, an American started talking to me and then to Carrie (switching off computer). He was from some American state (the people we meet blur together after a while) and told me he´d been in Lima for 7 weeks doing consulting work. Carrie, having missed some of the conversation, asked the same questions and received strange responses. When she asked him how long he´d been in Peru he answered, "I mean, look" gesturing to the many string bracelets on his wrists. This became a running joke.
Once we were safely upstairs, we concurred that he was kind of attractive but too weird. Very very weird.
Total catcalls: 40
Budget for two people: 3 meals, 2 buses, 2 taxis, 2 museums = $33
Peru is awsome.
We woke up fairly late, around 9am, and asked the hostel guy for help booking our bus tickets to Arequipa for the following day. Turns out he was working on his birthday. When we left the hostel, I told him "Feliz Navidad". Clearly, I need to work on my Spanish.
At a small café for breakfast, I had the misfortune of getting that Zombie "in your head" song stuck in my head. For a long long time. And now it´s stuck in yours. We hopped a minibus al centro and from there walked to the Church and Convent of San Francisco to see the catacombs.
We went on the English tour, which was a poor idea, as the tour guide was simply reciting memorized phrases (such as "watch your step" to mean "proceed into this room"). On the tour with us were a few high school football players and their coach/Spanish teacher, who said they had raised money to build a house for a family near Lima. The guys were kind of douchebags, making fun of the guide and generally being stupid boys.
Carrie was appalled by poor condition of the artwork and lack of restoration, and I asked the guide (in Spanish) about the lack of air conditioning to preserve the artifacts and paintings. He said it´s too expensive and there´s no funding for it. It´s very very sad, as every single museum/cathedral for the rest of the day was the same.
We got to go into the catacombs, which were totally awesome. Don´t think we were allowed to take pictures. I especially liked the bones arranged in designs and in very deep piles.
Next, we took a taxi to el Museo Arqueologico in Pueblo Libre, a little far away from downtown. The old driver took us through el barrio and it took at least 20 minutes to get there. There we saw tons of things, ancient artifacts, etc. However, we were far too hungry to be too interested, so we walked quickly through the rest of it and took a more expensive taxi back to the Plaza de Armas. Carrie said it was due to supply and demand. I was just kind of annoyed about it.
So we found a tiny restaurant that served three course meals for S/ 5.50 and just blind ordered. The food was fantastic, but we ran out of time to eat it (along with the two different juices we ordered--Carrie got papaya, I got luchino, which is strawberry banana, I think). We ran to catch a tour bus that we had decided to take so we would feel more comfortable being shameless tourists. However, the time on the pamphlet we had was 10 minutes too late and we missed it.
So we got tickets for the next bus, 75 minutes later, and sat down in la Plaza to wait. Carrie used her Czech-- "I´m sorry, I can´t understand. Ice cream."--to get rid of three guys who tried to talk to us.
At 6:15, we got in line for the tour bus and were told that our ticket was for the 7:30 tour. The woman at the desk had written down the wrong time. We went to bitch at her in broken Spanish and in English, but she said it was full. Bullshit, I think, as the last one hadn´t been full either. Thankfully we got a refund (all S/ 16) and it was still light enough to take a minibus back to Miraflores.
The minibus was an experience, as it took at least an hour through bad traffic to reach Miraflores. At least four different people got on to beg or play music for money. Interesting system. Ambulances had difficulty making it through the traffic.
We got off the bus and went to get a pork sandwich at a stand in the park. Carrie fed an adorable cat that was watching us, so it kept trying to get the sandwich. Was annoying. But adorable. Ran to the other sandwich place for guanabana juice (it´s totally laced with crack) and walked back to the hostel.
As we were checking email, an American started talking to me and then to Carrie (switching off computer). He was from some American state (the people we meet blur together after a while) and told me he´d been in Lima for 7 weeks doing consulting work. Carrie, having missed some of the conversation, asked the same questions and received strange responses. When she asked him how long he´d been in Peru he answered, "I mean, look" gesturing to the many string bracelets on his wrists. This became a running joke.
Once we were safely upstairs, we concurred that he was kind of attractive but too weird. Very very weird.
Total catcalls: 40
Budget for two people: 3 meals, 2 buses, 2 taxis, 2 museums = $33
Peru is awsome.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Day 1: PDA and Mayonnaise
We settled for an expensive taxi to the hostel (S/ 55), and showered. It was glorious. The hostel guys spoke some english, which was useful.
After discovering that our feet stunk to high heaven, we left the hostel to explore Miraflores (a suburb in the south of Lima). We walked to a café for coffee and soda, then headed to a park by the beach called Parque del Amor. PDA central.
The breeze was nice and we ended up talking to guy from la selva (the jungle in the north of Peru) named Amaru. He didn´t emit any creepy vibes, and seemed like a very decent guy. He spoke some English, and with my little bit of Spanish, we were able to communicate rather well. We walked with him for a while, got some restaurant recommendations, and agreed to meet up the following day to see Barranco (a suburb to the southeast of Miraflores). He walked us to an exhibition of nativity scenes made by artisans from around the country. The theme was Andean Nativity Scene, and while a lot of them looked quite alike, some of them were outstanding. No pictures allowed, which was lame, but it was wonderful to see them all--we would not have found the place on our own.
It was getting dark, so we parted ways. We promptly forgot his dinner recommendations after discovering that one of them was more bar than restaurant, and walked down a tourist trap (presumbly) known as pizza st. (The guy at the hostel had suggested sushi--really?) We stopped at one with waitresses who promised us a free drink. We sat down, and were not given free drinks. The meal deteriorated from there.
First of all, we blind ordered two things off the "Peruvian Food" menú that sounded good--yellow mashed potatoes with chicken, and avocado with vegetables. The waitress appeared to have lost her wits somewhere earlier in life and was confused about how many entrees we were ordering. However, she soon figured out that we wanted one of each.
When she brought out the glass bottle of water with metal cap, she took a wine opener and attempted to open the bottle. Being unsuccessful (lack of sufficient pressure, I believe), she retreated to the kitchen to get help. She returned with the open bottle and pour water for each of us. It is unknown whether she noticed our giggles.
A few minutes later, she made a big deal of putting down our napkins and silverware horizontally and very carefully. The whole process took a full minute.
By this point, Carrie quipped, "Well, at least the food can´t be that bad."
The waitress brought out two plates of food on a serving tray, and seemed to be untrained in lifting one off without almost dropping the other. At this point, I must say that we completely regret not photographing our food before eating, because each plate was truly a work of art.
Mayonnaise art. Each plate was decorated with curly-qs of mayonnaise, with paprika sprinkled on top. The mashed potatoes entreé was in the shape of a small round cake, vertical sides and everything. The top was also decorated with lattice decorations of mayonnaise, and there were four sliced black olives atop it. I barely noticed the two half hard-boiled eggs on each side of the cake potatoes.
However, the other was even more epic. They had taken an avocado, sliced it in half, and filled it with chicken salad. Atop the avocado itself was a giant glob of mayonnaise, about the size of the entire avocado itself.
After giving each other the look of impending doom, we dug into the entreés, unsure what we would find. It turned out to be mayonnaise-y chicken salad. I think. Now, Carrie´s not a huge fan of mayonnaise, and I have to admit, I can only eat it in relatively small quantities. Ergo, the entire meal was digusting.
The food had been expensive, but not knowing enough Spanish to complain, we decided to chalk up the meal as "an experience", pay, and leave. We paid S/ 29 for the entire mess and ran.
Right into a really short guy trying to cross the street who started talking to us (in English) as we walked into the park. It was his New Years (still drunk, perhaps?) and he offered to buy us drinks. But "no sex". Though we were "fucking attractive". "Me, I am 31." He looked 51. We shook him off, as you would a tiny yapping dog.
I steered us back to a tiny hole in the wall restaurant, where I got a cheese sandwich and Carrie got a fruit salad (I had to pick out the bananas for her). It was much much better and we laughed about the mayonnaise, which became something of a running joke until we encountered another fantastic inside joke the following day.
After discovering that our feet stunk to high heaven, we left the hostel to explore Miraflores (a suburb in the south of Lima). We walked to a café for coffee and soda, then headed to a park by the beach called Parque del Amor. PDA central.
The breeze was nice and we ended up talking to guy from la selva (the jungle in the north of Peru) named Amaru. He didn´t emit any creepy vibes, and seemed like a very decent guy. He spoke some English, and with my little bit of Spanish, we were able to communicate rather well. We walked with him for a while, got some restaurant recommendations, and agreed to meet up the following day to see Barranco (a suburb to the southeast of Miraflores). He walked us to an exhibition of nativity scenes made by artisans from around the country. The theme was Andean Nativity Scene, and while a lot of them looked quite alike, some of them were outstanding. No pictures allowed, which was lame, but it was wonderful to see them all--we would not have found the place on our own.
It was getting dark, so we parted ways. We promptly forgot his dinner recommendations after discovering that one of them was more bar than restaurant, and walked down a tourist trap (presumbly) known as pizza st. (The guy at the hostel had suggested sushi--really?) We stopped at one with waitresses who promised us a free drink. We sat down, and were not given free drinks. The meal deteriorated from there.
First of all, we blind ordered two things off the "Peruvian Food" menú that sounded good--yellow mashed potatoes with chicken, and avocado with vegetables. The waitress appeared to have lost her wits somewhere earlier in life and was confused about how many entrees we were ordering. However, she soon figured out that we wanted one of each.
When she brought out the glass bottle of water with metal cap, she took a wine opener and attempted to open the bottle. Being unsuccessful (lack of sufficient pressure, I believe), she retreated to the kitchen to get help. She returned with the open bottle and pour water for each of us. It is unknown whether she noticed our giggles.
A few minutes later, she made a big deal of putting down our napkins and silverware horizontally and very carefully. The whole process took a full minute.
By this point, Carrie quipped, "Well, at least the food can´t be that bad."
The waitress brought out two plates of food on a serving tray, and seemed to be untrained in lifting one off without almost dropping the other. At this point, I must say that we completely regret not photographing our food before eating, because each plate was truly a work of art.
Mayonnaise art. Each plate was decorated with curly-qs of mayonnaise, with paprika sprinkled on top. The mashed potatoes entreé was in the shape of a small round cake, vertical sides and everything. The top was also decorated with lattice decorations of mayonnaise, and there were four sliced black olives atop it. I barely noticed the two half hard-boiled eggs on each side of the cake potatoes.
However, the other was even more epic. They had taken an avocado, sliced it in half, and filled it with chicken salad. Atop the avocado itself was a giant glob of mayonnaise, about the size of the entire avocado itself.
After giving each other the look of impending doom, we dug into the entreés, unsure what we would find. It turned out to be mayonnaise-y chicken salad. I think. Now, Carrie´s not a huge fan of mayonnaise, and I have to admit, I can only eat it in relatively small quantities. Ergo, the entire meal was digusting.
The food had been expensive, but not knowing enough Spanish to complain, we decided to chalk up the meal as "an experience", pay, and leave. We paid S/ 29 for the entire mess and ran.
Right into a really short guy trying to cross the street who started talking to us (in English) as we walked into the park. It was his New Years (still drunk, perhaps?) and he offered to buy us drinks. But "no sex". Though we were "fucking attractive". "Me, I am 31." He looked 51. We shook him off, as you would a tiny yapping dog.
I steered us back to a tiny hole in the wall restaurant, where I got a cheese sandwich and Carrie got a fruit salad (I had to pick out the bananas for her). It was much much better and we laughed about the mayonnaise, which became something of a running joke until we encountered another fantastic inside joke the following day.
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