lima 1st day

i've finally found myself in front of a computer! i'm sitting in the office of my b&b and they were kind enough to let me use their computer. i think everyone's gone to sleep so i'm not monopolizing.

so we flew in last night, after 8 hours. nick actually got sick and puked like four times! i think it was the turbulence and the fact he's still sick. i swear i even felt like puking myself a few times. anyways, they fed us lunch. i had a canneloni thing and nick had chicken and rice. it wasn't bad actually. we also got to watch movies on demand. they were mostly bad, and i'm ashamed to admit i watched p.s. i love you. i only watched it for gerard butler and he didn't even look good in it! he was hottest in dear frankie, pre weird tan and some sort of plastic surgery around the eyes. anyways, it was really really bad. i also watched juno, since it won an oscar and all. seriously, the dialogue/script kinda sucked. the story was kinda sweet but it's like they were trying way too hard to be all hip and slangy. lastly, i watched the bucket list. funny cuz i only watched that on nick's recommendation, and in the end it was my favorite of the three. right before we landed, we also got some ham and cheese sandwiches. it was right after this that nick blew chunks. he's also rather fond of describing the spewing in great detail.

anyways... so we landed right after midnight and went through customs with no problems. we got picked up at the airport by a guy named floyd who held a sign saying "ellie lio." they also seem to have this idea that my first name is actually "lio." anyways, after a 20-minute taxi ride, where i swear we went in circles, we arrived at our b&b tradiciones. angelo met us at the door and showed us our room. we actually got a huge dorm room with six beds all to ourselves. the beds were even comfy. only thing: lima is a loud-ass city! people communicate with their car horns here. it's like saying "here i come and get out of my way!" and of course our room like faces the street. so we didn't get much sleep. also, i totally fucked up my neck the morning of our flight. it had been kinda iffy for a few days, and while drying my hair that morning, it totally went stiff. just my luck. so moving while sitting or sleeping is rather difficult. i kinda drag my head around.

so this morning, we were awakened by a knock on the door from a guy bringing breakfast. it's basically continental breakfast: bread, butter, jam, orange juice, coffee, and tea. it was pretty good though. the shower also has hot water so i was pretty pumped. we finally dragged ourselves downstairs by 11 am. we were supposed to be picked up by an independent guide named deltom at 11:30. turns out he showed up early and was about to leave since the b&b owner only knew my name, while deltom only knew nick's name. fortunately we came down just in time to stop him.

so deltom drove us to el centro de lima in this super old dinky car. now the taxi ride late last night did not prepare us for the drive today. cars come inches from hitting each other. like at any moment, there are like five cars, all within one inch of your car from all sides. and everyone is cutting everyone off, while honking. i was shocked i didn't witness any accidents. i also saw a guy peeing on the side of an overpass on the side of a highway! apparently you can't be arrested for that here. you can also drink in public. craziness.

so anyways, after like an hour in traffic, we made it to the center of town and parked. we first went to the plaza mayor, which used to be called plaza de armas till as recently as 2000. it actually looked a lot like merida, mexico. they had similar architecture and a fondness for the same shade of orangey-yellow paint. we then headed to the monasterio de san francisco. normally churches/cathedrals really bore me, but this one had catacombs! it was pretty creepy. some archaeologists had decided to "organize" them so they are all neatly compartmentalized: all skulls in one box and all femurs in another, etc. anyways, that was kinda neat. also, there was one ceiling in the church they said was modeled after the spanish. seriously, it looked just like a ceiling from el real alcazar de sevilla, spain. and that was a moorish ceiling! it kinda cracks me up that the moorish design ended up in tons of catholic churches.

we then walked to the parque de la muralla, where they discovered an ancient wall in 2000. it had been a myth or something that lima used to have a wall around the city, and they even found paintings depicting a fortress, only they didn't know where the matching fortress was. pretty cool. there was also this huge statue of some spaniard on a horse. some people say it's pizarro, but it was a gift from mexico, so it could very well be a re-gift of hernan cortes. either way, it's some spaniard the natives hate.

from there, we took a tour bus to cerro san cristobal, a hill with a huge cross on top. from there you had a panoramic view of the city. the ride up and down was kinda scary since the road is two-way but super narrow. the solution? the bus driver would honk right before every corner. like i said, the honk basically means "here i come and get out of my way." nick also tells me that whoever is going downhill has the right-of-way. i don't know how he knows this. probably cuz he was speaking in spanish with deltom the whole time! i just stared out of the window like a retard. whatever. i'm used to it.

by now, it was 3 pm and we were starving. deltom took us to one of his family's favorite places: aires peruanos. we had two peruvian specialties: cebiche and lomo saltado. cebiche is fish basically cooked in lemon juices served with onions. and the lomo saltado was beef sauteed with onions, all on top of french fries with some fried bananas. we also had cancha, which were these huge roasted, salted corn kernels. we had inka kola too of course :) the place had live music too which was pretty neat.

we then got back in the car and drove through barranco, which is right by the ocean and very artsy and nice. we also stopped by chorrillos, then el salto del fraile (all by the sea) which is named after some heartbroken monk who jumped out in to the sea. they even had a guy running around dressed like a monk, who actually jumped in the sea. it looked pretty cold. after that we went back to barranco, parked, and walked around a bit. i got to use my second public restroom here. let's say i'm getting very good at squatting over toilets. my thighs are getting a workout on this trip.

lastly, we drove back to miraflores to try to find some hats for our hike. everyone has been telling me to buy my souvenirs and goods in lima since cuzco is so expensive. so i was determined to buy our beanies and sun hats here. well, apparently everything in lima is also targeted towards tourists. i wanted the super colorful beanies and cheap straw hats the highlanders wear, but instead i found modern-looking beanies and leather cowboy hats. this put me in a very bad mood. i think i scared deltom. after this we went straight back to our hotel.

so finally we got to chit chat a bit with our host angelo. we were also joined by a fellow american guest. i forget his name, but i know he lived in shanghai for a while and seemed to have serious disdain for the fact we were from LA. he kept repeating, "so you're from LA huh?" whatever. i embrace my superficiality!

angelo turned out to be super cool, and we also met his son beto. we ended up going to a mexican restaurant with beto. turns out his best friend from like childhood owned the place, and he kept us company too. we had sincronizadas which i've been horrified of since mexico city. in mexico city, they were like quesadillas with butter, mayo, cheese, and meat (i had ham and nick had carnitas). HEAVY!!!! here, they don't have the butter or mayo, but did have guacamole, and were rolled up. they weren't bad but definitely not like any mexican i'd had before. apparently the owner's father was mexican.

well i think that's it. we gotta get up at 6:30 am tomorrow for our flight to cuzco. i am very glad to have finally hung out a bit with our hosts though. and i'm looking forward to coming back. we'll spend our last two days in peru in lima next friday and saturday.

alright, off to bed now!