Monday, March 1, 2010

Lima, Lima, Ven a Lima

We have been in Lima officially two days. Our hostel has a rock climbing wall so we definitely made use of that . So far we have taken the complete wrong way to the beach, walked 3 hours around the city looking for the mythical "marine layer". "Just follow the marine layer" I kept telling Noel and Natasha. Well, 3 hours and 5 directionals out of our way we finally decided to break down and take a 30 minute taxi to the real beach. It was worth it! Miraflores was beautiful, complete with cow statues and paraglider, definitely worth the wait... Walking towards the bus stop (paradero) I was practicing my Spanish repeating the Spanish word for honk (clapson). We were just goofing around not thinking anyone was listening when the caballero in front of me got out of our way with a big sonrisa (smile). BEEP BEEP! Ooops. "Lo siento senor!" Anyways, we got on the bus and who should greet us but none other than Sean Penn's Peruvian doppleganger!!!! We couldn't help but giggle as he hustled people on and off the bus. The last spectacle we came across was a a break dancing hula hooper spinning on his head in the middle of the road. He could spin in front of traffic for about 5 minutes straight without missing a beat. What a first day!

Today was chill. We got up, had a delicious breakfast for all of 8 soles (about $2.50) complete with fresh squeezed OJ, coffee, toast, fresh jam and scrambled eggs--what an oferta (deal)! We proceeded to take and hour long busride to the ruins Pachacamac only to find that they were alas, closed on Mondays! We were in the middle of nowhere so we decided to go to la playa. We stumbled upon this small town and decided to grab a cerveza before getting on the bus to Playa Hermosa. We walked along a little desert road looking at the little tiendas but finally settled on "the place with the music". I thought it said bar Reyes? We walk in and find we are actually crashing a Peruvian birthday party! Jessica is 25 today! Feliz cumpleanos Yessica! They were very much accomodating, jovial and a bit mystified by our gringo presence. The head of the household, Luis, proceeded to grab a couple cervezas from across the way at actual tienda as we proceeded to serenade Yessica with our American version of Happy Birthday! We hung out for a bit then we were on our way down to Playa Hermosa! A beautiful spot- lost my $1 sunglasses in the ocean...My bad! We had an amazing dinner as the sunset over the ocean of ceviche de pescado mixto. Que rico! After our venture home we relaxed with a bit of yoga and Pilates in our hostel's backyard.

Tomorrow we're catching a plane to Cusco...no Machu Picchu (it's closed till April 1st because of the mudslides) but we'll check out some other ruins at 11,000 ft. Tomorrow is a day of rest and acclimation to the altitude....More to come as our journey unfolds....And remember kids...

Don't forget to follow the llama!

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