- After being ripped off yesterday (by paying 40 sols, which is almost 15 USD for a cab), I promised myself this would never happen a second time. Goal of the trip is to walk or take public transportation wherever possible. Saves money, and also the best way to explore a city.
- Woke up at 8 am and made my way to the Bolivian embassy, which is located at San Isidro, a Lima district west of Miraflores. Embassy opens from 9 to 1. Guess it´s a tough job being a Consulate - that´s why they get the rest of the day off.
- If you think the traffic/honking at SF/Hong Kong is bad, welcome to Lima. It is 100x worse. Traffic lights exist at only a couple main roads. At most intersections (including 4-way intersections), there are no lights nor stop signs. Whoever is the fastest or darest gets the right of way (that includes pedestrians trying to cross the roads). Cars honk when they get stuck on the road; They honk when buses in front are loading/offloading passengers; They honk when pedestrians step foot on the crosswalk; Cabs horn to say ´I am avaible. Please hop in'. So when you are walking down the street, all you hear are honks, honks and honks. They mean everything and they mean nothing. You will be amazed though by variety of honks - like a horrible horrible orchestra. The stroll took a little over an hour, but seeing how the traffic was almost a stand-still, I am glad I opted to walk to the Embassy.
- Bad news from the Bolivian embassy. In the states, they thought I was a US citizen and gave me a stamp that allows visa at entry. Now that they realize I'm NOT a US citizen, I needed to obtain a visa prior to entry and it takes at least a month. Worst part is that they get to keep my passport throughout the application period. OK. Bolivia is not happening. Am I the only person who doesn´t understand why the Bolivian embassy is making such a big deal out of the visa thing? I already have all the required documents for application at hand. This is not a huge surprise though since I learnt from internet research that different Bolivian embassies have different rules and regulations and the outcome is kind of a lotto thing. Guess today is not my day. Just disappointed that I am not going to Bolivia after I heard all the great things about it.
- With the help of a local, I hopped onto a local bus and paid 2 sols to the airport to pick up my backpack. On my way back, hopped on different local buses and walked around San Isidro and San Miguel. I was told that there is a quite a large population of Chinese at San Miguel area, and true enough I saw a couple of Chinese restaurants along my way. In Peru, restaurants with Chinese influence are called ´Chifa´.
- (Local) buses in Peru are mini-vans with a driver and a conductor. Obviously the driver drives. The conductor collects bus fares, hangs
out at the door shouting destination names to the street and pick up waiting passengers. As someone who is not familiar with the city, I just shouted out the area I wanted to go to the conductor, and if he said ´Si´, I hopped on. Most of the times when they indicated it was my stop, I had no idea where I was dropped off and city maps came to play. This is part of the fun of traveling. Per the hostel staff, long distance bus fare is 2 to 2.5 sol, short distance fare is 1 to 1.5 sol. I had not the slightest clue what is considered long-distance and what is short-distance, so my default bus fare was 2 sols. Seemed to be working well so far.
- At one point, I saw a bus to ´Metro´ and hopped on. Didn´t realize that Lima has an underground train system and ready to explore. I asked the lady sitting next to me where the Metro train leads to, and she tried not to laugh. Turned out ´Metro´is the name of a major supermarket chain. One hostel friend shared a similar story at Argentina: her two hostels pals came back one afternoon and told her they just got back from the disco. Turned out ´disco´ is the name of a grocery store.
- Currency exchange rate for Peruvian Sol is (approximately) 1 USD : 2.8 Sol. It is funny that at every corner of the main streets, you have City staff wearing bibs with the '$' sign (i.e. they do money exchange) and they actually have one of the better rates. I am sure it is because Miraflores is more a touristic city.
- In the evening, walked over to Calle de Los Pizzas (Pizzas Street) for some live music and turned out the street is lined up with restaurants and clubs. Took a cab to Larco Mar Shopping Center (at the border of Miraflores) and checked out the live singing at Mama Batata and Bartini Bar.
