Lima Mini-Vacation

I know it's only been 5 days, but I'm heading to Cuzco/Ollantaytumbo tomorrow and thought I'd post a little update since I'm not sure what internet will be like once I get there. Lima is super dirty and gross. Some of it's neighborhoods are alright, but I'm glad I was only here for four days. Every day has been gray and gloomy. I'm excited to get out to the Campo  and breath some fresh air and see some blue sky again. 

Lima Highlights

Quincha House:

I've been staying at this super strange hostel in town. No one is ever here. The guy who showed me my room at 6:30 am on Thursday morning looks very much like a SoCal surfer beach bum:  Tan, bleach blond hair, only wears board shorts, probably late 20's early 30's. I expected him to speak to me in English, but nope, he's definitely Peruvian. I think his mom might live in the basement? It's been nice and very relaxed and safe, but just a little strange.

Random Old People:

Friday I had to spend on my own while my friends from school who are in Lima finished up work, so I walked to some pre-Incan ruins in town. While there I met this super friendly old Peruvian man who mistook me for a Brazilian woman - I have no idea how or why, but I'll take the compliment. He was there with some french friends and they invited me to lunch for authentic Peruvian food and beer after the tour. I had nothing better to do so I went. The french people were super into natural medicine and it came up that I was a medical student, so they talked my ear off about Shakras, and Auras, and Reincarnation and the Curandero (natural healer) that the French man worked with in Ecuador - all in broken french/spanish and some translation through our peruvian friend. I just sat there laughing to myself most of the time because it was so random.

Teenage Cover bands:

In an attempt to like Lima more, my two friends from WWAMI land (the Pullman first year site) wandered all over the city exploring the cooler neighborhoods of Lima. There's not a lot to do here in Miraflores where I've been staying. We ended up in the Barranco neighborhood which we discovered has all the bars and discos. We wandered into a sketchy looking bar that had live music, grabbed some Cuzqueño beers a took a seat in the dark and creepy looking balcony. It must have been some kind of open mic or local band night because we were the only white people there and the band was REALLY bad. Some kind of peruvian grunge. I'm pretty sure everyone in the audience was friends and family of the band members. But THEN these teenagers who couldn't be older than 14 came on and were doing covers of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Elvis, Cold Play, Green Day and some Spanish pop. It was AWESOME! 

But now my mini vacation is over. Time to head to the Valley and start thinking about my project.  Hopefully I'll find some fun locals or expats to have some adventures with!