Yanquis in Latin America: Leaving Lima

I am looking back now, at the end of two weeks of travel and recounting the events that transpired...
At this point in the story, now that Chris and Brandon have joined me, I am putting the posts under a new subheading entitled Yanquis in Latin America, which is in keeping with the spirit of Chris and I's two past journeys together: A Couple of Yanks in Oz and Yanks Across the Pond.

Day Four: We woke early on Monday, the day after Chris and Brandon had joined me in Lima. We had a fantastic breakfast with eggs, fruit, bread, and real coffee all courtesy of the Inka Frog. Afterward, we checked out and stored our bags before setting forth to explore Miraflores and the nearby pre-Incan ruins known as Huaca Pullaca. The ruins are right smack in the middle of a upscale residential neighborhood, just kind of hanging out. There are many such places in the vast capital city. The Peruvians apparently just ignored them for hundreds of years as Lima grew and only in recent times have they taken to historical preservation. We witnessed this "preservation" process which basically involved little Indian people mucking about with gardening spades and their bare hands. It was all very scientific. Also worth noting is the coke machine that took my fake 5 soles coin and a fake 2 soles coin Chris had picked up as well.

After an informative tour of the old rock pile where they used to sacrifice women to the moon (as you do), I took BT and Chris to the coast and we trekked down a set of treacherous steps to the beach which is made of smooth pebbles. People were surfing, as they had been the day before, but the waves weren't as impressive. The place was covered in sea urchins as well, which you can crack open and eat raw if you feel so inclined (I didn't.) We also visited the Larcomar, which is the giant cliff side, open air mall that overlooks the Pacific. There we had an amazing meal of traditional Peruvian cuisine that was set out in a buffet style, with all sort of delicious, often spicy, things that I cannot remember the names of. They also served us each a Peruvian Pisco Sour (which, if you'll recall, is the national drink of Chile as well). I almost couldn't drink it out of some odd sense of adoptive national pride. I did, though, and didn't taste much of a difference; same ole too sweet, too limey taste.

We eventually made it back to the Inka Frog to retrieve our bags and get a cab to the bus station for our overnight journey south to Arequipa. Side note: there is no central bus terminal in Lima. Instead, each company has their own mini-station. The bus we took to Arequipa was with a company called Oltursa, and the ride was by far the best I've yet experienced. For less then forty USD, we got giant cama seats, hot meals, an HD TV, and a very helpful young attendant that BT fell in love with. Suffice to say, leaving Lima was sublime.