Bus Rides and Iguanas

Lima’s hustle and bustle grew a bit tiresome by the end of our 8 days there and we were both happy to begin making our way north to Guayaquil. The busy company Cruz del Sur proved once again to be an excellent choice—almost fully reclining seats, food, blankets, and pillows. All of these things made the 32 hours much more comfortable and we passed out of Peru and into Ecuador without any trouble at all. I had my last taste of Peru on the bus ride as well by consuming my most favourite Peruvian cookies, alfajores. These little wonders are a short bread cookie filled with dulce de leche and sprinkled with icing sugar. These treasures coupled with gravol made the time fly by despite a somewhat smelly baby and a few horrendous movies that most likely never made it to North American theatres.

We opted to return to another familiar hostel in Guayaquil and have decided to forgo the northern adventure to Canoa because of a lack of swell. Instead, we bought plane tickets back to the Galapagos Islands for a week, and then will see how the waves are during afterwards. We will fly into a new location that we did not visit last time, San Cristobal. We will get the best snorkeling and beach basking this way, rather than taking another bus. It is also possible to surf in this area, so if the opportunity presents itself we’ll be ready! 

More soon...

do it yourself coffee

Choices

not something I purchased...

Miraflores' ocean view

Ecuadorian Bolon

Something lurking up there

Green iguana in Guayaquil 

Regresamos a Lima

In many ways, it feels like it hasn't been long since our last visit to Lima and we have experienced a strange familiarity coming back. Overall, we had hardly any troubles with flights, connections, and layovers. We flew with LAN airlines from LA onward and were impressed with the high quality of service on our 8 hour flight which included movies, a blanket, two meals, ear plugs, and head phones! What more could you ask for in an airline these days? However, just as we were commenting to each other about our smooth sailing, Iain had realized his bank card was only good for one withdrawal as he had left it the ATM machine outside the airport. Thankfully, we will just use our visas and I have my bank card… dodged another bullet.

Lima is a busy city full of crazy drivers and equally loco pedestrians. Cars always have the right-of-way and people boldly leap into the streets when the briefest of traffic lulls present themselves. The buses are always honking, and cars move fast which means we have to too.We came back to the same hostel in the Miraflores district we visited last time called ‘Friend’s House’ which is cheap and a great location that we already know. The only downside is 12 U.S.A. peace corp. are staying here too and the only time it’s peaceful is when they’re gone. I've been practicing my southern drawl with Iain well cursing the Americans for their boisterousness which we can hear at ALL times. Although, we have found humour in overhearing an American gordita (chubby girl) loudly talking while eating, and simultaneously choking/hiccuping without a break in conversation.  

We have spent the last few days shopping for our house and have made some great purchases so far—paintings, beautiful textiles, wooden bowls, and blankets. It has been fun to loiter the various markets practicing Spanish and bartering for bargains, and spreading the money to whom we think could use it most (think elderly, pregnant ladies, and vendors on the market’s periphery).

One of the paintings we purchased 

Lima has somewhat of a grand culinary reputation that we hadn’t experienced during our last stay, but we had a great meal at a restaurant Mezze last night. We also checked out Club Habana for a few mojitos and visited cats in Parque Kennedy. We’ve also tried cortados (coffee & milk) and cake from a great, bustling diner-like place called Manolo. We have also been frequent visitors of a high end grocery store called Vivanda where Iain has been binging on granadillas (he’s had four since I started writing this).

A regalo

Mango is lunch

We have booked bus tickets with Cruz del Sur to Guayaquil, Ecuador on Wednesday. This is somewhat of a commitment (30 hours on a bus), but a much cheaper option compared to flying. From Guayaquil we will make our way north to Canoa.

with Nina, maybe a famous artist? We bought one of his paintings