Day 367 – Lima
Today we woke up to the other boys in our dormitory at Orchid Hostel packing their bags early in the morning. They were from Costa Rica. After they left, we also got up and went to have the included breakfast at our hostel. The breakfast was the same as yesterday, which is buffet bread, lettuce, tomatoes, jam, butter, coffee and tea. It’s not fancy but gave us sustenance.
After which, we spent a few hours to plan the rest of our time in Peru. I was looking at travel insurance and my wife was planning to be more accurate. We were in the common area of the hostel, which is nice, besides the fact it’s shared by two cats and a door that people keep open, which lets in a freezing draught.
Yesterday after the tour, we had walked down a street with local restaurants called Jiron Camana. The street is parallel to the walking street, Jiron de la Union. We ended up going to this street to eat. We ate set menus from the first restaurant that looked open. The restaurant was called Avellanneda’s. Each meal comes with a drink, entree and main for only 10 PEN ($4.30 AUD). We could get some delicious ceviche as the entrée.
Raw fish, cooked with lemon…yum!
After lunch we headed back to the hostel, and we found an English girl in our dorm room. She was friendly so we chatted for a while.
We then walked to Real Plaza which is a shopping centre. Here we went to a restaurant called Sarcletti. The hot chocolate and brownies were nice. When I asked for directions to the toilet, the waiter was not sure what I wanted and kept thinking I wanted the menu. I said, “Donde es bano”, but once he found out what I wanted, he taught me how to say it properly “donde esta el bano”. I don’t think many tourists come to the Real Plaza with such bad Spanish language skills.
After our coffee stop, we just spent the day walking around town, looking for any nice winter clothing. We didn’t find anything nice and pack-able. But there was plenty of nice clothing for really cheap. Our Free Walking Tour guide from yesterday (Day 366) told us that everything is cheaper in Downtown Lima, than the touristy suburb of Miraflores, especially souvenirs.
Then we walked back to have dinner at a food stall that we saw was super popular called Papa Queens. The fried chicken and chips was really nice and we didn’t even realise that the cone comes with a drink on the bottom. As we were walking back towards the hostel, we met two nice and talkative Venezuela guys who wanted to know where we bought the food from. They chatted with us until our food was cold. They were super friendly and their English was perfect.
From Papas Queen. There is a drink at the bottom of the cone!
After our fast food dinner, we headed back to our hostel and packed our bags. We have an early bus ride tomorrow to our next town in Peru.