Lynn and I flew from Chicago to Lima, Peru earlier today. Like most flights that get booked 6 months in advance, things change. When we arrived in LA...last night?...this morning? I forget which. Our connecting flight through San Salvador..to Lima.. no longer existed. And the TACA desk staff, was just wrapping up for the evening...which happened to be around 1am. After citing the rules to us, and explaining how this was not 'their fault' the lead desk agent took pity on us....perhaps because Lynn looked so sad, and said he would see if he could help. WOW...he came through! Booked us on a flight to Costa Rica to Lima and we nearly arrived at the same time as originally planned. So TACA beats United service by a long shot.
Lima
My first images of Lima are from films in a Catholic grade school in 5th grade. All I remember is it looked cold and all of these women wearing several layers of clothes and sporting bowler hats....it looked very different from anything I had seen growing up in St. Louis. Well so far...no bowler hats and the temperature is cool but very comfortable.
The city....well, I thought I had seen the worst traffic of my life in Rome....now I have a new ‘worst’ standard. In Rome they have a habit of turning 3 lane roads into 5 lane roads. But then they hit the gas and go. In Lima...they do the same lane thing....but traffic just crawls along slower than a three legged dog...walking down the sidewalk. Sorry we did not get any photos.
Our first impression of the city was...Ugh! Dreary, dull brown and gray. It seemed tired and worn. But then I realized after 3 planes, confusion in LA, and only 3 or four hours of sleep...perhaps I was the one that was feeling dull and gray. Once I realized that…I thought, “It can’t be that bad, things will get better.” We checked into a Sheraton Hotel in the city center. The hotel is nice...but the desk clerk told us it is not safe to walk outside. UhOh!
First Peruvian Meal
Again…no pic’s. We left without the camera. Sleepy, I guess. We went to the suburb of Miraflores, on the coast. It looks somewhat like the bay in LA., except the city is pretty high off of the beach, like Normandy in France. It was relaxing to hear the ocean surf crashing against the beachfront. We walked around the shopping district. Quite a few new high rise residential units. Several of them with interesting curves vs. a flat face.
We dined at a restaurant on the beach, Rosa Nautica. It looked like a Victorian Conservatory. There was a walkway from the road, going out into the ocean. One side of the walkway was lined with small stores and the other open to the sea. The restaurant was full of white window frames and flowers. The sun has just finished settling into the ocean, and Lynn and I had our first PiscoSour…the National drink of Peru.
Put a few of those away….and you probably risk falling into the sea…I sort of floated back to our taxi and we crashed for the night. Oh yeah! The food. It was very good. We had two different versions of Sea Bass (corvina in Espanola)…another national thing. Lynn’s was grilled with potatoes, & leeks. She thought they tasted fresh. I have never put the words fresh and potatoes together before….but her taste buds are better than mine. And I had Sea Bass with a confit of onions, red wine and magic sauce. If it has wine in it…has to be good, right ;o) and it was.
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