Backpacking South America – Peru: Lima, Miraflores
DAYS 1 – 4
The overwhelming feeling of, “what are we DOING?!” didn’t hit me until the shuttle was pulling up to the Jet Blue terminal. It hadn’t seemed real up until that point. Three months of backpacking in South America? Three months is forever! All we had booked was our taxi ride from the airport and our first hostel. While I trusted we’d figure it out as we went along, all of a sudden I felt the fear of the unknown rush in.
We had a nine hour layover in Fort Lauderdale and took the bus to the beach. In our merino wool trekking clothes, we hardly fit in. The beach was beautiful and the water was amazingly warm. The day passed quickly, and before we knew it, we were back on a plane for our final flight to Lima.
Lima main square
LIMA
We got in late around 11pm. Our hostel had arranged transportation, for which we were incredibly grateful because we quickly learned how selecting a cab as a newbie would be quite scary. The ride from the airport to our hostel was through very poor neighborhoods and streets. Everything was tagged with graffiti. We passed a couple hostel signs along the way, and all I could do was pray that we were going to come into a new part of town that would appear less scary.
Luckily, we were dropped off in a more central part of town across from a museum. Our hostel, 1900 Backpackers, was nice by any hostel standards with decent bathrooms and friendly people.
Miraflores
Lima itself didn’t offer us much inspiration. While we knew that we initiated this adventure for the outdoorsy part, Lima confirmed that we were interested in a bit more than what we experienced in the city. We took a bus to explore surrounding cities, including Miraflores (the more upscale city in Peru;
apparently where television celebrities live, though it’s hardly our Hollywood).
Here are some highlights and takeaways from Lima:
- The traffic is absolutely crazy. Beyond anything I could have imagined. Honking is the universal street language and the chatter is incessant. Lines to delineate lanes may as well be invisible and traffic lights seem like mere decoration. You cross the street through cars. Cars three lanes to the left make a right, honking as they navigate through.
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Ceviche class – yum!
The food is delicious! Our first day, we did a free ceviche cooking “class” through our hostel. We walked to the market and watched our chef negotiate to get the ingredients. The ceviche was delicious. The other restaurant we went to, which was extremely difficult to find (we ended up giving up and just watched where locals were going, and it turned out to be the right one) was so flavorful and delicious. La Tia Magda.
- People are kind, helpful, and friendly. They make eye contact on the streets.
- Elders, especially elderly women, always receive seats on the buses.
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Central Lima
The churro here is nothing like what we have in America. We went to the “best” churro place in Peru and it was a long pastry filled with a custard and rolled in cinnamon and sugar, warm and delicious!
>>Read Next: Machu Picchu, Aguas Calientes, Ollantaytambo (Days 5-12)
