Lima, Peru
Friday, March 11, 2016
Well 9 hours on a very comfy bus with flat bed seats and meals provided (for £16 each) across desert and mountain scenery, and we were in Lima.
A pre arranged taxi from the Otra Cosa office (thanks Bibi) with the lovely Raoul took us across the city to our hostel in Barranco, a very hip and trendy part of the city with cafes and bars and bohemian restaurants..
It was a late at night and we were quite tired, despite making use of the flat bed seats on the bus for the odd snooze. Bryan had a very early start the next day as he was meeting up with Barbara, a Peruvian lady he met on the beach in LA. She and a group of her friends were going south of Lima for the day where her parents lived in a condo development and they were all going to do some swimming.
coffee in the square
This left Jody with the day to herself to relax and just read a book or whatever she wanted to do. Or so she thought.
We hadn't extended our room booking for the whole five days we were to be in Lima (we need to know we can sleep and that the beds are comfy first). So straight after her late breakfast it was sit down on the internet and find somewhere else.
Lima is a very expensive city for hostels. The average price is £28 - £35 a night. And that doesn't even guarantee hot water or a clean room!
So Air BnB came up trumps again. £25 with an old lady in her house in a quiet residential street. Jody had to pack Bryan's case as well as her own as Bryan wouldn't be back until late. A nice cup of coffee in the square for lunch and by 3pm she was in a taxi and using her best Spanish to try and chat with the old lady whose name was Ana (she was lovely).
Then, remembering Bryan had no idea where she was and that he would otherwise go to the hostel, she thought she had better send him a text. Whoops!
Luckily she still had some credit left on her Peruvian phone sim. He got the message and arrived 'home' around 6pm so we could both go out and eat.
After two days though,we decided this wasn't really the area we wanted to be in so found another Air BnB with a young couple Mila and Diego in the spare room of their beautiful apartment in Barranco.
our street #3
Now they were a bit strange to tell you the truth. Despite them knowing we were on our way, Diego was watching tv when we arrived and was all jumpy, he acted like he had been caught playing hooky. And Mila, well we didn't even realise she was home as we didn't see her. Then an hour later she walked through the living room and just said 'hi' as she passed through and went out the front door. No conversation or anything. We had got a better reception from the security guard in the door!
We wondered if they had had a row but then we came to realise she was just like that. Diego got a bit friendlier and turned out to be ok.
There really isn't much to do in Lima as it's mainly a jumping off point for most tourists who then go on to the more touristy things in Peru. But they have a couple of nice spots.
Miraflores styles itself as being a bit swanky but actually is just full of expensive hotels, large swanky apartment blocks, chain restaurants selling junk commercial food and 'wannabe trendy' people (we think this is where Mila & Diego would fit in much better). They do have a nice clean stretch of cliff top though.
sunset at the end of our street
Now Barranco where we were staying is definitely the nice place to be. There are lots of beautiful old buildings and wonderful architecture here. It still caters to the tourist a bit but many more independant restaurants, bars and cafes and has much the feel of Camden, London about it. But again with a lovely stretch of cliff top to walk along and catch the sunset over the pacific.
When we were here they had a 'Gastronomie' fayre with lots of delicious street food but half the price of the restaurants. We also got to try the alcoholic version of chicha which we won't be trying again!
Fermented corn isn't our thing for sure. We shall stick to the chicha morada made from the black corn which we love.
The other attraction we really liked was the fountain display they hold every night in Parque de la Reserva. Probably not the most impressive in the world but really lovely anyway. They also had lots of other fountains which were more interactive shall we say. We especially liked the water tunnel which we walked through and - you are expecting us to say we didn't get wet here but we did!
in the water tunnel
But undoubtedly the best thing we did in Lima, was pop along to the Peru-Hop website and book our bus with them all the way through to Cusco.
We came across this company which was set up by two irish chaps 2 years ago, when we were in the hostel the first night. We absentmindedly picked up one of their leaflets but as we started to look into it more, we thought what a great idea.
Faced with having to buy lots of bus tickets for every leg of our trip, get taxis to and from bus terminals, just go A to B each time, organising our own trips and activities in each town - or buying one bus ticket, valid for one year, that takes us to every town we wanted to go to, we could get off and back on the bus at whatever town we wanted, having a tour guide accompany you the whole way, have little mini stops and activities on the way that you wouldn't get with a regular bus company (eg the pisco factory), discounts on any trips or activities you booked through them, better accommodation than we could normally afford but at our normal price if we booked it with them - it was a no brainer - we were sold!
$149 each bought us our bus tickets and we were looking forward to having a fabulous time. It felt like we had booked a package holiday not just a bus ticket!
So, how did it work out for us?
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