Goodbye, Lima and thanks for all the food

And just like that, we said goodbye to Lima. When we were planning the trip, we were meant to stay a maximum of two nights in Lima. Because we wanted to catch the Andean Explorer which goes once a week, we extended our stay in Lima to four nights. For a while there, I wondered how we were going to fill our time. 

Lima has a reputation of being big, messy, unsafe. The thousands of tourist seem to make a beeline for Machu Picchu, seeming regarding Lima as no more than a doorstep, barely pausing as they pass through on their way in or out. The people I had spoken to whom had been to Machu Picchu, did not stop in Lima. A few travel articles or blogs did say though, that Lima was worthy of more attention. More relevant to me though, was that Lima also had a reputation as a gastronomical delight. -— Did someone say good food? I'm there! 

Getting there

There is a lot of advice (warnings) about taxis in Lima, especially if you don't speak Spanish. I don't know how good one's Spanish has to be, but I came across the Airport Express which cost less than half of what we could expect to pay in a taxi, and is by all accounts safe, fast and convenient so we opted for that instead. There are several stops in the Miraflores district, so regardless where your hostel or hotel is, assuming you are staying in the usually preferred area, you'd be a few minutes walk away from the nearest stop. We had a 7 minute walk. Would it be more coveninent to have a car drive us to the doorstep of our hotel? Sure, I suppose it will. But easier and more convenient, is not always the better option, if you ask me. I wanted to experience Lima, and you can't really do that safely isolated in private transport. And in fact, the airport express was great. They were professional, helpful and friendly. They provided all the information we needed, about stops and directions and duration. There was wifi on-board and USB-ports for charging devices. There were mostly tourists on the bus, but quite a few locals using the bus as well. 

We took the early morning bus back to the airport for our flight out of Lima. On their flyer, they tell you how much time to estimate for the trip to the airport and we planned accordingly. The bus arrived on scheduled, they loaded our bags, we got on the bus and that was it. No delays, no hassle. I'd highly recommend it.*

Getting around 

The same issue with taxis and language apply with getting around in Lima, with the added complication of not having a reliable "official" airport taxi with its "official" price. I hate haggling with taxi drivers and am not very good at it. In a way, it was lucky that the short duration of our stay meant that there was limited time for us to do anything where a taxi might have been necessary. The few times we ventured away from Miraflores, we took the Metropolitano, a sort of cross between a tram and a bus. That was an adventure in itself. 

The Metropolitano experience 

Getting a ticket and getting on it was easy enough to figure out. We bought a travel card from a ticket machine which did not give change. We had a 20 soles note, so we got a card (for 5 soles) with 15 soles credit on it. Each ride cost, I think, 2.50 soles. The bus was rather busy, so we had to stand, which was fine. We were feeling quite confident and relishing our adventurous spirit and independence as the bus made its stops along the way. At most of these stops, only a few people got off (if any) but quite a few piled on.  It was quite impressive how people managed to get on to a already packed bus. It quickly got to a point where I could not so much as move my arm to adjust the strap of my bag. 

As I stood, I happened to look down and saw that the woman sitting right in front of me was breastfeeding. I silently applauded Peruvian society that this woman was there in a super packed bus breastfeeding and no one had made her go to a special room or put a blanket over her baby's head. She was surrounded by a dozen people who were busy not caring about it. 

As I looked around, I saw two guys standing very close to each other chatting away. I thought nothing of it because we were all standing close to one another and they were obviously friends. Then I noticed for one of the guys was actually holding on the other, I thought, for balance. Perhaps, but he was also caressing - yes, caressing, there was no mistaking it! - the other guy's back. Again, I silently applauded Peruvian society! Of course, I don't know if what I witnessed says anything about Peruvian society on these issues - how did feeding your baby become an "issue"??! I believe they are fairly conservative in many ways, so perhaps there is a lot more going on that I do not know about. 

Anyway, we are still on the Metropolitano, remember? At some point it was our stop. The surge of people leaving the bus we expected, hoped for, unfortunately did not materialise. So we had to fight our way through the crowd to get off, all within a window of seconds. It seemed like that as far as everyone was concerned, we got ourselves on the bus, we could get ourselves off. Nobody moved to make space for people to get off, but they didn't seem to mind if they were pushed aside. It seemed fair enough that they got pushed, but you had to do the pushing. So when the door started to beep before it closed, one of us had got off, I was still squeezing my way through but was held up because my bag was stuck between two people behind me. It did not help that people started to get on the bus, though how they found space is quite baffling! Another person also wanting to get off behind me managed to shove my bag through, while the first one of us held the doors open.

Walking around

The first thing we did the day after we arrived in Lima was to take a food walking tour. It was about two and a half hours of walking and eating. Our guide, Manuel was very good and explained to us a lot about Lima and her history, and about the food we were having. 

The first stop was at a local market, which we would have never found on our own. There were tried grenadilla, cactus fruit, and a few others which I cannot remember the name of. Chiromaya? Something like a custard apple. Grenadilla was a big hit, with me especially. It had an almost jelly like consistently, tasted much like passion fruit but not quite and was all in all, just amazing! 

Cerviche

Then we had cerviche which was different from any cerviche I had ever had before. The "Costa Rican" one I made for my World Cup Food Challenge was marinated in lime for hours so that the flesh of the fish was opaque. And there was lots of peppers etc. in the dish too, giving it a vibrant colour. Aesthetically, this cerviche was nothing to look at. Firstly, it was still pink. The sauce, called leche de tigre (tiger milk) was a soft salmon colour. There was also some onions, yuca, white corn and sweet potato. Except the sweet potato, it's not really big on colour, looked quite bland and not the most appealing.** The place we went to was also a hole in the wall sort of place which we, as tourists, would have never dreamed of walking in to eat raw fish. But never just a book and all that, right? 

Good thing too, because the taste was really good! The tiger sauce had a kick to it, which the yuca, corn and sweet potato complemented very well. There was a lot of lime in the sauce which brought out the flavour of the fish too. I could have done with less onions. Other than that, we ate it all. 

And washed it down with... Inca Kola! 

Inca Kola

I'd heard so much about this Inca Kola, and even read a book called Inca Kola (which was, by the way, not about the drink) so finally trying it was a small highlight for me. I was prepared to dislike it, if I were honest. It’s some kind of radioactive yellow colour. And by all accounts, it is very syrupy sweet and so I expected teeth-numbing sweetness. It wasn't. I think it is less sweet than Coca Cola and it had quite a unique flavour to it. I liked it and proceeded to buy it every other time I needed a drink. After about a day of that though, I had enough of it and had to take a break from Inca Kola. I think I am now ready to reacquaint myself with it again. 

Chicha morada 

I am not going to try to describe what chicha is because I will probably get it wrong and offend someone.*** It seems to be some kind of spice / herb mix that is used to marinate food but also to make the drink, chicha. There are several different kinds of chicha, including for example, chicha marucaja (passion fruit). We tried chicha morada, which is made from purple corn. The corn is boiled with some spices and other ingredients: cinnamon and lime is what I remember most. It takes a few hours to make and the result is a dark purple drink that you would (again) expect to be syrupy sweet, but isn't. It was really quite refreshing and very tasty. 

I could go on and on about all the different food we had, but I won't. It would take too long. I would say this though, if you have the opportunity to try Peruvian food, do! If you are in Lima, look up the Miraflores foodies tour. 

The desert 

I hadn't realised that Lima is built on a desert, but that became apparent just being there. It's hard to imagine a city by the coast being dry but I guess the whole Middle East is like that, isn't it? I need to look into the geology of it to understand how that is. Anyway, in Lima, it rains so little that when the glass roof of a passage in Lima got destroyed in several earthquakes and they had to remove the whole thing for safety reasons, they then just left it. They are supposedly still trying to decide what to put up instead, if anything, and so have just left the roof open for years. Like a greenhouse frame without the glass.

Anyway, I did not expect that it would be so dry. It has something to do with the water temperature on the Pacific, I think, resulting in low evaporation and thus not enough moisture in the air the create rain. Instead, Lima is shrouded in grey for most of the year. Except when we were there. Then the sun shone and the sky was blue and all was well in the world. 

Paracas

We also took a day trip with Peru Hop to Paracas, a few hours south of Lima, and a boat trip to Los Balletas. Los Balletas are dubbed the poor man's Galapagos. They really aren't.  That was quite a bit of a stretch. It was interesting but I think I expected more. It was, literally, full of shit. So much shit that it was Peru's major export for many years. We saw thousands and thousands of birds, dozens of sea lions, and three Humbolt penguins. 

The town / village of Paracas, we really liked. It was a small sleepy little fishing town which also relies a lot, I think, on the tourist trade. The national reserve is a young desert right on the coast. I wish we had more time to wander around and soak in the atmosphere, rather than the 10 minute photo-op stops at each view point. But, that is the thing about tours, isn't it? 

The rainforest

In contrast to that, I am sitting amidst a lush rainforest waiting to be taken downstream, deeper into the Amazon. Our ride is awaiting so there is no time to write more. Adios, amigos! 

* True as at September 2017, at least.

** No photos right now unfortunately, as most of my photos were taken on my camera, as in an actual camera that is only a camera and not my phone. I am writing this on my phone, so I cannot upload any photos till I am reunited with my computer. 

The actual journey

As I write this, we are an hour away from Lima. Before the cloud cover took over, all I could see from the plane window was a sea of dark green forest beneath me, broken only by winding rivers. It has not quite dawned on me, that we will soon be in South America. I suppose we already, just 10,000m above her ground. Soon, we will be there. After all the planning, all the research and reading, I still cannot imagine what awaits us. 

The journey to get here has been long. And I don't mean the twelve hour flight. It was about a year ago when I started talking about this trip, reading and planning. The flights were booked about months ago. From there, our travel calendar slowly got filled. 

People always say that the planning is half the fun. And indeed it was. I spent many joyful moments staring at my purchased for purpose map. Selecting the places we wanted to go has not been easy. There is so much to do, even limiting ourselves to the three countries we chose right at the beginning: Peru, Bolivia and Chile. I say "we" but I must confess I was stubbornly persuasive on that point. When people say, "what? You're not going to Argentina or Brazil?", I want to point them to a map of South America. 

My starting point was Santiago, as in, I knew I wanted to go to Santiago. Whether we start or end there, was for me wurscht,irrelevant. It's still a bit too cold at this time of the year for Patagonia, so we had to settle for the northern part of Chile. By that time, we're close enough to Machu Picchu not to make a stop and so that very quickly because our boundaries: Peru to Chile. I wanted to travel overland as much as possible, so including Bolivia because a natural option because of the easy land crossings from Lake Titicaca to La Paz. 

The decision was made easier by my fixation for one of our legs to be a train journey. Inspired by Paul Theoreax, I remembered how much I love train journeys. Coming across the Andean Explorer journey from Cusco (where we would be for Machu Picchu anyway) to Puno (on Lake Titicaca), anchored a lot of our plans. The train journey was one of the first things we booked. And seeing as the train only goes every Wednesday, we had to plan everything else around it. It meant we had a week and a half to fill before the train and so we managed to fit in a short trip to the Amazon basin, something we had not anticipated we'd be able to do. 

Anyway, in that way, the travel calendar got filled. We still have most days of the last leg in Chile unplanned. We have a vague idea of what we'll do but nothing is booked.

Before that though, there were many other things that needed to be sorted out: visas, vaccinations. Oh, and not to forget the budget and the packing! 

Visas

Only one of us needed a visa for only one of the countries we are visiting, and that's me for Bolivia. Applying and getting the visa was everything but straight forward. It took months to clarify what was expected and the online form which had to be filled out wasn't the clearest either. The embassy advices applicants to contact the embassy to make sure that the information online is complete and correct or if additional documents is required before sending in originals by post. They said that would ensure that the application is processed faster. Fair enough, except it too them a few weeks to respond to me when I did. And considering that the online form is only valid 14 days from the date submitted, it meant I had to go through the whole process all over again. 

Then there was the business with the photo. They asked for a photo which was 3x3cm in size, and a digital copy of max 150 MB. The first photo of 150 MB I sent was "too small", and I was asked to please send another one that is "bigger". I never really understood what exactly she meant. Because I next sent another photo with the exact same specs and that was accepted. I also sent in an actual 3x3cm photo with the application by post. 3x3cm is really tiny. I have never known any embassy to require such a tiny photo. Even the people at the photo studio where I got the photos taken were surprised. But that was what was stated and confirmed to me on the phone, so fine. Being sceptical, I send it another regular passport-sized photo which I had as well. In the end, that's what they took and the tiny one was returned to me. 

Vaccinations 

We got a whole battery of vaccinations before the trip. There is a Vaccination Service in Sweden that is dedicated to well, providing vaccination services as the name suggests. So we made our way there after work one day to ask about what vaccinations we needed. I had read up in advance on what was required. I knew we needed a yellow fever vaccination because that was required to enter Bolivia. Other than that, everything else was optional. And the options were wide. After research, I had a better idea of what we would want but thought we should at least talk to the experts first before making a decision. 

After a short wait, we were sat before the nurse. It was all a bit overwhelming. We decided on about 6 vaccinations and they all had very specific instructions as to when they should be taken, number of doses and duration between doses and minimum or maximum duration before expeted exposure, etc., etc. And I must say, the nurse who attended to us was nothing short of exemplary. Professional and capable. She listened to our plans, looked up a few things on her risk profile for the different countries and before we knew it, we found ourselves walking out of there with a plaster on each arm and armed with a specific and detailed schedule of when we needed to be back for which other jabs, a prescription for oral vaccines and instructions for when and how they should be taken, and we needed to be back to pick up our prescription for malaria tablets! 

In the end, we got vaccinations for yellow fever, hepatitis A&B, typhoid, tetanus, cholera and malaria tablets. Not related to vaccinations, but I also got extra medication in case of asthma attacks at high altitude. 

Currency

I have become one of those travellers who never has local currency with me when I set off. I usually withdraw cash from an ATM when I am there and I assume that I can pay for most stuff with a card. Except when I went to Moscow, there I decided that I was going to spend only cash as far as possible. For their trip as well, I realised that we were going to have cash with us. There were places where we were told we would struggle to find an ATM, one of the towns we are going to, according to the guide books, has only 2 ATMs and they do not always work or have enough money in them. So we needed some cash. 

That was again a lesson for us. First we had to find out what the currency of the three countries are! And I still haven't got the hang of the different exchange rates and I have absolutely no clue what any amount of money can buy you. 

Anyway, we have now arrived and spent our first night in the hotel. So far it reminds me a lot of Asia. Everything is a bit chaotic, especially the traffic. Above ground power lines which we are not used to seeing anymore in Sweden, clothes hanging out on balconies and windows, and construction everywhere. 

The most notably thing for me though, is the air. It does not smell too bad, not like walking down Sukhumvit under the sky train boxing in the fumes of the traffic and the smells from the drains. But it is noticeably heavy and unclean. Still, we are on the coast. So I'm looking forward to getting to the sea!