Path Less Travelled - South America. Series 2 Post 2 - Big surprise

Lima, Peru

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

I reached Lima on 11th night and the Indian friend I met on the flight dropped me to my hostel. I still was skeptical about the kind of people I will meet on the road and not sure of what was in store on this trip. I stayed at Pariwana in Miraflores and is a good place for backpackers. It took me 10 mins after I had checked in to meet two guys from Columbia and become friends. These guys had been travelling for 3 weeks and were headed to Cusco after Lima. I got a quick brief from them about the things to look out for in the city and we decided to relax on the spacious roof top of our hostel. 30 hrs in flight can really get you tired. Despite that we ended up visiting a casino at 2:00 am to learn the game of black jack.

Next day, I got up s bit late and met a german girl who was staying in my hostel. The four of us (the columbians and the german) went out for a walk in the city and saw the splendid sights of Lima. The area around the city centre is really beautiful and has a gigantic cathedral on one end and the president house on the other. Hoards of people throng the park in the middle just hanging around enjoying the scenery. We wanted to go up a closely hill to take a look at the city from a high point but the road was under maintenance. Instead we decided to walk around different districts of Lima to understand how the city worked.

We wandered around the districto central, San Isidro, Miraflores and Barranco. You can really see the difference in each district by the way people dress around there. Central was more of a family and tourist spot with a lot of unorganised commercial activity. San Isidro had people dressed in suits going and coming back from work with all big corporate offices being present there. Miraflores was the cool part of the town with tourists and hippies filling the streets. Barranco is a more local part of the town till you get to the beach when it turns into a local relaxing spot.

We ended the day near Larco Mar, a big shopping area near the beach and tried Ceviche for the first time. This is a typical Peruvian dish made with fish marinated in lime. A must try for all vegetarians. I actually just took a small piece from my friends plate, but still it was really nice. Returning to the hostel we just played ping pong on the lovely roof top with championship tournaments between countries. Some how no one lost and there was no clear winner at the end. A great day in Lima.?

Second day in Lima was quite laid back. Spent most of the time sitting at the beach and enjoying the day. Met a guy from Bangladesh who has been renting out chairs for many years at the beach and had an amazing story of his travel from Dhaka to Lima. There were many Peruvian families enjoying their time on a weekday afternoon. Not sure when do they work. Back at the hostel I met an American Peruvian guy who had come to visit his parents birthplace. He seemed to talk about Peru with a lot of passion. Got good tips on my future travels from him. Another interesting thing happened on my way back to the hostel. I saw the crazy dance of 'choke'. This means jerks in Spanish and two men dance in very provocative positions. It was just as weird as it sounds. Apparently it was quite normal for my columbian friends.

In these couple of days I learnt the ways of travelling from other backpackers. Some of them have been working at hostels for bed and food while the others were staying at homes of local people(couch surfing). Will definitely try it out on my next trip.

As I always believe that you get screwed for your own mistakes, I was spared this one time for mine. Before leaving for the beach I had put all my stuff in a small locker. When I returned I realised that my locker was empty and my passport, phone and all my money was missing. Shocked still, I remembered the words of my friend who helped me checkout "your locker is 4th from the left". I had locked the wrong locker and luckily my stuff was still there. Yaayyy. Close.

I checked out of the hostel and went to my friends home (the one I had met on my flight) and got an offer to buy a stolen iPod on the way. Ignoring that, I walked for 30 mins to reach a beautiful building with the view of Chirsto Blanco, the statue of Christ overlooking the city. My friend had some investors come over and still he welcomed me to join him for dinner and we had an interesting conversation. I learnt that there were over a million Chinese in Lima while only a hundred Indians. The artwork in Peru was so cheap that a painting worth Rs. 8000 here could be sold for a lakh back home. It was a night when I dined with some extremely wealthy people who had the vision of looking for opportunities where no one dared. Quite an experience.

I found the city to be a bit surprising was because everyone tells me how dangerous and ugly it is. My experience so far had been nothing but great.?

I took a flight from Lima to Cuzco in the early morning next day. Machu Pichu, I am coming.