Lima only sounds slimy

We took a bus from Pisco to Lima (20s, 5€, 3,5h) on Monday morning and to our great surprise it arrived to both towns exactly on time. Shocking. A taxi driver helped us in finding an affordable but central place to stay, Hospedaje La Colmena, only two blocks from one of the central squares, Plaza de San Martin. Rooms were huge and Spartan, but okay for the night for only 37s (10€).

After having a real Peruvian street breakfast, quinoa-apple juice and egg sandwiches, and getting to know the centre a little bit we found another place called Inca Path Hotel where the beautiful bathrooms and wifi lured us into booking a room for Erik's last night in South America (90s, 24€).

The plan was to try some paragliding over the city, but the typical Lima winter weather, cloudy as hell, made us change our minds and take a long city walk instead. So we strolled about 15km, saw the sea shore, the way too touristy Mireflores suburb and caused some serious foot pain for one member of the group whose shoes turned out to be although pretty, too cheap for long walks and completely gave up by the time we got back to the hotel.

On Wednesday morning Erik took a taxi to the airport and got totally screwed by the driver who charged him 25s (6,5€) for the less than half an hour ride that should've cost 10-15s. Erik wasn't too pleased to notice that even the 5s coin he got as change was fake and that he was required to pay an airport tax of 90s having only 80s left because of the asshole driver. Good thing he was carrying some euros.


I was left to write my blog, update facebook and find a cheaper place to stay since the 70s (18€) our hotel would've charged for a single room, was a bit over my budget for Peru. So after checking out the hotel selection in the centre I ended up back in our first hotel where the price of a single room with private bathroom was 27s (7€).




A visit to the Inquisition museum is a must in Lima. To learn how to torture people you don't like if not only for the free entrance. After surviving that experience it was nice to stroll around in to river side parks even though the river seemed to have dried out.








In the evening I went to see La Reserva park that holds a Guinness record in the amount of fountains in a public park and it was definitely worth the 20 minute walk from the centre. For 4s entrance fee you got to see the amazingly beautiful fountains, lit in changing colours and accompanied with music that matched the dance of the water perfectly.



Some of the fountains were tunnels you could walk through and some of them invited people to go into them trying to avoid the water spraying from different parts of the fountain at different times. It looked like fun but it was too cold to join the dozens of teenagers jumping around half-soaked. So I just watched, took photos, admired the beauty of water and missed Erik.






On Thursday I bought a bus ticket to Trujillo and spend the day looking for ear plugs – no, I'm not kidding - which would be more than necessary in the noisy night bus, but extremely difficult to find in Lima where people just don't seem to use them at all. According to the about 100 different cosmetics sales people and pharmacists I asked, Peruvians are just so used to the noise, it really doesn't bother them. Well, nice for them, but if you travel to Peru, bring a good supply of ear plugs with you. Paying the price of two lunches for one pair is bullshit.

I was a bit nervous about having chosen the cheapest bus option, El Sol, for only 30s (8€) when many of the other companies charged 50-80s for the same 9-hour journey but was surprised to find the bus clean and nice and the seats very declinable. The only downside was that there was EXTREMELY little leg room, only about 20cm between the seats. I'm glad I'm not as tall as most Scandinavians that would've struggled to find a comfortable position to sleep in more than I did. I met some locals waiting for the bus and on it and got another change to advertise couchsurfing. When the bus arrived to Trujillo at 7am I walked straight to the nearest hotel to sleep for a few hours before hitting the town and meeting my CS host at 5pm.

Pina, my hostess, spend the evening with me, but didn't actually live in the same building where I stayed in. A friend of hers, Erick, has built a house that is intended to start as a hotel some day, but where for now his family lives downstairs and the rooms upstairs were left for couchsurfers. So I got to stay in this beautiful bamboo room with my own balcony and bathroom. I'm glad I had my sleeping bag though 'cause otherwise the cold winter night and total lack of insulation would've left me frozen, even with the two blankets and all my clothes covering me. In the morning the ice cold shower made sure I really woke up.




After a slow morning I walked around the neighbourhood and visited the Chan chan archeological site which was a lot more interesting than I had expected. So since the Chan chan museum was only 500 metres away and its entrance included in the site entrance went there too.






After being so cultural, it was time to get less well-behaved and get down to the weekend party village of Huanchaco to get wasted. And I really did that duty well, starting the first hour with a Pisco sour, Vodka Cranberry and a Grasshopper.

According to the words of one of Pinas friends, the only thing I didn't do was dance on the bar counter topless (I don't know how she missed it...). Well, at least everyone in the bar has now got the right idea of what Finnish people are like; quiet and unsocial.

This pic of me, Pina and her cousin was taken before we went out (note, wearing make-up and all); luckily no-one brought their camera to the bars...

You can believe that the next day was a bit more unpleasant.

My bus to the next city was only at 9.30pm but I still felt way too ill to take it and curled up happily in my sleeping bag for another night in the bamboo house. Also this delicious looking 'food-hunger' burger had to wait - yesterday there was no food on my menu.