Our final morning in 511 Hostel is spent wolfing down plates of scrambled eggs like gluttons, as the rest of the hostel has failed to rise for breakfast and we can consume it all like locusts. Bags packed, farewells issued, bill paid. Big bag of clean laundry collected too. Sarah throws out a bleach-stained dress. We are nearing the time when our clothes will be destroyed in a frenzy, sick of wearing the same garments day in, day out. I am coming home with a sleeping bag and a Norn Iron football shirt. Everything else is dead to me.
Our taxi to our new hostel, 1900 Backpackers, skins us PNS$25, but thats what we get for not asking the price in advance. The huge mansion sits comfortably opposite the Lima Museum of Art and within easy walking distance of the Plaza De Armas and all the attractions located about it. With only two and a half days available to us to visit the museums (it looks a lot like Lima is going to shut down for Good Friday), we've got a busy schedule ahead of us. First we orientate ourselves, then we start soaking up information.
The hostel is big, the biggest we've stayed in yet, and busy. We're not used to this; so far we've been able to find our own space anywhere we've been. This might be a little trickier.
Out we go, wander through a few pretty parks, suss out our neighbourhood, and make our way up towards the Plaza San Martin. There, pre-empting our hunger, we indulge in a KFC. It's a remarkably nice KFC, clean and tidy and helpful staff and no spides. However, as the title notes, there are grave failings. There is no gravy. It's hard to imagine how this has happened, so integral to the concept of KFC is the gravy. Yet it is blatently absent from the menu. Perhaps it is up against some sort of food standards regulation. Maybe, with cocaine, Peru already has enough addictive substances to battle.
Still, the other thing you might notice is how fast food in Lima costs the same as it does back home. Any idea that this is where you go for a cheap holiday is a bit out the window. In fact, with such a fantastic range of activities, both outdoors and indoors, it looks like Peru might cost us more than anywhere else (except Uruguay of course).
A little more walking and we come across the Lima Food Museum. At PNS$3 its really cheap, and for a really good reason. Three rooms of encyclopaedic information that could have been gleaned from Wikipedia, its non-permanent exhibition of Peruano recipes is the only real highlight. All the recipes utilise locally grown produce, and its fascinating to see how diverse the cultural influences on Peru's cuisine really are; from the Incas and pre-Incas, the Spanish conquistadores, the Italian immigrants, not to mention the Chinese and Japanese immigrants, all added a little something to the mix. For the most part, the key is freshness of produce. As we learned the night before, a good ceviche isn't marinaded for more than 15 minutes before serving.
By now its 5pm and the museums are closing. Sarah returns to her bead shop to collect more 'ingredients' for her craft projects, and I pass the time reading the paper in Dunkin Donuts. As the sun sets we wind back towards the hostel. 6pm traffic in Lima is about as insane an experience as I can imagine. It feels good to not need to take a taxi home at this time. There are thousands of people thronging the streets, so many students and office workers all heading somewhere. We drift towards the Rea Plaza at the base of the Sheraton hotel. Its a hive of shops, a comprehensive food court, and a multiplex cinema. We haven't been to the cinema the whole time we've been in Latin America. I think we'll fix that in the next day or two.
Our neighbourhood isn't exactly a hot spot for pubs and bars however. When we get back to the hostel its full of all the life we feared. After sorting out what beds we'll sleep in, we grab a seat and make plans. What is there to do in Central Lima at night? Not many suggestions spring forth from the internet. We do learn that the museum across the road has a little cinema for showing arthouse stuff, and that a not-so-little pub up the road is one of Lima's secret gems. Both are now on our to-do list.
But that's really about it. We make small talk with a few guests, but everyone seems to drift off for dinner. Eventually, after a game of pool, so do we. A quick walk around the block suggests that, by 8.30pm, you probably ought to stick to the main road, unless you have ambitions to talk to young girls in cheap dresses with expensive pricetags. A little eaterie yields chicken and chips, plus a beer each, for PNS$21 all in. Bargain.
I have been working on some Norn Irish nursery rhymes for a while now, but without really attacking them with the vigour required. I give it another go this evening, but the excitement of the day overtakes me, and by 11pm its lights out. Up early tomorrow for some serious 'museuming', not to mention an anxious phone call to the UK Passport Office.
Our taxi to our new hostel, 1900 Backpackers, skins us PNS$25, but thats what we get for not asking the price in advance. The huge mansion sits comfortably opposite the Lima Museum of Art and within easy walking distance of the Plaza De Armas and all the attractions located about it. With only two and a half days available to us to visit the museums (it looks a lot like Lima is going to shut down for Good Friday), we've got a busy schedule ahead of us. First we orientate ourselves, then we start soaking up information.
The hostel is big, the biggest we've stayed in yet, and busy. We're not used to this; so far we've been able to find our own space anywhere we've been. This might be a little trickier.
Out we go, wander through a few pretty parks, suss out our neighbourhood, and make our way up towards the Plaza San Martin. There, pre-empting our hunger, we indulge in a KFC. It's a remarkably nice KFC, clean and tidy and helpful staff and no spides. However, as the title notes, there are grave failings. There is no gravy. It's hard to imagine how this has happened, so integral to the concept of KFC is the gravy. Yet it is blatently absent from the menu. Perhaps it is up against some sort of food standards regulation. Maybe, with cocaine, Peru already has enough addictive substances to battle.
Still, the other thing you might notice is how fast food in Lima costs the same as it does back home. Any idea that this is where you go for a cheap holiday is a bit out the window. In fact, with such a fantastic range of activities, both outdoors and indoors, it looks like Peru might cost us more than anywhere else (except Uruguay of course).
The back of the Museo De Arte Italiano. More on that later.
From of aforementioned Italian Art Museum.
Palacio De Justicia
Not sure what this is but its gorgeous.
Churches, churches everywhere...
So many churches, so little time... all rich, rich, rich!
Today is the day for the Cheap Museums however. We make our way into the Santo Domingo Convent for a mere PNS$7 and, although very similar to the Santo Francisco Convent to which we went the other day, you have enough to justify the GBP1.50 cover charge, plus there's a big tower which, unfortunately, you're only allowed into in a group. If you get up it, there's a grand view of the city (apparently).
Beautiful Sevillana tiles
One big library, 25000 books, plus some chairs made specially to fit the bum-size of the various monastic scholars.
Plaza De Armas, Lima.
By now its 5pm and the museums are closing. Sarah returns to her bead shop to collect more 'ingredients' for her craft projects, and I pass the time reading the paper in Dunkin Donuts. As the sun sets we wind back towards the hostel. 6pm traffic in Lima is about as insane an experience as I can imagine. It feels good to not need to take a taxi home at this time. There are thousands of people thronging the streets, so many students and office workers all heading somewhere. We drift towards the Rea Plaza at the base of the Sheraton hotel. Its a hive of shops, a comprehensive food court, and a multiplex cinema. We haven't been to the cinema the whole time we've been in Latin America. I think we'll fix that in the next day or two.
Our neighbourhood isn't exactly a hot spot for pubs and bars however. When we get back to the hostel its full of all the life we feared. After sorting out what beds we'll sleep in, we grab a seat and make plans. What is there to do in Central Lima at night? Not many suggestions spring forth from the internet. We do learn that the museum across the road has a little cinema for showing arthouse stuff, and that a not-so-little pub up the road is one of Lima's secret gems. Both are now on our to-do list.
But that's really about it. We make small talk with a few guests, but everyone seems to drift off for dinner. Eventually, after a game of pool, so do we. A quick walk around the block suggests that, by 8.30pm, you probably ought to stick to the main road, unless you have ambitions to talk to young girls in cheap dresses with expensive pricetags. A little eaterie yields chicken and chips, plus a beer each, for PNS$21 all in. Bargain.
I have been working on some Norn Irish nursery rhymes for a while now, but without really attacking them with the vigour required. I give it another go this evening, but the excitement of the day overtakes me, and by 11pm its lights out. Up early tomorrow for some serious 'museuming', not to mention an anxious phone call to the UK Passport Office.
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