Would the real Lima please stand up?

Day 2: Lima

Wanting to stay active on this trip, we went for a run first thing in the morning. Wanting to make it a "good" run, not like our run through the city and industrial sectors of Toronto, we took a cab down to the beach assuming it would be cleaner and less traffic-y. Not entirely the case.

We were dropped off next to a group of 200 or so high school students? all doing calisthenics en mass. Weird right? Commands blared out from a megaphone at the front, and everyone seemed to be following along enthusiastically. These would pretty much be the only people we saw.

Dogs ended up being the most common sight. Usually it was hard to tell if they were dead or alive. With a group of stinky food stalls on one side, and exhaust from the road on the other, we pressed on. Then, randomly, a beautiful new oceanside restaurant. Empty (it was 10am, but there were employees bustling inside). Then, a giant, run down, palm treed convention center. Closed indefinitely. All that remained? A lone security guard watching sleepily from his tiny booth.

Our attempt to find a well regarded vegetarian restaurant for lunch failed, and we ended up at Tropical. After waiting a few minutes, we asked for the menu and were directed to the 2 inch by 2 inch scrap of paper on the table. The menu of the day. Pick from 4 appetizers and 4 mains. Juice and dessert included. For $3. It came quick too!

In the afternoon, we practically became best friends with our cab driver en route to central Lima. He warned us of the upcoming "molestacion" (people would be skipping work countrywide to protest) and offered his cell number, so that he could show us around the countryside when we returned.

Plaza Mayor, the heart of central Lima, looks like this:



Two cute little kids bugged us to buy those little thread people from them. We refused and tried to get the little girl talking. Apparently she does this every day (sad). And her younger brother's English vocabulary seems to be centered on the word "monkey".

The nearby pedestrian mall:



Even though Miraflores didn't feel very touristy, central Lima felt even less so. We saw only a handful of travelers (read: white people), which is always strangely comforting to me when I travel. I don't enjoy feeling like a tourist being herded around to all the "hotspots".

Next up, the Spanish Inquisition Museum. The cool thing about this museum is that it actually was the site of the Inquisition headquarters for all of South America (for a period of time). I would tell you more about it, but I only absorbed some of the information. We weren't prepared to wait another hour for the next tour in english!



Although it didn't end up being a "must do", it was pretty interesting. I was amazed at how graphic the tour was. Here our guide explicitly describes the various methods of torture used:



The tour ended crawling down into the "catacombs" where prisoners were held captive.


The view up and down Abancay Street (thankfully for you all the air pollution didn't really translate on film):



We eventually gave up trying to find the National Art Museum (even the guy selling tourist maps was no help...and he was only 1/2 a mile away), and took a cab back. Two blocks later, we drove past the museum, which happened to be closed on Monday anyway.

Back in Miraflores, we again attempted to find the vegetarian restaurant, but not even our host Angelo could find it (nor could his Phone-a-Friend lifeline), so we wandered around looking for a similar restaurant that he recommended. After about 20 minutes (and several failures), we found it. Practically deserted. Apparently, they explained, spaghetti was the only available food that evening?!?

You know how it can be when you really want something (food, water, bathroom etc.) and are constantly teased with the prospect of relief, but never quite get there? Yeah. We were famished. The result: over ordering at overpriced Korean food. It would be one of our only "international" meals.