Lima Day Two

First of all an observation. The Peruvians in Lima love Schnauzers. I see there everywhere. I have never seen so many in my life as I have in the last two days. Most are normal sized, but I have even seen a Giant Schnauzer. On to my day...

This will have to be short because it is 1AM, I haven't finished my presentation, and I am dead exhausted. I got up around 9AM this morning, and had a quick breakfast before heading to our bike tour. The tour was really nice, especially since we were the only two one the tour, making it more personal and customizable. We biked through Miraflores and Barranco and learned a bit more about the city while seeing some lovely views. We also stopped for a sandwich at a cute place in Barranco, which was really nice as a snack around lunchtime. The terrain where we biked was mostly flat, so overall the day was quite pleasant despite some intense sweating due to the heat!

Our Bikes

Parque del Amor

Biking in Barranco

The main square in Barrance

After the bike tour we took off some of our sweaty clothes and changed before heading to downtown Lima. We decided to take the Metropolitano, which is basically an express bus. Wow, was that bus ever crowded. We were packing in like sardines like I never have been before in my life. I couldn't move or reach a place to hold on for lots of the trip. Now add the heat on top of that, and ugh. Not my favorite. We eventually made it to downtown and started walking around. Since we ahdnt had much lunch, but our food tour was coming up we decided to have an ice cream. I had the lucuma flavor, very which was interesting, but not bad! Its a very Peruvian fruit. We then did a quick walking tour of the downtown area based on Caitlin's tour guide book and learned a little about downtown before eventually meeting the food tour group.

Plaza San Martin

Random man sitting in downtown with a rat on his shoulder

Church off the Plaza de Armas

Plaza de Armas in downtown

We weren't exactly sure where to meet, since all we knew was "the fountain" and later found there were multiple fountains, but luckily the girl we met yesterday has quite red hair and we spotted her and found the group. Today there were five of us, the three from yesterday plus two Australian girls from Adelaide. We went all over downtown trying different street foods. It was really fun! Everything from the freshest most unique fruit, to the most traditional Peruvian dishes, to Chinese food in China Town! Lots of fun for sure.

Street art downtown Lima

Market in downtown Lima

So many delicious fruits

Our guide showing off the cherimoya

Eating soup

Potato with a cheese sauce

Fried dough things with pumpkin, and some other stuff

The above dough thing

Potatoes with cheese and spicy sauce

Where the potatoes came from

Plaza de Armas at night

Interesting rice pudding thing

When we were all done we were all going back to the same area so we shared a cab back to Miraflores. Turns out the park across from our hotel is basically a cat park with lots of cats everywhere, but it was closing when we got back so we will have to check it out tomorrow. Once we were back we took showers and got ready for bed and now I'm working on finishing my presentation. I'm so tired though, I may sleep some and get up early. Anyways, tomorrow its off to Iquitos! Pictures to come later when I'm done with my presentation or if I get bored.

Cat park (Kennedy Park) near our hostel