South of the Equator

We have officially crossed the equator, a very big first for me.  We arrived safely a little after midnight, local time, here in Lima, Peru after an eight- hour flight from Toronto. Lima is on the same time zone as Central Time in the US, so we're two hours ahead of California and an hour behind the East Coast.  Upon navigating our way through immigration and customs (relatively easy, no problems), exchanging our Canadian dollars into Neuvo Soles, we were happy to find Luis waiting for us with a name sign and ready to drive us to our hostel.  And although the sign said "Ozell Vicente", I was pretty sure we had the right driver.  It was definitely nice that our hostel provided the shuttle service because I would not have wanted to have to arrange for a taxi and barter over prices at 1:30 in the morning upon first arriving in a strange country.  Besides, the airport was quite busy for it being after midnight, presumable because of the large number of international flights.

 

We arrived at our hostel after a very "efficient" ride through the winding streets of Lima.  I saw a few 30 kph speed limit signs but I'm pretty sure Luis was going twice whatever the posted limit was.  Driving here seems to be a lot like Mexico City, but not as bad as Rome.  Let's just say you better make sure you're watching when you step off the curb.  They do have a ton of strategically placed speed bumps on main streets, mostly at intersections where there isn't a stoplight (or stop sign, which seems common).  I never thought I would be so supportive of speed bumps as a traffic calming measure.  It's also very much like Mexico City in the sense that you immediately notice the exhaust from the cars permeating the air.  It can be a little nauseating at first, but I seemed to adjust relatively quickly, especially as a smoker.  If I'm intentionally breathing in toxic air from my cigarettes, I don't notice all the unintentional toxic air I'm also breathing in from the cars!  Nevertheless, we pretty much assumed they don't have to do smog checks in Lima. 

 

Our hostel is in Barranco, the bohemian/artist neighborhood and is located right by the ocean.  There is a nice view of the Pacific from right outside our hostel, but there are cliffs shooting up almost immediately after the shoreline, so it's not like home where you can just walk across the street to the beach.  Picture Torrey Pines in San Diego with the city perched atop the cliffs. I'm not good at judging heights, but I would guess the cliffs are about 200 feet.  Anyway, after sleeping in until about 11am, we had coffee and breakfast (i.e. bread and jam) here at the hostel, then took a walk over to Miraflores, the touristy/trendy neighborhood of Lima.  The weather is very much like San Diego so there was a marine layer and fog along the coast and only intermittent sunshine. The temperature is also like San Diego; it was probably mid-sixties today, which is plenty warm enough to wear shorts, but with the ocean breeze and only a t-shirt, it gets a little cool in the shade. 

 

There is a fairly large and really nice, multi-level outdoor mall in Miraflores called Larcomar, which is built right into the cliff face along the ocean.  We had lunch at one of the restuarants with an outdoor patio that is literally built into the side of the cliff.  Definitely not somewhere I would want to be in an earthquake, but a great place to have a bite to eat and watch the waves. I ordered a bit too much food though. I wasn't that hungry and wanted something light so I ordered soup and a sandwich.  But of course, even though it was way too much food, being the pig I am, I ate almost all of it.  Good energy for walking around the city I guess.  There are also lots of parks and green spaces along the top of the cliffs overlooking the ocean so it was a beautiful area to walk around. Obviously, the city gets a little less glamourous as you move beyond the main strip, but I was still pleased with the availability of trashcans along the street... at least in Miraflores, which is all we've really seen so far. That was one of my disappointments in Toronto.  Even though the city was very clean, it was impossible to find a trashcan outside, even at bustops and outside businesses! 

 

As we were sitting in the hostel bar today after our little walk through the city, I thought about my arrival in Peru and today's date and realized, this is the seventh country (and third continent) I've been in during the past 30 days: Germany, Poland, Switzerland, France (even though I only had dinner there and went shopping), United States, Canada, Peru.  Even though our Europe vacation wasn't really part of this around-the-world trip, the short time in between them has certainly contributed to a lot of miles traveled.  By the way, the "Total Mileage Traveled" listed on the Travel Blog does not include the Europe trip. 

 

So far, we've met Dan, an English guy from London staying here at the hostel; I guess he's been in and around Peru for over a year now.  He's a nice guy and works here at the hostel sometimes when needed just to earn some extra money or free lodging.  I also had a chance to meet Simon, the guy I corresponded with when I was booking the reservation here.  We've been checking out things to do tonight since it's Saturday and our first weekend away from home.  We'll probably check out one of the discos in Miraflores.  I'll have to let you know the next time I blog. 

 

Cheers for now!

 

Ozell