Lima, Peru

It's 5am, we're in Lima, and haven't slept yet. So yes, it's still Day 0.

We moved past the obvious cabs, and headed into the parking lot to find an unmarked cab to save a few bucks. Yes, it sounds sketchy. We ended up paying $20 for a ride to Miraflores - the "tourist" part of town.

Neither of us really knew what to expect, but it was not what we saw. Winding through what seemed like back roads - there was not a car in sight. The houses were mostly made of mud brick, and stacked up against one another at odd angles. If one of them were to fall, it seemed like they would all come down like a house of cards.

And it was dark. Nothing was open. No lights were on. What had we done?

We arrived at B&B Tradiciones, basically 12 hours before we were due to check in. Little did we know, it was a house in a neighborhood, and locked up tight at this hour.

The cabbie drove us somewhere else (at our request), which ended up being Lion Backpackers. We were able to get a 7x8 room with a puddle of water on the floor and moldy pillows for the bargain price? of 69 soles ($25 US).

But hey, it came with it's own bathroom that you had to go through a side door and into a weird roofless corridor to get to!

After about 5 hours of sleep, we got the hell out of Lion Backpackers. It probably would have been less sketchy if we had arrived during the day and seen other travelers, but it wasn't a great first impression, and we were sure that B&B Tradiciones would be much better.

So, despite reserving a room (yes, it seemed strange that you could book a room in a guys house using Travelocity), Angelo didn't have space for us and was going to send us to a new hotel nearby. Instead, he helped us plan out an itinerary for the day and we left our stuff there and went off to explore.

Miraflores is a strange place. I can't quite explain it exactly. The housing is incredible dense, but yet the houses are usually only 1 or 2 stories high. Despite a few small public areas, it's mostly concrete, and gray. Some of this is being up against the ocean, with a fairly consistent marine layer.

We had lunch at Punto Azul, which turned out to be a great choice because it was mostly locals. The place is so popular that we had to take a number and wait in line on the street for an hour (we did wander a bit to kill time, ending up in a really fancy grocery store).

My spanish was coming in handy already though, as I explained that we were on our "luna de miel" to anyone who seemed curious about us - which was everyone.

We were at Punto Azul for one thing - ceviche. It's raw fish (usually whitefish?) soaked in lemon/lime juice and garnished with slivers of red onions. If it sounds delicious to you, that's because it is. If it sounds gross, you're wrong - it isn't.

We also ordered something that turned out to be a creamy dish of cooked fish, and some tasty juice made out of purple corn.

After lunch, we tossed the frisbee around at the oceanside mall, which is a very western type mall carved into the cliffs overlooking the sea. Pretty cool, but not an exotic experience by any means.

Lucky us, an old man came buy and give us little figures made out of wire and clothed in yarn. Then, sadly, demanded a donation for the gift.

On to Parque del Amor where we watched paragliders ride the ocean breezes, and perhaps not surprisingly, lots of couples making out near the statue of 20 foot long lovers embracing.

On our way back to B&B Tradiciones, we walked through Kennedy Park (which is pretty full of life, but surrounded by the most commercial part of Miraflores...with McDonalds, etc). Saw some really cool art being sold on the sidewalk, only to discover that it's the same art you can find in just about every shop in the nearby "indian market", which is apparently now sponsored by Visa.

Somehow, thankfully, they find space for us at B&B Tradiciones. Turns out we've got a room big enough for 4 or 5 all to ourselves, though we have to push our beds together.

We've been in Peru for 18 hours, but it feels like days.

We pieced together a dinner buying random items at the supermarket. My favorite part was these giant bread bins that unseen bakers were furiously feeding new bread into from the other side of the wall - like coal into an engine.