Lima: Living it Up on 4th of July Weekend

Last Friday, my ex-roomie and still best friend from Vanderbilt flew to Lima for July 4th weekend. She is a law student at the University of Illinois (I know...she's smart) and is doing a legal internship in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Unfortunately, I couldn't visit her in BA, because the Argentines charge an over $300 reciprocity fee. The United States makes is very difficult for Argentines to get visas to the US. They have to pay a $200 application fee (that's application fee...not to be refunded if the application is rejected). The $300 entrance fee to Argentina's is their response. Argentina is expected to lessen the price soon to encourage more American tourism. Anyway, Alyse (said friend) flew to Lima (no Peruvian fee).

Alyse, Annie, and I spent the whole weekend seeing the sites in Lima and eating incredible food. We went out for sushi Friday night and went to bed early. Saturday we ate breakfast crepes near Ovalo Gutierrez then caught a bus to Central Lima to watch the Spain v. Paraguay game on the big screen set up in the Plaza de Armas.



Annie and Alyse were smitten with the crowd-control police...



After the game, we went to the Inquisition Museum down the street. It's amazing how rude/extremely cruel and horrible people were to each other then (how, in many, places they still are.)

After the museum, we grabbed some food at a dive bar. We learned from a group of young guys with earrings that it was "Dia de Amigos." I think they wanted to become "amigos" with us, but we weren't having it.



We caught a bus back to Miraflores to do some shopping in Parque Kennedy. We ate some delicious Churros shown in the pictures below (which I thought was just a Spanish thing...apparently not.) Churros are delicious fried dough with chocolate, vanilla or dulce de leche stuffed in the middle.











We went home for a few hours to play with Miski (pronounced mishki), the dog in our house. Then, we headed out to Barranco to a beer bar to chill with some of Annie's university friends. At about 3:00 am we went to get salchipapas from a bar down the street. We got home around 6 am.







Slept until 1 pm on Sunday (4th of July). Once we did get up, we walked all the way to the beach. We stopped to pet the cats in Parque Kennedy.



We also stopped on Calle Jose Larco for some coffee at a Middle Eastern restaurant. One of the waiters approached us with this cute ball of fluffiness with a red ribbon around its neck. People randomly carrying bunnies in Lima is actually fairly common. I'm not sure why they do it though. It may be like walking your dog. Getting your bunny some air.





We stopped at Larcomar for pictures and shopping.



Then hiked down more than 140 stairs to la Rosa Nautica, a restaurant built on a rocky penninsula that juts out into the ocean. Yes, we hiked back up later (after a bottle of wine and a big meal.)



We passed a lot of surfers peeling off their wet suits for the day. Great surfing conditions apparently, but you wouldn't get me in Peruvian water. It's like ice.



This is the restaurant, La Rosa Nautica (The Nautical Rose).



The food was delicious. I had seabass covered in white sauce with a spicy jam-like topping.





We walked around Miraflores. Alyse found a cardboard cutout of an Argentine soccer player. We'll forgive her, cause she lives there (and she's supporting Spain in the finals.)



Then we stopped again at Starbucks (I know...but they have the best "Tres Leches" cake.)



Sadly, Alyse left on Monday morning, and I went back to work. So glad I got to see her though. It had been a year since I saw her last...at graduation.

I'm always at a loss about how to end my blog posts. I want to think of something catchy, but alas I am not Adam Moreland, Valerie Hendrix, or David Watterson. So I will leave you with this. VAMOS ESPAÑA!