Once again we hit the night buses for our trip out of the
mountain townof Huaraz to the coastal city, Peru’s capital of Lima. We arrived
at the crack of dawn, just early enough to see the fog / smog (I couldn’t
determine which) rolling in over the sea. Central Lima, around the vicinity of
the bus terminal looked grim enough, reminding me a tad of the sweaty grimey
outskirts of Rio. But a short taxi ride brought us away from the slum-like feel
and into the upmarket areas of Miraflores and Barranco, where most of the
gringo hostels base themselves. Here, high rise flats and dodgy pre-fabricated
office blocks are replaced with old, beautiful colonial houses and, well, newer
and posher high rised apartment complexes. Most of the old buildings seemed
still abandoned; the daily smog adding a daily layer of grime to the paint on
what were obviously once amazing seaside homes of the rich in Peru. Today, the
more affluent among them have acquired these old residences and have restored
them to much of their former glory.
Our hostel, one of a chain of hostels called The Point was
situated in a quiet residential area of Barranco, being just paces away from
the cliffs overlooking the expanse of the Pacific Ocean. At night, the view was
quite pretty, with the city’s lights casting a warm yellow glow on the breaking
waves below, and the small green park across the road from the hostel was a
popular hang-out location for smooching couples. The Point hostel was noted as
a “party” hostel, which indeed it turned out to be, but only to the extent
where we gladly joined in the fun with a handful of other guests, rather than
raucous, endless parties that you find in these “super-hostels” that seem to
spring up all over the place. The bar was a place where you’d easily get lost
in the 2 for 1 cocktails (a decent amount of booze used here!) and then play
some drunken pool, and it’s all in a very open, friendly atmosphere. We made the trip here with another Irish guy,
called Paddy, believe it or not, and we decided to share a small dorm between
all of us. Being the token Irish people in the hostel, we were greeted with
much enthusiasm at the bar, obviously cos they figured we’d spend money and
clear them out of rum. Which we did. Mostly Paddy’s fault and he spent the
night garbling with the other guests before passing out in the dorm. He had
asked me to remind him to ring his mother the next morning, but due to him
having a head like a bear the next morning, Paddy’s mother never got
called………..
Our first day in the city was one of fulfilling chores; Kev
had to go search for some medical supplies and I had to try sorting out getting
a refund from the airline company LAN ( I had to buy a flight from Colombia to
Quito which I would never use, just to placate the airline company that we were
not going to become refugees in Colombia and that we were actually going to leave!).
With much frustration, neither of us managed to get 100% sorted and all we
wanted to do was to return to the safety and the craic in our hostel! We did
manage to get a little bit of sight seeing of Miraflores in though in the
process of running around chasing our tails…..
The next day however, we decided to cheer ourselves up,
throw our budget to the wind and treat ourselves to lunch in the world’s 35th
best restaurant, Astrid y Gaston. We had heard about this in the Lonely Planet
and by word of mouth from other food-obsessed travellers so we thought we’d
treat ourselves while we’re here; there are only so many almuerzos one can eat
before you want to run away at the sight of another grain of rice. In having
the meal here however, we were spending an entire week’s budget in about 1.5
hours of gluttony, so it was a total battle of conscience, but as I think with
my stomach before all else, I bullied Kev into doing so. It was an absolutely
delicious meal; the taster menu having been created especially for us by the
manager who picked what he considered the restaurant’s finest dishes. We were
even recommended a bottle of wine, which cost us the equivalent of a week’s
accommodation. The waiters were literally stumbling over themselves to serve
us, which made a welcome relief from the bored and uninterested waiting staff
we’ve encountered over the last 2 months. The whole experience cost us 490
Soles, so around $190, not including tip, which we figured was pretty darn
decent for two people, considering the volume and quality of food and drink we
enjoyed. We thanked everyone profusely for, what they didn't realise was the best meal we'd probably ever had. Kev brazenly approached the kitchen to take a photo, purely for the fact that it's industrious and sterile appearance reminded us both of the labs we used to work in. It turns out that if you hang around the kitchen long enough, you'll get invited inside for photo ops with the entire kitchen staff and the chefs, sweet!! I guess it would've been too cheeky to ask for something to take away with me.....
Leaving Astrid y Gaston drunk, happy and full enough to not
have to eat again until 12pm the next afternoon, we hopped on the metro as far
as Plaza de Armas in Central Lima to admire the gorgeous architecture. The
square was beautiful, as all previous photos we’d seen would have suggested, and
people were busy adorning the wonderful colourful buildings with Christmas
lights and decorations. We navigated our way on the metro system with much
confusion, but thanks to some friendly locals, we found the right stops and
managed to buy our own tickets and everything, how cool are we?! We made our
way back to our hostel after what had been a great day. The next morning was
spent researching our next stop, Huacachina, an oasis town in the desert near
Ica, which we hoped would be a unique experience before we launch ourselves
back into mountainous terrain for our Machu Picchu trek!
Where we stayed: The Point Hostel http://www.thepointhostels.com/peru/lima.html
How much?: 35 Soles per person, per night, 4-bed dorm.
No comments:
Post a Comment