#30 Weekend trips to the beach with new friends and exciting new travel plans

Staying in Lima for one month was something that I hadn't initially planned upon. However the longer I stayed, the more friends that I made and the more of a routine I got into it quickly became quite hard to think about leaving. However now I am actually on a time scale which I had not been on before, now halfway through my 12 month trip I thought about whether I wanted to discover other parts of the world. Initially I thought about staying in Latin America for the whole twelve months (money permitting of course) however after talking to people along the way I heard that even though the countries in South South America (Chile, Argentina and Brazil) are exquisite they are the more expensive countries of the continent. Now after travelling for six months I feel more confident in discovering more countries further afield. Sri Lanka was a country in particular that appealed to me and people had nothing but positive things to say about South East Asia....it got me thinking and I started browsing blogs, instagram posts and flights. What further influenced my decision was meeting Amy, an Australian girl that I met in Ecuador and travelled with her and other friends for three weeks (not long in the real world but in the travelling world it is a long time especially considering that we spent Christmas and new year together). We joked in Ecuador that we would fly to the Philippines for Amy's 30th, as with most drunken conversations I didn't think this idea would transpire. However I had the delight of Amy coming to Lima for two days which ended in her staying nearly two weeks until she flew out to New Zealand. During this time we decided to take some advice from Nike and 'just do it' so to speak. So I booked flights.....to the PHILIPPINES from Lima with a four day Stop off in San Francisco on the way and will meet Amy in the Philippines on the 5th April. I will have to come back to visit Chile, Argentina and Brazil another time! Now I will have five months to discover South East Asia, Nepal,and Sri Lanka (again money permitting)!

After spending three weeks in Lima city, I decided to make the most of new friends I had made and managed to get the manager Sergio in the hostel to give me the weekend off working in the hostel to head out of the city and to the beach! I made a great friend called Melissa whilst working in Dragonfly. She is from Lima originally but has worked as a tour guide in the past and the minute I met her we got on like a house on fire. She invited amy and I to come to Paracas with her for a weekend. A beach town about four hours south of Lima. It had actually been on my list of places I had wanted to visit but I just hadn't made it yet. It is best known for the national park and the ballestas islands. Day trips are popular where you can see blue footed boobies (a type of bird I had already been lucky to see in Ecuador) and sea lions. We however were more drawn in to the thought of some sun, sea, swimming pools and happy hours. I also invited Leonardo a friend who I met working on the Superlearner project. Leonardo is a musician and from Lima and he does some music workshops with the kids on the project. I was also shocked to learn he had never been to Paracas so we recruited him to come too.

After having a pretty heavy night on Friday and ending up in a pirate themed club in Barranco in Lima after working in the hostel, we dragged ourselves out of bed to get the bus to Paracas. Amy, Melissa, me and my friend Leonardo decided to ditch the overpriced tourist coaches to Paracas and take a much cheaper public coach from a highway in Lima (much easier to navigate when you have two Spanish speaking locals with you). We paid half the price of $6 for the four hour bus journey to a nearby town of pisco and grabbed a collectivo taxi from there. By the time we arrived that afternoon we were feeling slightly more refreshed having all slept the majority of the way on the bus. I was thinking we were very lucky to have had the pleasure of the journey taking us down the very straight pan American highway! We arrived at Kokopelli hostel in Paracas, which we were told was fully booked that night as is the case for most weekends being the main (party) hostel in the town (luckily we had bikes) and after a slight mess up with our booking we got it all sorted.The pool looked glorious and there was a big bar area out the back with hammocks, bar games, pool, table tennis and an entrance onto the beach.

Kokopelli swimming pool 

We immediately went for a long overdue feed and indulged in ceviche (sure what better than raw fish to ease a hangover) and more fish and rice for a main. By the time we got back from our food, Amy, Leo and I walked out to the beach at the back of kokopelli to watch the sunset! Very romantic for the three of us.

That night we ended up drinking lots of rum (smuggled into the hostel) ssshhhhhh, played cards and giant Jenga. The night ended in some salsa dancing and me bailing out at the pretty embarrassing time of 12.30 for bed, the pirate night really got to me! In the morning we took advantage of the inviting pool and the blistering sun shine. Melissa, Leo and I went kayaking in the sea getting bashed by the waves from the jet skis and gawking at Pelicans. Apart from eating, playing frisbee in the pool and reading our books we didn't do much else and it was lovely. Unfortunately Melissa left Sunday evening as she is a real adult and had to work on Monday. Leo, Amy and I however stayed another night. We walked along the promenade in Paracas that evening. We detoured through a five star resort and were blown away at how beautiful (and expensive looking) it was. We must have looked very out of place with our kokopelli wrist bands on. We continued along the promenade gazing into the back of all mansions backing onto the sea and of course we stopped to see the sunset on the way back to Kokopellie. We spent the night playing pool and more giant Jenga with Scott and Kelly, an Australians brother and sister we had met at the hostel. The next day we navigated our way back to Lima and Dragonfly just in time for me to work at 6pm on the bar.

Paracas sunset 

Giant Jenga queens 

Leo and I

Next Stop: back to Lima again 

Stayed: Kokopelli hostel, Paracas about $10 per night depending on dorm 

Food and drink: chilcanos (pisco, ginger ale and lime), fresh ceviche and fish 

#29 Slowing down in the busy capital of Peru

Lima.....again
After rethinking my plans to stay in Arequipa I decided to venture back to the massive capital city of Lima with Kristy and Eimear. This entailed a 16 hour bus which evolved into a twenty hour bus journey due to mud slides outside of Arequipa. It also involved being surrounded by three INTENSE snorers, one of which was sitting beside me, a (large) Peruvian man in his fifties face conveniently tilted in my direction, middle arm rest his for the journey with no chance of sharing (he also very unnervingly took a picture of me on his phone when I was asleep which I only happened to notice when I woke up abruptly to see him with phone in hand and me on the screen.....very creepy). The other man another two rows back which resembled a steam train and the third, two seats away from me..this man caused me the most concern (although snap happy man next to me took the lead after the photo shoot). You didn't need to be a physician to realise man number three had a severe case of sleep apnoea, snoring and groaning numerous decibels too high only to go silent for what felt like minutes to then proceed with a choking and grunting fit enough to jolt my next door neighbour snorer, alert me to thinking we would have to stop the bus to call an ambulance but surprisingly he never woke himself up.  Needless to say the snoring choir group got the best nights sleep on the bus! On the plus side we got three (carb heavy) meals and a comfy reclining chair with endless action filled Jackie Chan films playing as loud as possible throughout the journey.

We made it to Dragonfly hostel in the touristy, affluent area of Miraflores in South Lima the next evening. This is where I would be working/volunteering for the next couple of weeks which I had found on the website workaway. I was initially apprehensive at first at my choice of hostel for my first workaway. On my first day, helping with making beds and some general cleaning I walked into the kitchen to witness an American guy in his early twenties shouting at the two lovely girls who worked at the hostel declaring that he was sick of being treated like a slave and demanding some respect. He then proceeded to have a very public dispute with Sergio the manager of the hostel. He declared he was leaving only to change his mind, asking could he stay a few more days. Needless to say Sergio did not grant his request and he left that afternoon. I later found out that he was the volunteer before me. My friend Hazel who randomly showed up in Dragonfly for a few days (small travelling world) said he had been having the same screaming matches a couple of weeks ago when she was initially staying in the hostel....he was also a Trump supporter. Enough said! I didn't let his rants affect my judgement and I gradually came around the place, a sociable but relaxed hostel with a large rooftop terrace, small bar and decent kitchen, nice staff and very easy bar work serving Peruvian craft beers and pisco sours.

I was glad the hostel was a couple of blocks from the coast where you can find the impressive Malecon, a six mile stretch along the cliffs leading to the Pacific Ocean which has spotless, manicured parks and statues along the stretch, it's very popular with runners, bikes and walking (it feels more like Miami/Californian coastline rather than a South American capital city). Ive tried to get into a routine of running a few times a week along the Malecon (any later than 7.30am and it's too
hot). Seeing as it's the summertime here....Lima is very humid and sunny! A stark contrast to the snow and gloomy weather my family and friends are having to endure in England and Ireland.

The first few days in Lima I was getting used to the hostel work (not overly demanding). I also met up with Jorge who has set up a project called 'Superlearner' Lima which I also found on workaway. We discussed if and how I could get involved in his project which thankfully I have started and will write a separate post on the project.

 It was Kirsty and Eimears last few days in South America so we took advantage of the range of food options and drinks and did what we do best.....eat! We were however taken aback when we went out for food on our second night in Lima and a Saturday night at how expensive everything was...a main dish averaging at about $10-12 around Miraflores..yes I am aware this isn't extortionate but when you're used to paying $2 for a two course menu it seems like they're asking you for your first born in exchange for a shitty pizza in a gringo packed sports bar. Thankfully we wandered about for and actually found a delightful Arabic restaurant right on Parque Kennedy offering falafel, salad and hummus packed plates for about $6. So much food and very tasty! After a seriously garlic and onion heavy meal we met Jorge and his friends who very nicely offered to take us out and show us some local bars around Miraflores. It ended being an extremely diverse group consisting of three French girls, Jorge, leonardo (Peruvian), Leonardo (Venezuelan) and the three garlic humming dietitians. We went to bar called publico in Miraflores and had a few drinks (a rare Gin and tonic for me...one good thing about being in a generally westernised city). On the way home the girls and I walked back through Parque Kennedy in Miraflores, also known as the cat park. At night the park is filled with cats that live there....these cats are extremely friendly and are not the usually scrawny flea infested stray animals but are cared for and fed by locals around Miraflores! Safe to say I prefer the cat park to a dog park any day (sorry dog lovers).

After a few days of being in Lima and not having visited a local food market, Arthur (our French food and women loving friend from Arequipa), Hazel (my English friend from Ecuador) and I decided to seek one out. We found out there was the Surquillo mercado about a thirty minute walk away from Miraflores. We set off in search of fresh ceviche which Peru and of course Lima are famous for. After walking through the mercado we randomly stopped at a fish stand with an array of fresh squid, scallops, octopus and shellfish sprawled out on display under some pretty tacky glittery shell mobiles. Arthur asked the Peruvian woman how much some squid would be to buy. She quickly proceeded to grab a couple of handfulls of the fish, placing it in a big bowl with a spicy sauce made from chilli (Ricotta) and water and laid it on a plate with sweet potato, lime, topped with red onion and coriander. She asked us to sit and gave us the plate to try for free. It. Was. Amazing. She was so
proud of her produce she just wanted us to try it! After some flirting by Arthur wth the two lovely Peruvian women who both had a wicked sense of humour we decided to ask for some ceviche to buy and share between us. The plate of seafood joy we got was by the far the best food I have eaten since I've been away! Deep dried seaweed, scallops and squid in a light batter, mixed seafood ceviche, sweet potatoes and more spice and lime. Just sitting with these Peruvian women and two new friends
in a quiet market on a random morning eating the freshest fish made in front of us was a very special experience. Of course I came back with Jorge a few days later and funnily we didn't get as much
attention from the Peruvian women (maybe as I hadn't brought back another French man) however the fish was still ridiculously good.

Market ceviche...so fresh 

Apart from hanging around Miraflores I also went to bohemian Barranco which has really great street art, nice bars and restaurants as well as good views over the sea and out to another suburb called Chorillos. Jorge brought Arthur, Hazel and I out to Barranco for a 'local' tour and drinks. We walked over the pointe Del Esperanza (the bridge of sighs), apparently if you walk over the bridge holding your breath and make a wish at the other side it comes true.....safe to say my pace became a lot faster as I got to the end of the bridge and I wished I didn't suffocate to death. I'm not one for galleries or museums but I did go to the Peruvian photographer, Mario Testinos exhibition in Barranco which I really liked, the gallery itself is set in a powder blue traditional house and displays some of his many photographs of famous celebrities as well as some of his vogue shots. He had also taken photographs of indigenous people in traditional dress. For only $3 entrance it was really good value.

MATE gallery 

The food in Lima I think deserves a whole paragraph (or probably blog). Lima is famous for its food and in the last few years has started to be recognised for its culinary skills. I've mentioned ceviche many times and it is definitely the place to try it...earlier in the day if possible, especially in the summer months (hot, humid weather and raw fish = dicing with death). I was lucky enough to be brought to Tio Mario, a well known Peruvian restaurant in Barranco over looking the Bridge of sighs. It is famous for its anticuchos (cows hearts)! It also serves stomach and skewers of tender marinated meat with choclo (corn) and potatoes. We also drank traditional 'chicha' a juice which is made from black corn, cinnamon, lime and sometimes pineapple. It is a Limean staple and found everywhere! After the Anticuchos (yep I had them....and liked them)! We had picarones for desert. Essentially donuts made from squash and sweet potatoes and served with fig honey. I appreciate a vegetable being a component of a desert and also...who doesn't love donuts. They definitely did not taste healthy but they were delish! This is probably the most traditional Peruvian meal possible and to top it all off it was national Pisco sour day so of course we had to go for a couple of the pisco, egg shite, lemon and sugar syrup cocktails (I've also managed to perfect making these from working in the hostel).

Falafel at tarboush 

Street art in Barranco 

Famous pisco sours at Ayahuasca 

Over the next two weeks in Lima I didn't hike, or go camping or do any tours and it was surprisingly nice! After nearly five months of travelling through ten countries and moving every few days I couldn't believe that I was craving to get into a 'routine'. Boring things like grocery shopping, cooking, going for runs and getting to know an area well like finding out where is good for coffee, ice cream, laundry and even how to navigate the public buses haha (its these weird little things that you start to miss)....not that I'm complaining at all.

Next Stop: staying in Lima for now
Stayed: Dragonfly hostel, Miraflores
Food/Drink: (quite a list)
Surquillo market for the best ceviche I have ever tasted
Tarboush for Arabic food on Parque Kennedy
Tio Mario in Barranco for traditional Peruvian food
Manola, Miraflores. Good coffee and claims to have the best churros in Lima! As well as the biggest sandwiches I have ever seen.
Ayahuasca in Barranco for cocktails
Bizarro nightclub