Lima

The capital of Peru! What else could we expect other than wide streets and city plazas lined with beautiful old colonial buildings - we were not disappointed. Our first night we had dinner at what would be an equivalent to the local pub and watched the football match with the locals cheering away from their tables...not to mention the non paying customers who had the noses and hands cupping their eyes cheering from the street outside.

The next day we took a brisk walk about the city centre and then headed down towards the coast to Miraflores. This coastal town reminded me of Gonubie (EL). Oldish style hotels perched on top of the cliffs and a just-wide-enough coastal road in front of the pebbly beach. (which was packed with surfers) The mist rolls in from the cool ocean current and gives the town a bit of an eery feel to it. After walking up and down the coastline in the blinding mist we decided to head back to central Lima and eat our way into oblivion. Lima prides itself in being the gastronomical capital of South America!

So the first thing on the menu was a stuffed potato which had been deep fried (peeled and stuffed with veggies) so a crispy salty outside and a soft mushy inside! Hmmm was delicious and seems to be all the rage for those on the run, typically street vendors sell these to customers rushing by! After starters we tried ravioli ( very popular here believe it or not) and ceviche. Now ceviche is raw fish 'cooked' by marinating in a lemony, vinegary sauce. So quite acidic and very spicy. It tastes very similar to sushi except no rice and the spicyness is not wasabi spicy - they add a tiny bit of chopped onion and chilly to the mix. It was really good! We ordered it for the next 2 nights in a row! The next thing was deep fried guinea pig! Yup! Our fluffy little friends are very popular over here for all the wrong reasons...unfortunately they were out of guinea pig so we left that for another day...just as well I looking a bit like fat Matt.

Bus tickets...sigh...Peru doesn't operate on a central bus terminal. Each company has their own terminal, so we bought tickets at a company which was situated on the metro line - 28 de Julio. (that's the street name). About 30 min before departure time we collect our back packs from storage and hop on the metro line and head towards stop 28 de Julio...after about the 4th stop Tim says, this seems a little far, did we really walk all this way when buying the tickets - yes yes! You always make us walk further than expected (42km in El Chalten!) anyway another 2 stops later I'm beginning to think...we definitely did not walk all this way! After have a semi largish group session with about half the people on the metro in broken English and Spanish we realize there are TWO 28 de Julio's in Lima. Both intersect the metro line!! How impractical is that! Who did this town planning?! Our 28 de Julio was about 5 stops back and the next one was coming up in 3 more stops. Uh oh.

So we jump off the metro running in the direction that our bus load of tour guides were screaming and pointing in and headed the opposite way back into central Lima. Got off at the right stop this time, 2 blocks away from the CORRECT 28 de Julio and about 4 min until departure. Bearing in mind that each of our back packs weigh 20kgs- just picture 2 white, taller than the avg population peeps speed waddling along the main highway! That was us. Anyway we made it with the bus operator spotting us from the main gate and herding us onto the Trujillo bus. Baaaa.