Day 416 – Chiclayo to Lima
Today we woke up on our Civa night bus in Lima. We arrived at the Norte Plaza Bus Terminal at 7.20am. From there, it took another 40 minutes to arrive at the La Victoria Civa Terminal. From the terminal we caught an Uber to our guest house, 190 La Casa de Alvaro.
Our guest house was in the touristy Miraflores section of Lima. The Uber driver took us to the destination. The accommodation, 190 La Casa de Alvaro was a little hard to find, as it was upstairs. We wanted to just drop off our bags, but the owner allowed us to use the room straight away. It was really nice of them, since it was only 9am!
After a shower, we were ready to either sleep or walk around town. We decided to walk around. The close by Avenue Arequipa, is a main road that is closed to traffic on Sunday mornings. It was cool to see people cycling, running and rollerblading down this major road. So many cities around the world do this, and I think it’s great.
We walked towards a cool little park called Parque John F. Kennedy. There were a few artists selling some really nice artwork here. We didn’t feel too adventurous for lunch, so we just went to Burger King (Hungry Jacks) for burgers.
Afterwards we walked down a nice walking path to the coast. There was a really cool park called Parque de la Benemrita Guardia Civil. It was surprisingly crowded with families and couples enjoying the sun. It’s not actually the coast, as the walk way is above a cliff face. Below the cliff face is a highway and then the beach front.
Path to the coast
Due to being on top of the cliff, we had nice views of the beach and city. As we walked along the walkway, there were several large parks and green areas, which were all used by locals. There were even kites flying in the sky. Like heaps and heaps of them.
We decided to walk back to our hostel. Along the way, we saw a cute cafe, Havanna Cafe. We had some coffee and snacks here before doing some grocery shopping. The security guard at Plazavea, told us to put our small backpack in a locker. It cost us 1 PEN ($0.44 AUD), but as we were leaving the 1 PEN coin was returned back to us.
It was strange how much more we enjoyed Lima, than the last time we were here. We don’t know if it was because we were in the Downtown area last time or if it was the sunny weather. Days 365, 366 and 367.
Later that night, we decided to bring back a tradition that we had stopped doing for a while…date night. I found a super nice restaurant called Restaurant Huaca Pucllana. It’s located walking distance from our hostel, and next to an adobe (mud) brick pyramid. The site looked beautiful with all the lights on it.
At the restaurant we had a 3 course meal and drinks. It was pricey but delicious. The meal cost us less than $100 AUD, which is cheap considering the location and the quality of the food. I tried a local delicacy called cuy. It was really nice, and for me, it tasted like slightly chewy calamari. My wife opted not to try the cuy (aka guinea pig).
