Flying over and walking around Lima

The first thing we noticed on arrival to Lima was... no more altitude! 

I was already used to the high altitude, and had forgotten how it felt like to be able to breath deeply, climb stairs youngly, and sprint freely.  Not that I sprint a lot, but you get the point.

After a hectic taxi ride from an ugly part of town, we found a pretty and quiet hostel in the cute, very touristy neighbourhood of Miraflores.

And they had this beautiful hairless dog.

Seriously, look at this hairless beauty! Their skin is very warm and
in Perú they are considered to have healing powers.

Sadly we only got 2 nights there, and then had to go on one of those looooooong walks in search of a new place.

All of the hostels/hospedajes we saw were fully booked, horrible, super expensive, or the three at once.

But finally, when we were about to give up, we found a place which was fairly cheap, clean, central but quiet, with good wifi and good showers. And it was almost empty.

How was that possible? Two reasons: it has no social area, and it isn't listed on hostelworld, hostel bookers, booking.com or tripadvisor (later I found that it was listed on a gay-friendly accomodation website, which turned us into the "weird straight couple" in the place).

The guys running the hospedaje are a family, and were quite respectful and a bit solemn towards us, which was funny after being at that noisy hellhole in Cuzco.

 They cleaned the room every noon when we went for breakfast, changed our towels, cared about the internet quality and altogether made the place a great base to work on our Visa application, and explore around the capital.

...But to be honest, Lima seemed a bit lacklustre. It isn't an ugly place, but it lacks the majesty and serene beauty of the Imperial city. 

Luckily for us, we found something to distract us from our paperwork-filled days and our Cuzco-homesickness: pretty cheap tandem paraglading over the ocean. 

Paragliders over the ocean.

 So on the second day we went straight to the esplanade and booked us a flight each. We had been wanting to paraglide since the end of 2014 when we saw it in El Bolsón.

It was quick and easy, and before we knew it we were up in the air. We took turns to do it just so the other could take photos. No regrets!

My instructor was lovely and I felt instantly at home up above. We flew a bit over the city, did some quick turns, and finally flew a longer while over the beautiful waters of the Pacific. I wanted it to last for ages.

Chey and I agreed that as soon as we get the chance we'll learn to do it without an instructor.

Getting ready, pretty scared.

No turning back point.

And there I go!

I'm flying Jack!

That's me!

Safety for my mate.

All ready.

And now he is the king of the world.

 After the flying we felt like there was not a whole lot left to do in Lima (if you're not surfing) other than walk around and explore, so that's what we did.

We spent quite a bit of time just randomly strolling around looking for food. We had Peruvian, Italian, Arabic, Chinese and then repeated the circle.

We cuddled a lot with the cats from the park, and went downtown to see the hectic and grey city centre, and the Limeño Chinatown.

Parque Kennedy in the middle of Miraflores is
generously sprinkled with abandoned cats.

They're insanely cute but, like the crazy cat lady I am, I couldn't stop thinking about them not having a home.

There is, however, and organization that takes care of them, feeds them,
castrates them and gives them up for adoption.
I used to volunteer for one like that in Buenos Aires.

So since we're on the subject... adopt, don't shop!
Now back to the regular post.

  A lot of the city centre is pretty grim and we could tell the government puts all of their effort into Miraflores and Barranco (where all the tourists go), so the rest of Lima has a lot of of no-man's land sort of places, fairly filthy and pretty dodgy.

Fun times walking around the crazy trafic.

A building. Which building?
Honestly I can't remember.

A random panorama.

Chey poses very cool with these bulls and their friend.

I, on the other hand, had eyes only for the bull.

Outside the Mercado Central: half a carcass and a lot of bags.

Chinatown.

Barranco is interesting too, and we had a good long walk along the shore to get there.

Lima has a lot of warm but very grey days like this one.

And pretty awesome buildings.

Chey walking Lima.

Pretty cool street art in Barranco.

Night view of the ocean and the city.

 During our stay we also spent quite a few evenings drinking beer and chatting with another Aussie-Latino couple.

He's an old friend of Chey from back home and she is his awesome Peruvian girlfriend. Spending time with them was nice and refreshing, with intelectually challenging conversations and a lot of instant inside jokes. They gave Lima an almost home-ish feel.

But as we quickly discovered, we were actually right and there isn't a lot to do in Lima other than surfing and walking around the different neighbourhoods.

And listening to the car alarms that are CONSTANTLY going off.

 We promptly packed our bags and headed North for the mountains.