Lima: the almost last leg of our trip

Named after a city in Ohio, Lima was our last stop on our Peru adventure. After not seeing a cloud for almost 2 weeks, it was quite an adjustment when we got to the hazy coastal city of Lima. After having a short period of SAD (seasonal affective disorder), we had a fun time exploring the capital. We stayed in a B&B that was on the twelfth floor of a building that's on the cliffside and overlooks the park that stretches along the cliff side and in the Miraflores district. Miraflores is a very beautiful, clean, and safe area.

view of the park along the cliff side

After settling in, we headed to Larco Mar, a mall that is built into the cliff side. We had been told by the B&B owners that it had lots of great restaurants, but when we got there we were met with TGI Fridays, Tony Roma's, Burger King, and Starbucks. It also had many stores that we have here in the US. After that, we walked up the main street to Kennedy Park, which was filled with dozens of stray cats. We also scouted out the Inkan Market nearby for souvenirs that we want to bring home.

This cat reminded us of Bandit!

For dinner, we ate a nice restaurant called Panchita, which is famous for the grilled kebabs. I ordered conservatively and just got a chicken and veggie one. At the front of the dish, you can see the giant corn kernels they serve all over Peru. They are so much meatier than the corn we have here.

The following day, we headed to the historical center of town, which was a 30 minute taxi ride from our B&B. We wandered around Plaza Mayor and then watched the changing of the guard at the palace there. It was the most absurdly long changing of the guard I've ever seen, though very fun to watch. It is an almost hour long spectacle that includes high kick marching, lots of music performed by a 40 person marching band, and even some singing. 

Plaza Mayor

how about those kicks!

After lunch, we went on a tour of the San Francisco Monastery and Catacombs. They weren't nearly as impressive as the Paris catacombs, but interesting none the less.

Birds outside San Francisco Monastery

 After this we walked to the Plaza San Martin where we enjoyed a Pisco Sour from Hotel El Belivar, a famous hotel where Hemingway supposedly drank record numbers of Pisco Sours. Pisco is a strong brandy made from distilled grapes. A pisco sour is a foamy drink made from pisco, sugar, lime juice, egg white, and finished off with aromatic bitters. To us, it tasted like a strong but refreshing margarita.

Barrett enjoying his Catedral pisco sour

We then took a cab to the Barranco district, which is artsy and has very nice houses. We stopped for churros con chocolate at LA 73 and that is where I checked my email and saw that I had been recommended for a 6th grade mostly science teaching position at Jones Middle School! We definitely cheers with our churros!! The rest of the day basically felt like a cloud of happiness.

Cheers!

 We walked back to Miraflores along the park on the coast/ cliff.

That night we had dinner at Costazul, where the owner gave us something called octopus mushi, which is thing slices of octopus, that they reccomend you eat atop of a cracker with avocado and tomato. For our entrees we got a shrimp dish and a sea bass tacu tacu which rice cooked with pinto beans and tastes amazing. The owner gave us free anise shots for dessert. An all around great evening!

View of the coast at night from our B&B room

The next day we headed to the Incan markets to stock up on souvenirs which involved lots of haggling. We then had lunch at a Punto Azul, which is famous for its ceviche. Ceviche is raw fish that is cured in lemon juice and chili peppers. Our was served with corn and shaved red onions. It tasted really good once you got past the fact that it was raw fish. I had a delicious fish tacu tacu. Oh, and the frozen lemonade was out of this world.

Tacu Tacu

Ceviche

We then headed back to the B&B to shower one last time, and attempt to fit all our many souvenirs or scarves, blankets, and tablecloths into our suitcases. It was a struggle but our bags managed to fit everything!

We then walked down to the beach to collect some rocks because our bags weren't heavy enough already. Here's me picking up one for my dad (what a great father's day present, right?)!

After that, we got some more churros con chocolate at Manolos, another favorite dessert place. They are delicious.

We then headed to the airport for out 11:10 pm flight to Miami, then another flight to LA, where we enjoyed my cousin Amber's beautiful wedding!! 

Random closing thoughts: Peru has opened my eyes to yet another way of life that is so different from ours. There aren't (as far as I could tell) daycares. That's not to say that women stay home and raise kids, but they work and bring their children with them, often times on their back! Flushing toilet paper down the toilet is a luxury we only experienced at two nice hotels we stayed at. Although many people are what we would consider to be poor, they are happy and kind. People in Peru seem to sell anything anywhere. Popcorn at 10 pm in an ally? Coca leaves by the bag full, a cow head and donkey snouts on the side of a busy street? Why not! The food is so different, and while I didn't enjoy everything I tried, I enjoyed the fact that it wasn't so processed and modified to look pretty like our fruits and veggies are. It was fun to be more off the grid than most places we've visited. Communicating with natives almost everywhere was a challenge because sometimes they spoke no English. Barrett and I got very good at charades and enjoyed being the only people each other could talk to and fully understand. We are very blessed to have had this enriching experience, and have made so many memories that we will enjoy looking back on. Peru is fun. Peru is fantastic.