Hola Everyone!
It is only 11:00PM right now, and I cannot believe I am already exhausted. I guess I should have seen it coming, since I woke up at around 5:00AM this morning. My day has run beyond its course by now. What annoys me is that I did not originally schedule my flights so that I would have to wake up early this morning. In fact, I deliberately scheduled my flight so that I could sleep in, given how crazy yesterday was. Meanwhile, LanPeru thought it would be a good idea to ruin my plans and reschedule my 10:00AM flight to 8:40AM, without telling me. Luckily, them messing up my plans transformed me into a seasoned traveler with them, so I double-checked all of my flight details yesterday. Thus, I did not miss my flight, but I am sure that would have happened had I not been more careful.
I slept for most of my flight. I arrived in Lima about an hour earlier than planned. Consequently, I had no ride from the airport to go to Antigua Miraflores, the hotel I stayed at a couple of nights ago and will be staying at this evening. Fortunately, the airport is teeming with taxi drivers who want to get your business. I am a bit weary of the taxi drivers since the city does not regulate them here. There is no telling what may happen when hiring random drivers, so I used a legitimate taxi service, the Green Cab service. I could tell they were a safe group because the airport established a permanent booth for their fleet right outside the baggage claim area. They also have fixed rates for whichever part of Lima I needed a ride to, another telltale sign of a company’s legitimacy.
I did not really like the layout of my hotel room this time around, since it had many inexplicable corners that made maneuvering around the room difficult. On the other hand, I was lucky enough to not get a room on the first floor this time so now I could freely prance around the room naked if I wanted to. However, prancing around in the nude is not something I do on a normal basis, so I suppose that was not a major problem the last time I was here in Lima anyway.
After I had settled into my room, I was STARVING. I was determined to try some ceviche for the first time for lunch. Julia and Alfonso, the couple I had met while in Machu Picchu, recommended Cevicheria La Mar. Coincidentally, Frommers also recommended Cevicheria La Mar as well. Since it is not far from Antiguas Miraflores, I had to check that place out to see what all the hype was. Since I was so unfamiliar with the neighborhood, I still requested a taxi to take me there.
Cevicheria La Mar was not what I had imagined it to be. I had imagined it to be a small, trendy, restaurant that everyone packed on a daily basis. The Cevicheria, however, was gigantic, and packed. It had a familiar outdoor feeling I got when eating in restaurants while vacationing in Cancun many years ago. As soon as I sat down, the servers immediately brought me some baked potato chips and AMAZING dips. My favorite one was the red dip, spicy as hell but unbelievably addicting. The restaurant also has a wide assortment of foods available for its patrons, but their selection of ceviche is surprisingly small. I have to admit, though, that I do not have a comparison point to assess the magnitude of the variety of ceviches they provide, but I at least suspected a “Build your own” ceviche option. Perhaps that cheapens things, or maybe I am still just too American for this joint. I went with the Mixto dish, one of the few dishes with shrimp in it. The rest of the dish consists of octopus and some kind of raw fish I could not recognize.
Since the neighborhood between the hotel and the cevicheria did not seem to be too bad, I decided to take a walk back. It felt nice to walk around and soak in the sights of the city, even if the part of Lima I was in did not capture its true essence. I just walked back gleefully, delighted that my meal was good, and greeted passer-bys who kept staring at me. I encountered a large grocery store on my way back that I thought I would check out. There was nothing too special about it; it looked like a Safeway but with fresher fruits. Otherwise, the prices of everything in the store seemed similar but they charged things in soles. I did not bother to buy anything since I am not able to cook anywhere anytime soon. I did not even get any snacks for the plane ride tomorrow since it would only be an hour long.
Back at my room, I did not do much. I took a nap for a couple of hours and relaxed before Sarah and Melissa (a volunteer who was going to meet Sarah at the airport) arrived. It looked like the people at the front-desk were not too happy about having the three of us share a room. However, we were only going to be here until 3:00AM before we have to check out so it did not seem like a big deal to me. I just told them they were visiting.
We made plans for the rest of the evening to check out the beach, and grab dinner somewhere. The beach is not too far from the hotel, and we got there just in time to catch the sunset. The water looked gross, so I did not even go close to it. Moreover, the “beach” was just a bunch of rocks and large grains of sand. We just watched the waves from the distance, took some pictures, and headed out.
We decided to grab a bite to eat at this one restaurant with food that seemed promising. We did not eat at a “recommended” restaurant since Sarah hates doing that. Unfortunately, the food did not turn out so well, but it was enough to get me by for the time being. I had ordered spaghetti, which I had been strangely craving all day long, but ended up getting just noodles and butter instead. Eh? I definitely remember asking for Jugo de Carne (meat sauce) when I ordered but that never happened. I should have known the service would not be so great here, since workers seldom expect tips from customers. Oh well…
The meal itself was interesting. We sat outside. As Sarah, Melissa, and I ate our food, people kept coming to us to ask for money. It felt awkward to have our dinner interrupted like this. Moreover, children made up most of the persons doing the begging. I had a hard time resisting them; I am definitely a push over when it comes to children asking me for things. I also felt terrible that parents made their children go out into the city all night to ask strangers for money, just so they could get money. It is difficult for me to know how I should feel about this situation. I think it is wrong for parents to put children at work at such a young age. Nevertheless, I think it is tragic for parents to have to degrade themselves to beg for money and put their children in similar situations just so their family could survive.
After dinner, we decided to check out this large outdoor market located in the plaza in front of where we ate. Tons of artisans from throughout Peru go there to sell their goods. I love being able to shop in flea-market-esque settings so I can haggle my way to getting great deals. Sadly, I usually feel guilty after bargaining. I did not realize this until today, when I paid a lady thirty soles ($10 US) for three paintings that took her about three hours to paint each. I even managed to convince her to throw in this awesome drawing, which took her an extra three hours to do, free. I should have realized that I was taking advantage of her when I noticed that she even had no money to afford scissors to cut the tape used for wrapping up goods people bought from her. I wanted to buy her a pair of scissors to thank her for her work but after going to several stores, I had no luck finding a pair. What made me feel extra guilty was that when Sarah bought some art from the same woman, she had inadvertently gave her a counterfeit five sole coin she got earlier in the day. Anyway, I will be sure to tone down on my haggling now because the stuff here in Peru really is cheap.
After walking around, there was not much else for us to do, and so now, here we are back at my room. Getting into my room was a challenge for Sarah, Melissa, and I. When we reached the front desk, the receptionist questioned us on what we were going to be doing this evening in a contemptuous manner. I wonder what might have been going through her mind when I told them we were all going up to my room. *wink* Anyway, I have to wake up early tomorrow so I will end this entry for now. Hasta luego!
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