Day 2 in Lima

Jim, Erik and I had a fabulous lunch just a few blocks from Jessie's apartment while Steph stayed at the apartment to sleep off her sickness. We each had a different kind of Ceviche. Mine was a more traditional ceviche common to the north, Erik had one with a mix of several types of seafood, and Jim had one with three kinds of chili powder. Believe it or not, Jim won on the ordering... his dish wasn't that spicy and I'd say it was the best of the bunch.

Afterward we took a path down from the top of the cliffs where most of the restaurants and housing are down to the beach, which was quite the little hike. We spent a couple of hours wandering around the beach, watching the surfers, gazing at the crabs, and exploring a little restaurant/shop area down there before hiking back up. The beaches are mostly rock, not sand, so not exactly the type where you want to be laying out and chilling. It seems that surfing is pretty big around this area. They do lessons... I might have considered it if I weren't pregnant, but that's okay, there will be another chance sometime.

We went back up to Jessie's place and took short catnaps while we waited for her to get home from work so we could head out for our next adventure. Luckily Steph was starting to feel better so when Jessie got home we all were able to head out together.

We walked about 20 minutes to a tour office to book a tour for Thursday to Caral, supposedly the oldest known civilization in the Americas. After that we headed to a restaurant near Kennady Park, and Jim and I both tried the alpaca, which was quite good. Mine was served on mashed sweet potato and Jim's was served on a cheesy risotto... once again Jim won on the ordering. While mine was delicious, his was exquisite. Alpaca is good, it tastes like something between beef and lamb. We all tried a glass of Inca Kola, the local soda which is supposed to be flavored with limon but tastes more like bubble gum.

We visited a small nearby market before heading to a custom shoe shop, Calzado Moore. I guess it's really popular with all of the diplomats and embassy workers in Lima, and Jessie had promised Stephanie a pair of custom boots for Christmas so we had to knock that off the list. This place makes leather/designer shoes and everything is made in-house. While Steph ordered her boots we might have all (at least, all of the women) bought some sandals that were on sale and I *might* have gotten a pair of comfy flats (sort of mary-jane-esque) that will work well for teaching. ;) I got both the sandals and the flats for 100 soles total, which equates to about $38 US, so I thought for two pairs of super comfy leather shoes that wasn't too bad of a deal! No way I'd find anything that look like these do in the states. We are calling that my Christmas present from Jim.

After the walk home we planned for tomorrow and pretty much called it a night. We'll start off by going to a waffle joint in the morning that Jessie says we *have* to go to, then we'll check out a market, a couple of different ruins right in Lima, visit the Plaza de Armas... then Jessie will meet us in central Lima for dinner and a fountain/light show that is supposedly cool. Better get to bed! (If we can sleep, it sounds like there is a party next door and the music is BLASTING... ha! It's Pitbull, which makes me laugh.)

-Sarah and Jim