Arrival in Lima

LIMA - PART ONE -  Two Duntchies settling down (what-what-whaaaaaat??)

Half of the desert crossed: still another half to go!!

"Ah Lima, finally guys!!"

Wowowowow hold on amigos! In the last post, we were still in Chimbote. Lima was not next door! I mean... Just have a look at the map below:

Here you go! More than 400 km to go! And between you and us, same story than before, it was too boring to bike (straight, trashy, dirty, very windy) and also quite insecure... So we opted for the bus again. And we did good!

Told you it was windy

"So Arthur, what do you see from the bus window?"

Well...

In the mean time, a picture of Peru poverty but also the beauty of its desert, dry, colored from yellow to red, contrasting once in a while with the deep blue of the Pacific Ocean in the background.

Approaching Lima

The journey was long by bus (around 7 hours) but we kept ourselves busy watching some Start Treks :-))), reading some novels and other techy stuffs, admiring the landscape, listening to the various fruits / dry nuts / candies sellers hopping in and out. And trying to sleep - well, good luck!

And then someone on the phone said something like "See you in one hour!"
Wow! We were almost there!!! And this is what we could see, approaching Lima, slowly...

And we reached Lima!!

After we retrieved our bikes and bags, put everything together again, we paddled from the bus terminal to the main place. It was very close (maybe 10 minutes by bike).

And what we have seen then just blew us off! We expected a city in the vein of what we knew of Peru. Well, arriving directly in the historical center of Lima, we have been stunned by the beauty of the buildings.

So, so stunned!!

Your mission: hunting for perfect coffee, good meat and a flat. You have one week.

So here we were! In Lima. Where we arrived 2 months in advance regarding our planning - since yep, we had some appointments over there! With Laurence, Anaëlle's friend, in October, with Arthur's father in November and with Anaëlle's family for Christmas. Busy us!

On the other hand, we were quite ready for a pause and decided to look... for a flat to rent! But first we needed a place to crash for the upcoming search days.

"Yes I have a room available... for 3 hours from 11 pm"

This could be a typical cheap hostal entrance.
Didn't take any pic of one so thank you Google Street View!

As you know now, we always looked for cheap hostals, all along our trip. Although it had been quite easy from the beginning, even in big cities, it was not the case anymore in Lima. Our 15 soles per night requirement brought us to nowhere. We couldn't find better than 25 soles and... only for a couple of hours - huuuuu??? Well. It took us a couple of disappointments to understand that we were asking to the wrong places... Understand hostals for reproduction training! ;-)

We finally ended in a very nice street but we had to pay 40 soles per night. Boy that was new for us!! And the room was quite crappy... So we worked harder to find our future nest...

A flat in Miraflores - s'il vous plaît!

Well. If you think that since we were in Peru we could easily find a big flat for a good price, stop thinking!

You can find cheap places in Lima but where it is cheap, watch out! Indeed... in Lima, certain districts can be unsafe during the day - not even talking about the nights! The save known districts are Miraflores, San Isidro and Barranco. However, in exchange for being safe, you pay the high price for rentals. These prices are prices you get in France or The Netherlands - not in a capital but in a regular big city. 

So we paid around 500 euros per month for 35 square meters!! Well. We could have find for a bit less but the location was awesome and the flat super nice.

Still, parts of our bikes have been stolen while being parked in the so-called secured car garage of the building. So we brought them up and stored them in the flat.

View from the kitchen window - yes, you can see the Pacific ocean on the horizon line

We then started a new everyday life, between enjoying our flat... and enjoying Lima!

Back in serious business

HUACA PUCLLANA, a great pyramid... just in front of our window!

Made of adobe and clay, the Huaca Pucllana pyramid was first built during the Wari period, between 800 and 1000 a.c.

From the remaining found in and around it, we know that other civilization used this pyramid for their own needs. The Lima culture is one of them - one of the characteristics of this culture being to quarter women, greatest sacrifice, since they give birth (How grateful, thanks! Women surely appreciate!!).

From our flat, we could see some remaining of the Huaca Pucllana, located in the middle of one of the most modern areas of Lima. We could in fact see it from the kitchen window and our balcony.

Lima's center

The center of Lima is simply beautiful. The only cities we thought were better or equivalent are Quito and Cuenca, in Ecuador, and Cusco, also in Peru. Of course, we didn't visited all the cities with well-maintained remainings from the colonial era - such as Cartagena in Colombia. But from those we know, Lima is one of the prettiest.

Lima's main place, with the presidential palace (white building with the flag on top) and the cathedrale

Above, left hand, the beautiful Casa Osambela Oquando, about which more details are given further

On your right hand, a covered walkway in the center, offering shops, mainly touristic as you can imagine.

The joke for tourists => bamos a la playa!! Ah ah... Et bah non! This is a parking place. Put your bikini back in your suitcase.

On your left hand, the basilica San Francisco. Right hand, the cathedral of Lima.

The basilica San Francisco is a must go. We were not allowed to take picture but other people accidentally forgot about this rule. Therefore we can give you some insight on how beautiful this basilica is inside... (Thanks anonymous amoral people!)

The beautiful library

Details

La Casa de Osambela / Oquendo

Don Martin de Osambela, banker and Spanish merchant, has built this house between 1803 and 1805, from the ruins of a Dominican novitiate. After his death, his wife sold it to a Basque family, the Oquendo. Hence the second part of the name given to this house.

It is one of the biggest house of Lima and Nino de Guzman, an architect, has renovated it while keeping its original colors. Nice job dude!

Super nice guide, very proud of the building, who first said we couldn't go further than the main entrance. I guess he was bored because after a simple chat of a couple of minutes, he took us for a visit of the whole house! We didn't even ask him!!

Still, not everything was handy there...

Lima behind the doors

As a tourist, you will be sent mainly to the center of Lima, to Barranco and to Miraflores.

Of course, as a Rambo, you always want to visit more - you know, to really feel a city! Well. Although it was not a problem during daytime in most cities we have visited, it became one in Lima. 

Indeed, one afternoon, we decided to cross a bridge we never had crossed before (ooowww!!!). As we walked, we saw some people going in and out a wide door. Curious as we are, we of course decided to sneak in. How smart of us!! Behind that door, a stair up on the right and a stair down on the left. If you were a bit more curious, you could see that the stair down lead to a small underground market...

Ow happiness! We found there our ceviche, cakes and fruits for a very low price in comparison to the rest of Lima center.

However, as soon as we stepped outside and chose to explore more of this area of Lima, we have been stopped by a policeman who urged us to return to the center as quickly as possible. Too dangerous! We didn't believe him and told him that "we would do so, gracias, blablabla." We expected him to go away... but he stayed, waiting for us to move away! We had to leave now!

For the record, we came back a couple of weeks later with Laurence, a friend of Anaëlle. Same story! As we were walking, a girl came to us, quite distraught, and urged us to go away before being in trouble. Everybody here could see we were tourists and no doubt that soon some thieves would come to steal from us.

All of this "a bridge away" from the main touristic area of Lima. What a contrast!

As a symbol, the bridge splitting two disparate areas - at least during the day... One 'safe' and touristic; the other, dangerous and where tourists are asked to run off.
Under the bridge, a huge construction work to create a highway while keeping a river flowing,
on another level than it is now.

The two sides of the bridge. The touristic area, with appealing projects to make of Lima a better place to leave in ; one of the poor and dangerous living areas, where we only went for this underground market, as quickly as possible.

As we came back, we noted that there were less open shops. One of the last sellers explained us that the government had raised the taxes of this market to force the sellers to leave and use the place for new businesses.

How people also live in the center

As we stepped out of the Casa de Osambelo Oquendo, another door - which led us to another huge house but this one had not been maintained for a very long time... as you can see below by yourself.

In this house, no cultural exhibition, no historical remaining. Just poor people living in a big city.

Views from the top

The chic districts of Lima

As you can imagine, we spent most of our time in the chic areas of Lima. And believe us, it is nothing like the rest if Peru we have seen. Just apart...

Miraflores

Lima's cliff, Miraflores. Simply beautiful.

Miraflores offers a nice variety of areas to spend your time in. Looking for a park? A chic and cozy coffee place? A (safe) dive in the ocean? A cool evening in a cool dancing bar? Miraflores is one of the districts of Lima you have to go.

We went a lot to the Ovalo de Miraflores, to drink a good coffee at the Dedalo Arte y Café, where Arthur could enjoy playing chess.

We also ate delicious (but really delicous!!!) sandwiches at La Lucha Sangucheria. We would love to show you a picture of one. Unfortunately, we always thought about it after it was in... Soooorryyyyy!

The Ovalo Miraflores, busy with restaurants, shops, people... and an incredible amount of cats!!!

We also spend time, once in a while, in another nice coffee place, the Bookafé, owned by Jehovah witnesses as we quickly found out. Which led Arthur to ask them -politely of course...- if they couldn't change their music track... Although I found him a bit rude, I have to admit it was a bit too much...! (Anaelle, you forgot to mention that I had been listening to that church music for about 2 hours).

A bit of creativity at the Dedalo Arte y Café.
How to create chairs' pillows with brooms and newspapers

So here we were again, happily:

- drinking good coffee (mmmmhh!!!),

- eating good meat (oooooowwwww!!!!!),

- gorging on delicious ceviche in some hidden markets in the center or on the streets - grrrr!!!

- and stuffing ourselves with an amazingly good food in the Mamma criolla restaurant - YUMMYYYYY!!!!!

What a life!

Alien and spicy...

On the sea side

And on the kissy side of life

When suddenly...

It wouldn't stop flowing out of the bus... Trampling from right to left, each step being punctuated with a 'clic-clic-clic' of the cameras, a hord of Japanese colonized the calm romantic place. Two seconds there, half a second here, 5 seconds over there and 10 pictures at each stop.

(Picture translation below)

"Hey! Come back! I'm not done yet"

Yeah well, can't she be quicker!! We only have 7 minutes to visit the place!

"4620 pictures today!

... Errr... where are we again?"

BaRrAnCO

Barranco is considered as Lima's bohemian district, filled with colorful houses and colonized by a very active artist community.

We also came over there at night, to listen to a great concert, mixing jazz, reggae and some traditional music. Awesome!

Casona typical on your left hand

Same casona from another angle - too beautiful!

Just spot the guy on the left of the tree. Not sure what he was trying to do then...!

Mmmm... a handsome Dutch in need of help in the streets of Barranco... Coming!

Coming too!! Well, we've never been there in fact :-D

Puente de los Suspiros and the Pacific ocean

Puente de los Suspiros and its colorful surrounding houses

Guess what!? El puente de los Suspiros!! From underneath.

El puent... ok I stop. Hey! A handsome Dutch on the right!!

Below, some of the furniture we found in a shop that pulled out from us some eagerness to settle down!!

People we met in Lima

I have to say, even if we still had a (very) hard time with people's behavior - especially drivers - we had a great time in Lima. We met great people (yeah, those who had no car to drive!!), such as Alan and Carlos, two super enthusiastic guys with whom we spent great evenings around Lima. Guys, a special thank for everything we have done thanks to you!!

Alan!

We were just there to grab some cash. But the machine swallowed Arthur's bank card! The time that he asked for retrieving it (you forgot 1 hour of frustration and forms), I waited outside with our bikes.

That's when Alan popped up! Intrigued by this tourist and her two very special bikes, he came to me to know what I was doing here with these bikes. Because Alan loves traveling by bike, hiking, and has planned himself to travel one day by bike.

He asked me lots of questions about how we organized our trip. When Arthur came back, we decided to meet again later in the week. Since then, we met Alan quite often. He helped us enjoying Lima as a good native knows how to do it!

With him we also discovered a local game: fronton!

Fronton time!!

Originating from the basque Pelota, the Fronton is a recent Peruvian game (1945). A wooden paddle, a black rubber bouncy ball, tennis ball sized, and you are settled!

Arthur and Alan in action...

LIMA'S NIGHTS!

Now that we were settled, with a comfy bed and nothing else than ourselves to wake us up, we were ready to party again! So we enjoyed Lima's nights...!

In Mirafores

Close to our flat were quite some party-time areas. The Ovalo Miraflores was one, more for a nice bite though. But to enjoy a nice drink while dancing on a terrace or while listening to gypsy music, the Calle Berlin was much better!

Top of the pic, calle Berlin.
Bottom of the pic, Otavalo area - with the night chess players and... La Lucha in the background!!!

Thanks to Alan, we discovered other areas of Lima, that we reached by cab. Alan was a party animal. Let's say we fit very well ;-)

Now, after 6 months of soberness, it can be tough for one's body to recover from a crazy night... Arthur, your opinion? I am okay, no problem. :-)

Arthur's hangover

We also spent a couple of evenings at the Ovalo Gutierrez, at the TGI Friday, where we met an amazing guy:

Carlos!

Los Tambores de la Paz: Marijuana, chocolate y baile psicodélica

This is when Carlos 'steps on the stage'! Great and joyful as a barman, serious and persistent in his studies, Carlos is also a great party-mate, juggler amateur, who took us to Los Tambores de la Paz. A very special event that takes place every Sunday evening on the cliff of Lima. A stunning location... Anyway, these were just mouth-watering lines about Los Tambores de la Paz, event described by Arthur... in the next post!!

'Good morning sunshine!' A tribute to Roger!

Last but not least, we met... Roger!! A British business man who lives in Lima since 2009. We enjoyed him as our neighbor for 2 months in Miraflores, Lima and liked having him springing up behind the window of our kitchen, nicely shouting out a "Good morning sunshine!!"

(Unfortunately, we don't have any picture of him!!)

To be continued!!