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Our first day in Lima exceeded all expectations. I had the that impression that it would be a culturally barren, monolithic slum, but it was in fact quite interesting. <br />

Guinea Pig Stew

GringoAndGringa
2006-02-18 15:05:01

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Our first day in Lima exceeded all expectations. I had the that impression that it would be a culturally barren, monolithic slum, but it was in fact quite interesting.

Our taxi driver (Roberto, who won the large jostling match for our business) was unable to take us right to the hostel because of a demonstration. It was in a large public square right outside our hostel. We never did figure out what the point was. They were yelling a lot, though.

A marching band started up as soon as the demonstration wound down. We went down to look and there were people dancing and people carrying effigies of San Francisco. It was some kind of religious thing, so we did the only respectful thing: took lots of pictures!

Later that night we went looking for dinner. We passed a few gringo-friendly spots, but kept looking. Then we happened on a crazy night market with no gringos in sight. Food in Lima is... interesting. At the market, we ate some "mystery stew" for 2 soles ($.75). We figure it was guinea pig stew. We got a weird papya cider or something, too. Earlier in the day, I ate some civice -- raw fish

Ten second exposure of the sight of the stewin lime juice. But I ordered calamari, damn it!

The hostel we´re at, "Hostal España", is quite a character place. There are bits of mummy in the lobby! Not to mention the Greco-Roman statuary and the chandeliers. Its very nice, but tomorrow we´re gonna get out of here and try to get some Spanish lessons in a bit of a less hectic environment. Maybe we´ll go up the coast to Trujillo or over to Cuzco.

Oh, and Kathleen took some videos with her camera, too. We´re still beta testing the video function, but there should be something on Google Video soon: http://video.google.com/ and search for ¨"Lima, Peru". They have to approve it, so it may or may not be up by the time you read this.

See you soon,
Gringo