Lima One Week

 Night Life, Kings and Stealing Things...

First week in Lima, South America, interesting to say the least been an adventure and a half and it kind of feels like I have been here much longer than i actually have. I have met a large amount of people in Lima and it feels like I wouldn't have time to mention them all. Alas I will mention one that made a great impression on me. 

I did spend some time wandering around and found the beach that can be overlooked from a cliff, fog made the ocean look like a haze from a sauna. surfers and locals covered the beach and water. the humidity and breeze were calming, great place to reflect and think.

Jose, is actually staying on the top bunk of me in my 8 bed dorm. I didn't meet him before because I never actually saw him awake... the jokes around the hostel is that its because the beds are super comfortable. Which is actually very very true, I don't ever remember a hostel that has had better bed then this, wider than a normal cot and great to sleep on. Besides the point he liked to sleep. 

Our hostel has an area on the second floor that opens up to the sky to let the sun in, great area to relax and read or talk to other people in the hostel. Jose was chilling out there fixing a bracelet. Long but very curly dark hair and a beard to match, olive skin and very honest and kind eyes. I sat across from him... but to my surprise the man didn't even look up, not so much as even noticed me. I didn't want to interrupt him and at the same time didn't want to seem aloof. I shift a bit... waited a bit... then said in the my "the hell with it" asked him what he was doing. Looking up nonchalantly he smiled, said that he had gotten the bracelet from a vendor down the street but it was too short for his neck and so he was making a bracelet from it. The bracelet was black and had the colours of Bob Marley, very suitable.

After the initial "ice breaker" if you want to call it that, things went smoothly after that, he was warm and compassionate about all things, travel and concerts, turned about to be a local too. I think he enjoyed the atmosphere in the hostel. He explained his experiences driving in Beijing a couple years before on a motorbike with a side car, 6 people all together, hanging on even someone on the spare tire. He was a good story teller. He told me later that he was meeting a friend and going out in Barranco, the district we were in was meant for parties. 

Later on I didn't have much to do, so when he approached I said "why not?!" finished my next to full beer in a couple 'sips' and we were on our way. Jose and his friend both spoke very good english but also talked a lot in spanish, I am catching on and can understand a lot more now. where did we go? we went everywhere! No, I'm serious we went everywhere. I can say that I won't have many pictures of the night life for the fact that a camera is bulky to carry around and very easily stolen, its not recommended to bring... I will share some more interesting story in a bit about things being stolen. 

One of the first places on the agenda was 'Ayahuasca House' house turned into a bar, I think house is the wrong term, it was more like mansion, the courtyard was fairly big with two stairways that paralleled a horse shoe to the entrance. There was a lot of different nationalities sitting and talking and the drinks were more pricey than other places, everyone seems to be dressed a little better. What really made the place stand out though was the creativity that went into it, there was about 8 different rooms that you could go into and every room was different. One room was completely black with bits of colourful yarn glued to the walls and ceiling, it almost made it look as if when you looked up that colourful grass was protruding down at us. another one had an accent wall that was for lack of a better explanation rows and rows of fish bowls with colour papers inside each one. another wall that separated two rooms was made of glass but to look like a newspaper with white print. 

Other bars that we went too had less character but where in unique places such as over looking a cliff to the ocean. There were many places to sit, eat and drink along that boardwalk. The beauty and quiet atmosphere attracts a lot of couples, which seemed to be paired up all over the places, arms around each other, quiet whispers, a stolen kiss and giggles were all very common. After a mojito (yeah they really know how to make them here) and some talk about the politics of the country we were off again to the main boulevard. Crowed streets, noisy with bar upon bar, some for tourists others were packed with locals with better drink prices. I remember going to at least eight different bars, sitting on chairs that were tiny or off balance, seeing bathrooms that were ... less than appealing, drinking beers, mojitos and pisco sours. 

What I had noticed was that Jose was pacing himself and when ever we shared a "grande cerveza" I would be the one to drink most of it and/or finish it. I didn't find out till later why. 

later...

I looked at the less than crappy watch that I had purchased that day. 7 sol! yeah! I figured I only wanted the time, didn't care about the quality of the watch (sorry John) but it's better to have a crappy watch when or if it gets stolen. Well, my watch informed me it was 4:30 am and we were still drinking and playing music form the jukebox. Hahaha! wow, His friend that had come out had to bow out around midnight because he had to go pick up his wife from another party. I figured it wouldn't be too long after that when we decided to go home.  I couldn't be more wrong, He was still talking about all kinds of things, the drugs in Peru and if I decided to partake to be very careful on who I bought from (you're legally allowed to have 8 grams of marijuana and 2 grams of cocaine on your for personal use... however you're not allowed to buy or sell it... hmm quite interesting... and no I didn't partake nor do I think I will  :P). Among other conversations about music, girls and travel. It wasn't long after that, that I decided to bow out and get some sleep too. To my amazement he was just getting started... Yes, I found out first hand why Jose liked to sleep a lot... well... the beds are comfortable. :)

The next night it just seems natural or innocent to get a drink with dinner out somewhere. This time Jarod joined me. We found a place that was renowned for its seafood and anyone that was anyone would be there on sunday. I'm someone! yeah we went, one of their best dishes was the 'Ceviches'. This place was a little more expensive than the one we had found before that served the dish. This time it had big chunks of cod, shrimp, squid, and other fish and a big serving at that, garnished with a sweet potato and bits of bitter corn. I have to admit it was extremely good. The trick to Ceviche is to get it at lunch time you want it fresh, and not to sit out all day or recooked, for an obvious reason that you don't want food poisoning and the other which would be they have to 'recook' it with more lime/lemon juices, which make it too acidic.

anyways Sunday night wasn't all that exciting for the night life, most of the places that had any character were closed. We did find two bars on the boulevard open, facing each other in a quarrel, it wasn't hard to pick out which one to go to, one was offering a free 'Pisco Sour' (if you don't remember what it is from an earlier blog it is a sweet and tart drink, very tasty and refreshing with a good kick of Pisco alcohol a sort of brandy made from grapes.) When we sat down in this places with loud dance music and a dance music video playing that didn't match the music... at all! (It wasn't just out of sync it wasn't even the same genre haha) and colourful lights rotating like a disco ball. It was dead.

There was a couple tables of locals in the club one table in general made us laugh, a couple really making out, trying to get closer than what they already were... which was impossible ridiculous affection for something so public. We weren't the only two that thought it was funny. A couple of girls did come in after us, decided to order shots of tequila and dance. They a gesture toward the couple that were going 'at it' made a  "oh my" facial expression and laughed out loud. One was Israeli just started to study law here and the other was american that oddly enough spent two years living in Calgary, small world. We ordered a few more drinks, they started to dance, with Jarod... a local girl came up to me said which I must admit made me laugh... "Come dance with me! You  can't say no, you're not allowed!" yeah... so I told her that I couldn't dance that well, not the way they dance here. Wasn't a good enough excuse though, because she was determined to teach me! So, we danced and drank.

 Here comes the interesting part, I had a suspicion when I had walked into the place, just to be on alert. My suspicion died down later on, however when I had to go into the bathroom, there was a man in there, local man that tried to start a conversation, Well, I caught little what he had to say he was speaking such fast spanish, but he slowed down a bit and explained to me that he girl that was 'forcing' me to learn the art of dance was going to drug me and take my money. Yay! 

Haha, what an adventurous place, Needless to say I stopped dancing with that one, and quit drinking. I left Jarod with my knowledge of the local girl and left him with the other two that were obviously not dangerous, bid them all a "Buenas Noches" and decided to go for a walk in the park and then head home. Was a quiet night, very warm, various couples on the benches. Not going to lie every so often the calm atmosphere was interrupted by a local "where you from?" which the reply "doesn't matter" and the rebuttal "you want cocaine" always no, however other than that they were very nice. 

This didn't happen that night, happened a couple days ago, but it has given me mixed feelings. I had only heard of these things happening before and never actually happened to me. But hey, all experiences right. I bought an Osprey Bag because of the quality, warranty and design... The design this smaller bag can be zipped onto the big one, that was cool, but what really caught my eye when I bought it was the fact that when its on your shoulders no one can get into it. it has to be taken off to unzip and has many pockets protecting the most important part on the inside. 

So, two common things for thieves to do is to unzip your bag while you're walking and take the valuables that you my have inside... or slash open your bag with a razor, which is much more ... shitty! They are good, you would think that you would know or feel it, but the chances are you're not the first tourist they have ripped off. 

So, the good news is that I bought the bag for the reason that its hard to steal from me so... nothing was stolen... the bad news... I will have to find somewhere to repair my bag below.

 Now I have to decide where I am going next... I think Iquitos is in order, however I may stay in Lima for christmas... time will tell. Today I am going to spend the day chilling out and reading, I have the second book in the series from the 'Game of Thrones" called the "Clash of Kings" 

until next time. :) Keep smiling and living!