We finally arrived in Lima, the cab driver who drove us to our hostel ripped us off. We paid double ($50AU) of what we should have and they guy at reception didn't speak a word of English and somehow didn't have our booking. We waited 20 minutes and he had a bed ready for us. We hadn't slept so slept for a couple of hours then went out to get some food around 1pm. We hadn't heard great things about Lima but it was actually a nicer city than I thought it would be. The Pacific Ocean met the coastline of the city. There were waves that rolled over the volcanic rock shore. Our hostel was situated in the nice part of the city called Miraflores. There were hang gliders and a new open air mall with nice shops and restaurants. We even spotted a statue of Paddington Bear which at first I thought was really weird but coz he's from England but then I read the blurb at the bottom of the statue and read that he actually comes from Peru! We walked around for a bit looking for food. Matt wanted street food to try something local and I think to keep costs down after the expensive flight purchases (a shame coz we were going so well with our budget). We could only find nice restaurants and cafes. We sat down at a cafe that looked liked it some sort of typical dish. Matt ordered a dish that had meat, rice, salad and soup (seems to be the typical dish in all of Latin America!) I ordered ravioli, well I thought I did with my attempt at Spanish but it never came out. The waitress couldn't speak any English and was saying something we thought we understood but obviously didn't. When I asked where my meal was she replied something in Spanish and shook her head. I guess I would be eating then. I had ordered a chocolate caliente (hot chocolate) so after Matt finished eating we walked to find me something to eat. We found a Middle East restaurant that sold felafel kebabs with garlic aioli so ordered a take away one of them, which was actually pretty tasty. We rested/slept some more and chatted to an English guy who was in our dorm who was at the end of a 6 month trip and was flying home the next day. Bit bitter sweet for him. I don't want to get to that stage of the trip. I want to keep travelling forever haha!
We then wanted to find a quick bite to eat to then come back and sleep before getting up
at 4am to catch our next flight but again only came across restaurants. We sat down at one called Mama Olla and glad we did because it ended up being really nice! The waiter was very good. Matt ordered cerviche which is a typical fish dish from the Peruvian coast. He said it was amazing! I had a baked potato dish in a mushroom sauce and it was delicious too! I hadn't had a mushroom sauce in ages and reminded me of eating steak (when I used to eat meat) at JDs back home. We each had a Pisco Sour cocktail - Pisco is Peru's national alcohol and 'salute' to Peru! We then couldn't resist but glad we did order caramel crepes for dessert. Sooo amazing. Definitely the best caramel sauce I've ever tried, it was so sweet and rich and good! We tipped the waiter, which came to about $50AU for all of that which wasn't too bad for how good it was! We then packed up our stuff and hit the hay, finally to get some good rest before getting picked up
at 4am by our taxi to go to the airport.
