Another weekend en la cuidad

Last Saturday Mark and I ventured into Central Lima. First of all, let me start by saying that Lima is huge. It has something like 30 districts, 7 million residents, and can take up to two hours to get from one end of the city to the other. We live in Miraflores, a neighborhood that is right on the ocean, full of cute restaurants, cafes, parks, etc. In order to get to the historic center of Lima, we took a combi. A combi is the lovechild between a bus and a minivan. It has the shape of a large minivan but has various seats and a center aisle like a bus.

Mark and I journeyed a few cuadras (blocks) from our apt. to a main street where all the combis run. We got on one and crammed towards the front of it, sitting across from one another. The fare was S/1 (one nuevo sol). Currently the exchange rate is about 2.85 soles to the Dollar, so that means the ride cost less than 50 cents. Although there was traffic, the ride was actually enjoyable. The combi driver put the radio on a station that played some good American rock music. To make matters better, Mark thought the driver looked like Bruce Springsteen. I assure you, he did not, hehe.

Once in the center of Lima, we saw a lot of neat things including the changing of the guard at the Palacio del Gobierno (where the President lives). They do it everyday at noon I believe, accompanied by bands, tanks, and tons of tourists (picture 1). The Plaza also has a beautiful fountain. See if you can find Mark amongst the crowd in Picture 2. After seeing this, we went around the block from the Plaza Mayor to the San Francisco Monastery. Some of you might already know, that even though I am not Catholic, I really admire St. Francis. Ever since I went to Assisi in Italy, I have been interested in learning more about him. So, the monastery in Lima is incredible. It contains the second oldest library in South America. Another amazing part was the maze of catacombs that lies underneath the church. It was the first public cemetery in Lima during the 18th century and contains over 70,000 bodies. Most of what we could see were just some really dusty bones, still enough to be creepy and awesome at the same time. Upstairs in the corridors there were murals and tiling dating back to 1620. And even thought the church has been partially hurt by a few earthquakes over the centuries, most of it has stayed in tact thanks to the columns underneath the church where the catacombs lie.

After that tour, we explored through some more streets in the historic center. We didn't manage to see everything the city had to offer but we did stumble upon a cute little restaurant that we needed to refuel. It's amazing the deals you can get on food here. Lunch consisted of two course and cost S/6.50, which is less than 3 bucks. After enjoying our meal, we caught another combi home and ran some errands for the day, including getting my hair cut. not sure if the haircut was a great idea. I tried really hard to tell the hairdresser what I wanted, even found pictures to support my new look. But once she had those scissors in her hand it was a whole different story. She gave me the shorter cut I wanted but also left a long ugly layer in the back. I thought it was awful, so when I returned home, I woke Mark up from his nap and made him cut off that long, ugly, mullet-like layer. Thanks goodness for Mark, now I look alright.

We awoke on Sunday to SUNSHINE! It was like we were living in a new place. Since I've been here, it's been grey skies, not even a hint of the star I used to know, called the Sun. It was incredible. Mark and I walked down to the water and watched the paragliders while we ate yummy empanadas from the cafe next store to our place. We also went up to a roof top (pictures 3 and 4) and could see some more paragliders from there. You can barely see a paraglider over one of the buildings to the right in the last pic. It's a very popular thing to do in Miraflores right on the water. We spent the rest of the day in our new favorite cafe, Cafe Z, diving into some good books (Three Cups of Tea, for mark, and Mountains Beyond Mountains for me). All in all a good weekend. Looking forward to some more.

Next week is the last week of my Spanish class and when Mark is traveling again, this time to DC and El Salvador. Then the week after Beth arrives and we go off on an adventure after celebrating July 4th as expats in Lima. More pictures to come, I promise. Hasta pronto :)