I went to Lima and all I got was this sunburned head. J/K

It's been so long since I sat down and did *nothing* that I need to take a look at where I started. As usual, writing down what's going on take so much more effort than actually doing it. Whatever.

So for me, Lima (at least the Miraflores part of it) is kind of a mixed bag and I say this in the light of hindsight. Now, Miraflores is not a microcosm of Peru. It's one of the most wealthy areas of the city and flooded with rich folks and tourists. I found the people on the street to be really intense. There's a lot of the Incan culture in the people's faces. They don't smile but they clearly have a good time with their friends. As a 6' tall Anglo with a beard I stick out like a sore thumb, and as a middle aged, solo traveler I think some of the people here thought I might be some kind of a sex tourist. It was a little off putting honestly. I also caught a whiff of resentment from some of the more indigenous folks against people they refer to as The Spanish. I'm not saying it's everywhere, or the rule, but I saw it around. Then again, there are many faces to the district; socioeconomic, racial and personality.

When I got to Peru I spent the first few nights at the Miraflores Hotel Lodge. This is one of a bunch of smaller hotels that pepper the area near the business zone and in the residential areas. In my opinion these are the way to go in this area. This was a nice old villa style hotel building, 4 floors and and I had a good sized room with a separate bathroom. I got breakfast with my stay and with it came the traditional "first meal in the country" culture shock. It's all basically food you're used to but assembly seems to be different. Ingredients seem just a little out of  phase. Milk came in a box, which of course I've seen before but down here it is damn nigh condensed. And I LIKE it. Actually, down here, milk comes either powdered or sometimes condensed because (according to the one guy I talked to about it) they don't really do the cow thing down here. Peru is mostly desert on the west side and they don't get a lot of rain, so little rain that a lot of people pretty much have parts of their houses open to the elements. Wherever I saw houses wide open like that I thought it was really nice. You get a low temperature mist off the ocean and anywhere there is shade it's nice and cool but that sun, whoo! I got my head nice and sunburned just walking around. So anyhow, no cows. They eat a lot of chicken down here and seafood is a really big deal and they do it well. I had some awesome cerviche and other seafood out at a place called Punto Azul. I recommend it. So Miraflores Hotel Lodge is nice, and I would stay there again but I preferred the second place I stayed in a few ways.More about that in a minute.

Since the Lodge didn't have room for me the next day, I spent my last day out at B&B Tradiciones  out at the end of Tradiciones Park. The manager, Angelo was awesome. Once he set me up with my room he said I should come down so he could tell me about the area. He was like a one man tour. He told be all about Peru, how it's the potato capital of the world, how much they do with corn and lot of other truly interesting details about Peru at a high level and some stories about some of the other guests that had recently come through. He had a copy of a map that he thoroughly marked up with routes to places I could go and what I could see (this isn't me, but clearly other people appreciate it as much as I did). He gave me the lowdown on breakfast, which after I called would either be served on the patio or my room. He gave me some tips on where to eat, including where the grocery store was. That night I ended up grabbing some Cusquena beer at the local Wong's grocery store (a very modern and nice grocery store) and getting some arroz con mariscos downtown. It was a nice quiet night with a book and some beer and then bed after that.


Looking back, I realize I never got the names of any of the people out at the previous place. Don't get me wrong. The rooms were bigger and it was really close to the action but I got a lot more value out of B&B Tradiciones. That said I would stay at either again. Both were great value for the money.