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I went to Peru for a week to meet my girlfriend's parents, not as a backpacker and here is what I thought. I had lots of fun, but it wasn't the culture shock I thought it would be(my first time out of the US aside from cruise tours in the caribean). Maybe I was expecting natives in loin cloths, but what I got was lots of traffic, people, and noise that all had spanish accents. 1st 2 days: Lima. Went to the American embassy to handle some bidness. Got threatened by Men With Machine Guns when I took pictures of the building. Visited Mar Di Copas and ate a hearty lunch of all the parts of the animal we throw away in this country. Did some other "essentials" shopping like pirate CD's and DVD's and apparently underwear. 3rd and 4th days: Caught a ride to the Pan-American Highway and thumbed down a bus to go to Pisco and Paracas. Pisco was a dump and Paracas was quite pretty. Never buy a tour. Just jump in a cab and offer the guy a few soles to guide you around. Was a fantastic guide, took us to a great ceviche restaurant, and basically showed us lots of cool places with only 2 or 3 times almost driving over a cliff. The only scheduled tour we took was to go see sealions and penguins which was very cool. Bring a hat with a wide brim that you never want to see again. Then we hitched back to Pisco and thumbed down a bus to go back to Peru. FYI, don't eat the mussels. Tore me up for the rest of the trip and I can eat 4 week old rancid meat without a problem. 5th day: Went to the market and downtown. It was drat cool. I wish we had markets like that here with with fruits and chickens and fish and cows and all sorts of poo poo. the only place that comes within a hundred miles of this experience is Jungle Jims in Cincinatti,OH. The only -eum type place I would pay to get in was the main cathedral. It was incredible. Unfortunately Superman was on a space mission when we stopped by the Palace of Justice. Also, there were riots then so we couldn't get into several places near the main square. 6th day: Try the guinea pig! It's like greasier dark meat chicken. Or if you've ever had squirrel, it's like that. We went to a country restaurant which was a neat experience. It's like going to the fair here complete with rides. And then we SALSA! Nothing beats salsa'ing to a live band. Starts at midnight, goes til 6AM. Pisco sours are good, but for the money I would stick with beer. I noticed that mixed drinks anywhere in Lima\Paracas would cost double what they cost in america(taking into account the exchange rate) where as beer was cheaper than water. If you want to go out earlier, there is an irish pub in the avenue of pizza that played American rock, complete with wierd accent-less english singing. And on the 7th day, we rested. Actually we went home. Obviously there is lots of stuff I left out like shooting pool and seeing all the posers with thier gloves and clip on chalks that couldn't drop a ball. Or mixing up my spanish and apparently trying to pick up shopkeepers because of it. Or finding out cold drinks cost more than room temperature drinks. Or the seranade on a combe. Or hell, the combe themselves. Nothing says fun like a Volkswagon van that has 22 people crammed in it. Chicha is very good. My girlfriends mom makes it. Also, the Malta beer has a very unique flavor. All in all, Lima was cool adn I had a great time, but its a big city and frankly I can find everything there in other big cities closer to home. Paracas and Pisco actually seemed like a different country whereas Lima seemed like Chicago with a spanish accent. But I only spent a 5 days there and lots of it was with family, so we didn't go out of our way to do the tourist thing. I guess I am saying your mileage may vary.
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Jun 16, 2008 06:50
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| # ¿ May 2, 2024 14:52 |
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