Lima, Peru

Primero 'First' stop - Lima

Our flight
The idea of getting an early flight 6am in our case, was great as we'd reach Lima early evening however in principle, getting up a 2am leads up to a very exhausting day ahead. First flight of our grand voyage was an hour to Paris. Never in a million years did we imagine waiting in Paris for a flight to Lima.

On the flight we felt mixed emotions of being selfish leaving our loved ones behind whilst we travelled. These emotions are something that we will have to deal with but those emotions are there because we are extremely grateful for our parents, family and friends for the well wishes and opportunity they have given us.

Touchdown in to Peru- where Paddington Bear came from

We were welcomed into Lima by 'Carlos' our taxi driver.

The first thing we saw was a rusty mountain looming in the background.

'Welcome to Peru!' said Carlos.

The air was thick but the temperature was pleasant. It was approximately 1700hrs - we managed to catch the sunset whilst we weaved through the Peruvian rush hour traffic which was surprisingly calm (no horns beeping, no road rage).

We felt a million miles from home but I couldn't help but feel a sense of familiarity...it felt like we were driving through the streets of Bilimore (a village in India).
The residential streets lined colourful houses (blues, pinks, peaches and greens) separated by dusty narrow roads.

We attempted to converse with Carlos in broken English. We spoke about football, cars about his children. Dipesh pulled out the Spanish phrasebook and attempted to quick-learn Spanish from/with Carlos.

With our sparse Spanish speaking skills - we were extremely thankful to be escorted directly to our hostel (which was not signposted) since we were considering taking public transport 😖

We arrived at our first hostel, Casa Hualpa (Elias Aguirre).Having off loaded our bags we set off into the main streets of Miraflores to find a supermarket for water but ended up purchasing a couple of bottles from one of the pharmacies that frequented the streets.

Our first meal consisted of Thepla, Debrah (made by mum) accompanied by a mineral water.

The next day we were up early to explore our surroundings. It was sunny but could see a big cloud of mist slowly rolling into the main city - it was amazing to see half of the city covered with a thick blanket of fog (due to Lima being a coastal city).

We headed down to pebbled beach where we sat and watched learner surfers.

The city of Lima is nestled in between steep hills hopefully protecting the main city from floods and tsunamis.
We passed several sign posts for Tsunami 🌊Evacuation emergency routes.

We then walked through LarcoMar (plush shopping complex) and had lunch (again theplas and debrah) in Parque Central and Parque Kennedy.

Our walk continued to 'Huaca Pucllana' which is a Maranda adobe ancient pyramid built in AD500.

Having never been to Egypt, this was my first encounter with any pyramid. It was mahoosive!

Our day ended back at the hostel with our first simple cooked meal - noodles + a pepper #MadeByUs Where we met Hannah (Telford,U.K.) and Tom (Hull,U.K.) who (in contrast to us) had just arrived from New Zealand and were ending their world tour in South America before heading home. They'd been on the road for a year and half with the intention of only being 8 months (just like us).

Day 2 we headed out of the Miraflores (main tourist area) to the presidential residence via metro (which is a bus/tram transport service) from Ricardo Palma to Jiron de la Union. You need to use a swipe card like an oyster which you buy at the office and each journey was 2.5 sol pp.

This was beautiful. The presidents home (Buckingham Palace type building) is on a square lined by yellow buildings and a gothic cathedral.

We arrived at 12 noon - just in time for the changing of the guards. This was amazing!

We then visited the Monasterio de San Francisco which is a old monastery famous for its ancient library dating back to the Spanish conquest and underground catacombs which is the site of approximately 70,000 burials. We were surprised to see the open bone-filled crypts in the dark depths of the monastery. Entrance 10 sol pp with English tour included.

Above however the corridors and rooms where decorated with beautiful paintings, tiles and architecture with a mixture of Spanish, Arab and Moorish influences.

After a simmering day in the courtyard, we were delighted to cool off with a Lucama ice cream
Lucama is a Peruvian fruit which tastes a little bit like chikko (Indian fruit).

The day ended with a hostel-cooked gourmet meal tomato pasta & salad accompanied by orange juice. Supermarket called Vivando on corner of Bolognesi across the road from Scotiabank. It was like a Waitrose.

Day 3 - we left Lima at 7am by bus 🚌 to Ica (4 - 5hrs). Booked online using busportal.pe. The website is in English and lists all the options of all the buses. Although Cruz de Sur is highly recommended for 4-12 hour journeys Perubus and Oltursa are pretty good.
We have boarded the PERUBUS with the locals. Our lack of speaking or understanding Spanish really plagues us...looking at our blank faces ...we and PERUBUS staff resort to the universal language of body language... thumbs up! 👍🏽

Next stop - Ica, PeruRead more