Lima Day 2

Today was all about trying to hit the sites we missed yesterday. We were weighing up getting the bus versus an Uber to get to the historic center after the traffic yesterday, but Uber said it would be faster than the bus so we took our chances. Boy was that a mistake. I still can't get my head around the roads here. Some are crazy busy and then right next to the same road is a totally clear road that isn't really being used. Bottom line, we sat in infuriating traffic for a good while and just hoped it wouldn't heavily impact the rest of the day until we had to get the bus.

When we finally got close to the Plaza Mayor and jumped out, we walked up to go to the Palacio Arizobispal, but there must have been an event at the President's Palace because two blocks around the plaza were blocked off. So annoying! It meant we couldn't even get near to the things we wanted to do on the plaza. At our last attempt to get in, one of the guards told us it would open back up to the public at 2 and to come back then.

In the meantime, we went the long way around to Basilica de Nuestra Senõra del Rosario and Museo del Convento Santo Domingo. The basilica is attached to the convent and the convent is still occupied by friars. Much like the convent yesterday, it is much bigger on the inside than it looks on the outside. I especially loved the courtyard when you could glimpse the blue and white bell tower. We saw many religious paintings adorning the walls and a chapel dedicated to an important member of the order that lived and died at the convent. When we popped into the crypt, we literally saw a big hole full of bones. Probably the fullest hole of all the crypts so far. We also got to walk up the bell tower that recently reopened to the public. We got some nice views of the historic center and the surrounding hills. We also got a sneaky look at the basilica from above. I really loved all the blue, gold, and turquoise.

After some lunch, we made our way back to the square at 2pm to finally head to the Palacio Arizobispal (Archbishop's Palace) only to find it didn't open until 3 which was too late for us to get back to Miraflores to get our bags and head to the bus station. However, the Museo del Pisco was next door and that was also something we didn't get to do yesterday because we ran out of time. We originally thought we'd do a guided pisco tasting. But we changed our minds and went for the make your own pisco sour experience instead. It was good fun, and I could tell my cocktail shaking arms were out of shape after struggling to shake the sour for 2 minutes! At least I wasn't as bad as Allan 😉 (secretly glad he struggled as well even if he'd never shaken a cocktail before).

We quickly finished our drinks, but not chugging them, and made our way to get the bus back to Miraflores after the Uber disaster this morning. Unfortunately, the bus traffic is just as bad even with designated bus lanes 🙃. The traffic meant we had to give up our seaside walk and a daytime visit to Paddington Bear in order to make our bus. After a stressful walk, and taking a while to confirm an Uber, we got to the bus station with plenty of time and even managed to get a couple churros from a street vendor.

Honestly, no idea where the time goes...we always have grand plans to go for a nice walk and stop at grocery store stress free, but the traffic in these South American countries is just so AWFUL! Even Allan is consistently wanting to leave over an hour early for the buses, and is still getting stressed about our arrival time, and that's really saying something!

Luckily the bus was pretty painless and we got to Nazca before 1am. A short walk to the hostel and bed is on the cards before my early pickup for my flight over the lines in the morning.Read more