Way back in the early days of the summer of 2010, many many years ago, Victoria agreed to drop everything she was doing to accompany Joseph and serve as his translator/caretaker on a jaunt through South America. After the two spent a total of about 12 straight days arranging to put their lives on hold (if you're reading this, then you're probably among the close friends and family who will be receiving some of their bills while they're away... please continue to pay them) and visiting multiple Targets up and down the eastern seaboard, they left the country on August 24th. How will it end? Will the pair ever return? What will they eat? Where will they sleep? Will they finally run out of things to say to each other?

For answers to these and more - in fact, ALL - of life's nagging questions, read below.

Wednesday



---------------------------------------------
Day 3 - Thur 8.26.10

AREQUIPA AREQUIPA AREQUIPA AREQUIPA

First up, Victoria suffered through a freezing shower. Then Joseph figured out how to workthe electric water heater on the showhead, and enjoyed a scalding rinse.

Second, the happy duo took the first combi (aka, minibus, aka, collectivo, aka flag-down-and-hop-on-whenever-mode-of-transport-which-is-how-everyone-in-this-country-gets-around) to central Lima. We spent most of the time calculating how many times a day the conductor yells the name of the route (at a rate of about 3 times per second)... hence Arequipa Arequipa etc.

Historic central Lima was abuzz with excitement for some manner of political rally (not pictured)...


... and we quickly ran away to the Catedral de Lima, to view the skullzzz interred therein:

A wonderful 3-course, $4 lunch (yep, $4) at Domus, where we were introduced to chica morada, which is some manner of traditional berry tea that's all over the place. Free refills too, which all of you southern iced tea-drinking readers out there would certainly appreciate. More chica morada, sir?




We then spent the afternoon in the incredible Museo Banco Central de Reserva del Peru, which has an amazing collection of Pre-Inca pottery and jewelry. The bank vault is now full of Inca decorative gold figurines - pictures don't do the Incas justice. But, then again, neither did the Spanish.



Fast forward to dinner... we survived ceviche. This post being written with the benefit of almost a week's hindsight, we can proudly say that we got no food poisoning from said uncooked fish. For the unenlightened, ceviche is fish/seafood that is ¨cooked¨ in a mixture of lime juice and red onions. Quite incredible stuff really. For this one, we followed the guidebook and found a clean-looking place.


----------------------------------------------
Day 2 - Wed 8.25.10
LA VACA JULIANA

A day of exploring all that Lima has to offer. Conclusion: Lima has some, but not that much, to offer. After downgrading to a cheaper hostel (in travelspeak, ¨upgrading¨), we set out to wander around Miraflores. Highlights included lunch at Rincon Chami, a 1950's era business lunch counter, where we consumed the first of the trip's many potatoes.






The afternoon was spent at the fascinating ruins of Huaca Pucllana, a zigguratesque mound right in the middle of Lima. It was a temple site for the Lima culture, which predated the Inca. Evidently the Inca stole most of everything from the cultures that came before, which, in the case of Huaca Pucllana, means an earthquake-proof ¨librerio¨ style of construction that looks like library books on a shelf. Ah yes -- Huaca Pucllana sounds remarkably like ¨Vaca Juliana¨ (Spanish for Juliana, the cow) when a low-talking Peruvian pedestrian is recommending it as your next tourist activity. We have yet to find the cow, but we´re still calling it that from now on.








The biggest thrill of the day, however, was passing up a jazz club to wander around an incredible 24-hr. supermarket in Lima. Thus began our desire to consume foliage and ruffage, a wish that must unfortunately be suppressed out of fear of it having been washed with contaminated water. Oh, edilble raw leaves, how we miss you.

And just for good measure, our first llama sighting of the trip. Or is that an alpaca? The world may never know. And that's Victoria on the left... or is that the right? The world may... nevermind.





The cliffs of Lima at sunset, with two paragliders. For the record, awesome photo courtesy of Victoria.
















------------------------------------

Day 1 - Tues 8.24.10
EXCUSE ME STEWARDESS, I BELIEVE I ORDERED MORE LEGROOM

So it turns out that when Spirit Air offers to charge you $25 for a seat up front, you should pay it. Flights from Washington Reagan to Ft. Lauderdale and then to Lima, Peru would likely be more comfortable if we could have actually fit in the seats. Damn you, low cost airline.

Arriving in Lima late that night, we were approached at the baggage claim by Israeli#1 of the trip, Adam-from-outside-Haifa, with whom we shared a taxi to the Miraflores neighborhood of Lima. Adam, if you're reading this, I hope you found a beaten path to vanish from, as you hoped.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)