Today we are walking to the ocean which is not far from Inti Killa. There is a path along the cliffs that will take us to Barranco, an area of Lima next to Miraflores where we are staying. It is purported to be a bohemian or artisan area.

We arrive at the ocean park and find a Naval Lighthouse from 1900 It is still functional today.

There is a lot of fitness equipment in the park by the bluffs and we do see a lot of people taking advantage of them.

We are high above the ocean. There is a company taking people paragliding. They were testing out the sails, but we didn’t see anyone actually taking the plunge off of the cliff.

There are many parks along this path with interesting sculptures.

This is a long running “Marriott” joke 🙂

We make it to Barranco by walking back towards a bridge that takes us across a ravine that is the route of the road along the ocean. We cross the bridge and are welcomed by this sign.

There is a geocache here so I take some time to find it. Clever disguise under a bridge.

As this is an artsy community there are lots of murals.

Greg at the edge!!

This is also a surfers paradise.

We walked 15 Km today.  We are taking an early bus to Paracas tomorrow.  So heading to bed as I am exhausted.  The bus ride is 4 hours so I will write the blog on the bus.  🙂

Today’s plan is to go into the Historical area of downtown Lima. Mary our lady at our Hostel/Hotel gives us directions and an empty transit card that we will need to load with the amount of money we will need for return fares. After breakfast of buns, fruit salad, mini bananas, some juice we aren’t sure what kind and coffee we are off to  the center of Lima.

We navigate getting the card loaded and with broken Spanglish we make our way down to the electric bus that will take us downtown. There is a below grade highway that has dedicated lanes for the buses and at least 3 lanes for cars. As we speed along we are happy that we are on the bus and not in a cab. Traffic as we suspected yesterday seems to be busy busy all day, every day!

We disembark the bus at the Central Station and with the help of some very helpful locals make our way up to street level where we wander about looking at the wares the street vendors are offering and trying to get our bearings.

There is a walking tour in our guide book that we thought would be a great starting point. In other cities both Stu and I and Greg and Leslie have used the “Free” walking tours that are offered. You tip the guide at the end whatever you feel the tour is worth. After reading some very bad bad reviews on TripAdvisor on the free walking tour in Lima we decide to do a self guided tour.  As in many cities, outside of North America the street names seem to have a common theme.  “Hide and Seek”!!    Once we know where we are we are able to wander using our guide book as a resource.

There are lots of police around Lima today.  We aren’t sure if this is normal or due to impending elections.  Parque de la Muralla along the Rio Rimac is closed altogether.

We end our tour by walking through Lima’s Chinatown.  This is a very busy area with many many street vendors.   Here is a cart loaded with grapes.  We see a lady with a cart carrying  large Coke bottles filled with a cloudy orangey coloured foamy liquid.  She will pour you a glass if you like.  Another old fellow calling out what sounds to us like “Cherry Cola”.  This is in 2 clay pots on his cart.  He ladles this into cups for you.

We make our way back to the Central Station where we will catch the bus back to Miraflores.  It is about 4:30 and it definitely is now rush hour.  We are watching jam packed buses go past us heading to different destinations.  A very full bus pulls up to where we are standing in line.  A couple experienced people squeezed themselves on the bus.  The rest of us wait for the next one.  It isn’t as full as the previous one and after making contingency plans on what to do if we get separated, we all make it onto the bus.  This is an experience in itself.  It is standing room only for the first while.  At one stop a couple of ladies vacate their seats and Leslie and I grab them only to find that our stop is next and we need to start to make our way towards the doors so that we don’t get left behind.

Once we get off the bus we head back toward Inti Killa to find a Happy Hour beer before returning for a bit before dinner.

Mission accomplished!  In the cool little street filled with restaurants and bars.

Off home for a rest before dinner at the little Wine Bar next our place.  Very nice dinner!

We arrived in Lima just after 6 AM.  Other than being a Red Eye the flight was OK.  We find Red Eye’s very difficult.  I am not entirely sure it is because we are older, I don’t think we liked them much even when we were younger.   There doesn’t seem like anyway around this problem when travelling to this part of the world for a fare that we can live with.

We take the forms we have filled out on the plane to the Immigration queues.  Pretty easy process.  The Immigration form perforates and the bottom portion is returned to us to be kept with our passport.  We are to present it to Immigration again when we leave the country.  No losing this bit of paper!!

After claiming our baggage we head out to the Taxi area where we are expecting to be met and driven to our hostel in the Mira Flores area of Lima.  The four of us are scanning the waiting crowds for a sign that has a name that looks familiar to us.  Nothing.  We head outside to continue looking.  A woman comes running over to us with a sign with our hostel and Greg’s name.  She leads us to her taxi van where we load our luggage and pile in.

Shortly we are in the middle of Lima rush hour.  We do suspect that this is actually more the norm for this city.

Greg is in the front seat next to the driver.  We are glad she is driving!  However, Greg tells us after we arrive that she is falling asleep at red lights!!  Wholly Crap.  We are lucky to have arrived at all.

We see these guys in the traffic.  They are selling fish from this odd look vehicle.

When we arrive at our hostel we are offered alternate accommodation at a property owned by the same owner.  For the same price about $77 CAD each couple per night, it is a 3 bedroom – 3 bathroom apartment a few blocks away from where we are.   It does sound nice, but after a conflab, we decide to stay where we are for a few reasons.  Mary, the receptionist is very helpful and we would like to pick her brain on our further plans.  Here we have the opportunity to meet and chat with other travelers, we like that idea (at least at the begining of our trip, might be a different story in 5 weeks 😉 )

One room is ready.  We leave all of our luggage in that room, change and head out to explore our area.  It is warm and humid here.

We find a spot for a bite to eat and wander back towards Inti Killa Hostel.  Checking out mini marts along the way to find the closest spot to return for some cold beer for Happy Hour.  We find we have one almost next door to our place!!  BONUS!!

It is noon and time for a nap.  There are 4 rooms per floor here.  Not long into the nap we are hearing doors banging shut, dogs barking.  Starting to wonder about that nice 3 bedroom apartment???……

I am having techinical difficulties with my card reader/usb cable???  Can’t get any photos off.  Will try to troubleshoot at Happy Hour!!

Got a new cable I’m good now.

Out for dinner.  We have our first Pisco Sours.  National drink Peru claims.  Apparently so does Chile and Bolivia 🙂

Stu should get a franchise!!