Skip to main content

Lima: Day 3

We started the day with errands and the historic center, then ended with luxury. Let's start at the beginning! 

Laundry is a little different in Lima - unlike other cities where you might have self-serve laundry machines and the need for a lot of coins, there are laundry services instead. In Lima, you drop off your dirty laundry at a lavanderia and can expect to pick up your clean clothes a couple of days later, or the next day if you choose express service (keeping in mind that most places close on Sundays). We needed a service that was a bit quicker and, if necessary, open on Sundays since today was a Saturday, and we'll be flying out of Lima on Monday. Luckily, we found a place pretty close to our hotel that offered same-day service - when we dropped off our clothes, we were able to tell them what clothes shouldn't be tumbled dry, and take a video to serve as a record of inventory. They spoke pretty good English and were super helpful, guiding us through the local process.

Once we had laundry all sorted out, we headed to the historic center via Uber. We ended up choosing to Uber instead of taking the express bus because the bus looked extremely packed, and the Uber was estimated to take around the same travel time. Due to heavy traffic on the weekends, it was a bit of a wait to get a confirmed driver - but we weren't in a rush, so we waited about 10 minutes to get connected to a driver, and made it a bit easier by choosing a destination just outside the ultra busy, touristy streets. 

Strolling through the historic center was crowded and a little more decrepit in certain areas - but you could see way more street vendors, and throngs of tourists and tour groups at the key monuments and landmarks. The brilliant afternoon sun was pretty intense, and likely dispersed the crowds as the day wore on. Fresh fruit and juices were really helpful in beating the heat - vendors selling both were everywhere, with recorded rapid-fire promotions blaring from speakers on their carts, competing for customers. 

We ended up visiting multiple plazas, admiring the well-preserved architecture, walking along Jirón de la Unión, poking our heads in some of the stores, and witnessing the crowd outside a celebrity wedding! Lunch was had in Mercado Central, on the edges of Chinatown, before we had a brief respite from the sun in a coffee shop. I think the best surprise in the historic center was a visit to the Casa de la Literatura Peruana, near the Lima Main Square - there was a gorgeous set of murals outside the building, and a very comprehensive, beautifully-designed exhibition inside the building showcasing the evolution of literature and culture through Peru's history. It was all free, and made us wish they had a gift shop so we could have purchased something to support their efforts!

After all the exploring, we headed back to the hotel to freshen up for our special dinner at Kjolle (pronounced Koi'-yay) in Barranco. This was something I was looking forward to since I made the reservation months ago - a once-in-a-lifetime experience, dining at one of the best restaurants in the world, run by the top female chef in the world. From when we were escorted into the restaurant, through each of the nine courses, the level of care and attention to detail was incredible. The pacing of the meal, explanations of each item served, knowledge and patience of the waitstaff in answering questions in both Spanish and English, careful pairings of drinks with the different flavours, gorgeous ceramic and wooden tableware, attention to detail to make sure we were comfortable (wiping away crumbs, resetting our napkin if we left the table)... it's clear everyone had the same goal: to make sure we had an unforgettable night. In total, they served us an astounding 19 different dishes! The finishing touches at the end of the meal were so thoughtful - souvenirs and a last palette-cleansing, stomach-soothing dessert to send us home, along with the security staff watching out for our ride back to the hotel. It ended up being a 3+ hour meal, and something we'll be talking about for many years to come. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Happy Chinese New Year

I spent this past weekend in Toronto, sinfully stuffing my face full of Malaysian food in celebration of the new year. The image above shows a 2006 Australian Year of the Dog coin, commemorating the event quite fittingly - since the gift of money has its own part in the New Year's traditions. Now, although I may have eaten more than my share of glorious food, I also helped in the preparations of the feast! It was weird, baking with an electric mixer after having no such technology in Waterloo - I actually took a minute to stare in amazement while it was mixing the batter. Sad, I know. On Saturday night, I went to a friend's house for New Year's Eve and then later, to First Markham Place. Apparently, there was a countdown to midnight - which I'd never heard of before... and then realized why no one did it. As we counted down (in Chinese) - "sup... gou... bat... chut... lok... mmmm..." - and hit 5, a bunch of us burst out laughing. I can't really descr...
Post a Comment
Read more

Machu Picchu to Cusco

We survived. Our day started slow with breakfast and then killing time until our train departed at 1:30pm. That's what we thought would happen.  In reality, a landslide along our train route stopped all trains. Luckily, this happened before we were scheduled to depart, so we definitely dodged disaster. We ended up waiting only 2 hours to board a train out of Aguas Calientes, but this delay was only the first of many, which was not unexpected, since no one was prepared for the landslide.  Instead of our train taking an hour to reach Ollantaytambo, it took almost 2 hours, most likely because they were only able to clear one track along the route. Then, since we had to transfer to a bus in Ollantaytambo, and there was a backlog of passengers needing transportation, we got stuck in line/traffic. It took us almost an hour to get out of Ollantaytambo, with the streets completely jammed. We finally arrived in Cusco around 8:30pm, three hours later than the originally scheduled time. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Reflections on Peru

Before I get too in the weeds, I think it's worth noting that after at least a decade of traveling to developed countries, Peru was bound to be a very different trip. It was our first time traveling to South America. It was the first time I was traveling with my in-laws. Also first time traveling to high altitude locations. Lots of firsts! The first thing we noticed was the transportation - we travelled on a South American airline (LATAM) for the first time, and found it to be a good experience. They automatically checked us into the flight 48 hours prior - I can only assume this is because they don't overbook their flights. On international flights, they provided blankets, pillows, and a light meal to all passengers (which is no longer part of the base fare for North American airlines). Of course, we did have that unfortunate experience on the flight back (also with LATAM) where one of us got food poisoning - so they don't get a perfect score. The great experience also doe...
Post a Comment
Read more