LIMA

We arrived in Lima, Peru’s capitol, on October 13 after a long 13 hour layover and a 6-hour flight from Fort Lauderdale, FL . We took a taxi from the airport to our hostel in Miraflores. It was a crazy ride. The driver was weaving, swerving, and talking in Spanish about the hookers. He was blasting salsa as we sped through the slums towards the Pacific coast. It was the perfect background music. The whole experience was a little overwhelming but Mike and I still found each other with goofy smiles on our faces. That first cab ride was quite the opening number.

The hostel we stayed at in Lima is called Pariwana. It was a great place. The staff was awesome. Mike and I befriended the bartender right away. Her name was Dominique. She was from Lima. We also met a couple from Sweden that night, Simon and Tove. The four of us got off really well and we ended up playing pool until we were the last ones in the bar.

We stayed in  Lima for 4 days. During those days we had Dominique as our personal, free, tour guide. It was great. She took us downtown on the bus to an old monastery with thousands of skulls and bones laid out in plain sight in large tombs under the church floor. It was a bit smelly. She also took us to Barranco, a really cool, costal, bohemian district in Lima.  A lot of old Spanish style mansions had been turned into artist studios, and places for them to sell their work. There was a hostel there I would like to stay at the next time I pass through Lima.

Looking back, our stay in Lima was very short lived. I think we were still in shock the entire time we were there. We were finally in Peru! We spent a lot of time in the hostel talking to other travelers. The best way to research how you are going to go about something, or what you are going to do on a trip, is to talk to people. Hostels are a great place to do that. We exchanged a lot of contact info and ideas with people at the hostel in Lima. We got loads of information that will come to help us throughout the trip, so if you’re heading out on one of your own make sure you have a pocket book and pens.