The Best of Both Worlds

Lima is a big city, with some ugly parts, but right now it is sunny and pleasant, and with all the people out in the streets dancing and listening to music with the cool ocean breeze passing through, I quite like it.  When I arrived on Friday night, the road out from the airport was pretty bleak and dilapidated.  We drove a bit through some nasty looking parts of town, gray concrete everywhere and sketchy looking people standing on the street corners, then all of a sudden we turned a corner, and the Pacific Ocean was right in front of us.  It doesn’t matter how ugly a city might be, when you can cruise down the edge of a cliff along the ocean at night, its nice.  And Lima has this kind of southern California, sun and sand kind of feel about it. 

Yesterday I woke up and took a local bus downtown from my hotel near the ocean in Miraflores.  Walked around downtown a bit, saw a few cathedrals and ended up talking to a women from the city of Trujillo who I met in the main square.  She was sweet, and seemed very keen on chatting with a young traveler.  In general I have met some really cool people here, especially the taxi drivers. 

The downtown was very different from Mexico.  For some reason I assumed that they would be similar, both places having been conquered by the Spanish and everything.  It is much more open here, not nearly as crammed with buildings as the centro historico in Mexico City is.  The buildings look somewhat like in Veracruz, all pastel yellows and blues.  Surely this is the affect of having the ocean near by.  Lima is a big city, over 8 million people, but it doesn’t feel as large or frantic as Mexico does. 

In the evening I was able to meet up with Jack for some beers at a touristy pizza restaurant off the parque Kennedy in Miraflores.  I haven’t seen him in five years, so to meet him in Peru was very cool.  He has been traveling around for six months or so, and it was good to get some tips off of him for moving about in Peru.  He really loves it here, and definitely has caught the bug for travel.  Listening to him, he reminded me of how I used to be when I first went to Spain and Japan.  I am not quite as giddy about being abroad anymore as he seems to be, but I understand where he is coming from.  Anyway, we ended up finishing off four pitchers of local beer, then met a few other people he had been traveling with for some more drinks at another bar near his hostel.  This place was attached to their hostel, and was thoroughly a travelers hang out.  Those places can be fun, but you know all the staff look at you as just another gringo.  But Jacks buddy Mike from Denmark was a chill guy, and we formed a good group.  Finally Jack couldn’t take it anymore, and left to go home and crash at midnight.  I followed him out the door and walked home to my place, about a 30 minute stroll. 

That takes care of my first day in Peru.  Tomorrow its off to Nazca where I should have time in the evening to jot down some notes, and finish off posting on my stay in  Lima.