Lima - Daily Life

I made it to Lima! My first hostel didn´t have a computer, but The Explorers Club has one! The owners are really friendly and I´ve been working on my Spanish here and out in the city... the hard part is that most everyone in the hostels speaks English, so it´s difficult to not fall back on what we all know. 

A few pictures of where I´ve been and little things about life down here!

Flying in to perpetually foggy Lima was a little exciting, but then it cleared up to a beautiful view. It´s a massive city.

The first night was a sound sleep, and the first thing I did the following day was learn to surf! It went well - for a first time at least. 

The hostel is just down the street from the cliffs just over the ocean. 

Next up was a little city exploring. Being in a new city and country is always interesting, but it´s a new level for me down here. Some things are mostly indistinguishable from home, like the big supermarkets, Starbucks, and Pizza Hut, but that´s mostly the end. Miraflores is the really upscale, wealthy part of the capital city of Lima. It certainly isn´t ¨real Peru¨ but it´s pretty and a more familar place to begin the trip.

One of the nicest supermarkets

Starbucks in Miraflores is the same! I guess I could have tried the coffee, but I would be a bad judge. I had Soles to spend elsewhere

Tons of cute stray cats in Kennedy Park!

Chocolate museum! The US eats 55 100g bars per person each year. The Swiss win with 119.

Black Forest cake is still Black Forest cake

Park of Love lived up to its name with half a dozen couples watching the sunset

Domestic hot water doesn´t seem to be in place anywhere! This guy heats it up right before it hits your head. Not sure how I feel about 5.5 kw, 30 cm over my head, but it was warm!

Strictly no flushing toilet paper. Every bathroom has a bin!

More fun balconies! Building code isn´t too strict, so there´s all sorts of fun stuff on the roofs.

Here´s a combi! It´s a very large van converted to a bus with a crazy driver and crazy ticket collector. These guys are somewhat infamous. But it costs about $0.50 for an (exciting) 45 minute ride into downtown! I only saw one combi without dents on the outside.

Couchsurfing found me Nino! He played tour guide and Spanish teacher for a wonderful afternoon of exploring downtown! We were able to talk pretty well and he knew most of the words when I didn´t know them in Spanish. It was a great exchange and I saw most all what I wanted to downtown :)

The military police presence was surprising though. There was some fear of protests apparently so there were police everywhere and the whole 5 blocks each direction around the government palace (president´s place) was blocked by police. We convinced them I was a tourist and rolled in.

Guinea Pig! Haven´t tried it yet.

And unlike some other areas I´ve been now, there were always people out cleaning the streets and everything else in Miraflores (and Lima in general, to some degree). No mops, just brooms with rags, but it was good to see pride in your place.