Lima

So... we´re here! We´ll spare the details of the slog down to Lima. Suffice it to say, we had three four-hour flights, Portland to Houston, Houston to Panama City, and Panama City to Lima. All flights were unremarkable, but the fourteen hour layover in Panama was where things began to drag. Thankfully everything from there on was a cakewalk. Customs was a breeze, we had a cab waiting for us with a prearranged fare, and the hostel we booked upgraded us to an eight person ensuite, which we got to ourselves.

Ah, beds... I remember those

Our view of the courtyard

The hostel converted their well (top left corner of picture above) into a barbeque which they fire up on Thursday nights, so we didn´t have to go far for dinner. Mike, one of the owners manned the grill, and cooked up some scallop and octpus skewers, fish, and chicken to be served with mashed sweet potatoes, salad, bread and boiled potatoes with a sauce. After being limited to airport and airplane food this was a welcome change. Throw in a Peruvian beer and we were in bed by nine, the first beds we´d slept in since Monday night.

Mike, uncharacteristically without a beer

Why, yes, that is Cristal we´re drinking

This morning we´d made plans to meet with a local named Rosario, a family member of a friend of Reid´s dad. For only knowing her through several degrees of separation she was a very generous and enthusiastic host. Already having recommended the hostel and arranged our cab from the airport, she also offered to take us around Lima for the day with her daughter Giselle.

Rosario and Giselle with dog Boni

Rosario and Giselle took us around their neighborhood, Miraflores, to a farmers market in the adjacent neighorhood of Surquillo, beachside malls and parks, and to what is the early favorite for meal of the trip. We´d asked to go to their favorite ceviche restaurant and it did not disappoint. To share we had plates of traditional ceviche pescado with sweet potato and Peruvian corn, causas: sweet potato puree and lemon with crab, tiradito: ceviche topped with chile and olive cream sauces also with corn and sweet potato and a house specialty: cilantro rice with squid, lobster and octopus, all washed down with chicha, a drink made from purple corn and apples.For all their time and help we were eager to pick up the tab which was a mere 105 soles (about $35). A meal of this size and quality would have easily gone for well over $100 in the U.S., so, yeah, we like Peru.

Ceviche Pescado

Arroz Punto Azul

Needing to walk that off, we took a walking tour of Central Lima. We saw the president´s house and the impressive Basilica Catedral de Lima, which houses Pizarros tomb. We returned to Miraflores and wrapped up in a quieter neighborhood, Barranco, where most artists and writers, including the 2010 Nobel Prize winner for literature, live. Still full from lunch we passed on dinner and moved on to ice cream, then thanked our guides and called it a night.

Basilica Catedral de Lima

A chuch across the street from the Peruvian equivilent of Wal-Mart

Library in Barranco

Most guide books suggest departing for Cuzco (to see Machu Picchu) before leaving the Lima airport. They say that there isn´t much to see, but we´re glad we stayed a few days. I suppose Lima is much like Los Angeles; sprawling, smoggy, croweded, and the traffic is awful. But 10 million people live here for some reason, and L.A. doesn´t have really cool, crumbling architecture topping its shoe shops and fast food restaurants.We´re glad we saw Lima, especially the way we did.  This feels like a city worth spending some time to get to know.  That said, we´ve got 30 days left and lots of ground to cover, so we are very excited to head for Cuzco tomorrow.