February 5 - Lima

I didn't think I was going to like Lima.

Before I came, a friend literally told me: "Skip it. Lima sucks.  You're just going to get mugged or raped."

Encouraging.

My first thoughts upon reaching the capital city (after a 22 hr overnight bus ride -- woof) were:

"This is not a Peruvian city."

It's another New York. Or DC. Or Chicago.

Subway here - Starbucks there.

You catch my drift?

But it was oddly refreshing.

For example - Will I substitute Pinkberry for a plate of rice and questionable chicken?

Why yes. Yes, I will.

Call me basic white girl, whatever.

I just could not care less.

But, frozen yogurt aside, I had a great time in Lima - I may even go as far as to say it was a highlight of the trip so far.

Upon further contemplation, I think my feelings on our time in the city can be largely attributed to the fact that Lima was one of the first places that we really socialized with anyone other than each other (no offense to Maggie or Amanda, of course, but I'm sure we could all agree that "over-exposure" is a very real thing).

Anyway, if Ecuador won for local population, Lima won for fellow travelers.

Due to stupidly high prices in Miraflores (the high-end neighborhood that we were advised to stay in), we were forced out of the luxury of private rooms and into hostel dorms where we were introduced to the first of the array of characters we were obliged to encounter in Lima.

First, there were the two girls from Saskatchewan - Carly and another, whose name somehow managed to escape us for the duration of our stay.

A funny pair.

The former - a tall, skinny, endearingly dumfounded girl with a mop of fluffy blonde hair on top of her head.

the latter - a shorter, slightly more strapping, blatantly direct compliment to her companion.

The two had been in Peru only a few weeks when they'd left their bags on the beach in Máncora (the same beach we'd just come from), only to have their passports, money, and phones stolen from them while they took a quick dip in the water.

They were staying patiently in Lima awaiting the arrival of their new travel documents.

Then Nancy arrived.

A scatter-brained, shockingly naive, Canadian who loved to talk about grapefruit seed extract, "doobies", and her experiences with Ayahuasca.

On our second night in Lima, she scored "ganja" from a guy on the streets for s/200 - approximately $65.

It was oregano.

Literally.

Oregano.

And a fanfare for our Brazilian counterparts!

I actually cannot write their real names because I have no idea how (I could barely pronounce them).

But here is my rough American translation:

Dani, Marcus, and John.

Three jokesters that we met on our walking tour of the city, taking a break from work to travel Peru together.

We ate lunch and drank beers together as they made fun of our American accents and fruitlessly attempted to teach us Portuguese.

It's such a treat to meet all of these people from all over the world and share a little window of our experience (our life, really) with them.

Cheers to Brazileños, cheers to Canadians, and cheers to oregano.

Safe travels to all.