DAY THREE – THURSDAY, MAY 13, 2004

RT here. Checking in from Arequipa, Peru (elevation 8,366 feet).

I got laid and nuns sang to us. Not in that order.

The morning was as ever: I checked email, started my trip report and walked around a little. Pappy had a civilian date he had met through amigos.com, and she was showing up at 11am. I wanted to be there.

She showed up promptly at 11:15. A pretty girl, who probably spoke more English than she let on. A common defense mechanism, I guess. It's very convenient for me when I can say that I don't understand Spanish, so I guess it works both ways.

The three of us went to a coffee shop called Cafe Cafe on the side of Kennedy Park. A little expensive by Peru standards (on a par with a US Starbucks), but the coffee was good and the desserts looked delicious. The three of us seemed to get along well, so I tagged along for lunch at Alfresco Restaurant.

ALFRESCO RESTAURANT
Malecon Balta 790, Miraflores
444-7692
12° 07' 456" S, 77° 01' 991" W
(Click here for Alfresco Restaurant discussion)

Alfresco is a seafood-based restaurant that is famous for its different cebiches. With good reason. I had the Cebiche Mixto (fish, calamar, shrimp, pulpo, conch, onions) and Pappy and his date each had the house special cebiche, which was in a different marinade than the standard. They loved theirs, too. With a couple of extra things, the lunch was less that $50 for the three of us. Highly recommended.

I decided to leave the kids to themselves after that, and decided to get some sightseeing in. I had read that Central Lima was, at one time, the whole town, and had some nice architecture and a bustling marketplace. It has a reputation as dangerous (Pappy's date tried to talk me out of going), but it was daytime and I'm big and resourceful. I took a $2.28 cab ride and had the driver leave me off at Plaza Mayor

PLAZA MAYOR: 12° 02' 731" S, 77° 01' 814" W

I've been to a lot of Spanish/Latin cities, and in some ways, they're all the came. A large plaza/park in the center of town, surrounded by the churches, than banks, then government buildings. Central Lima was no exception, except a lot of the older stuff wasn't as well kept as many. I wandered around and looked/acted like a tourist, until a tout hit on me.

My new friend Roberto is 60 years old, was toting his 4 year old grandson around and spoke a little English. He gave me a running commentary of the different areas (including a nice Chinatown), while I shot photos of old buildings. Eventually, I was getting tired of both him and walking, so I told him I wanted to buy some Alpaca sweaters and where should we go. Of course, he took me to the central market.

CENTRAL MARKET: 12° 03' 905" S, 77° 01' 987" W

It was a central market right out of central casting: a large covered city block with a labyrinth of booths selling everything from live animals to pots and pans to DVDs to clothes. We finally found alpaca row, where I wound up buying 10 sweaters for less than $100. Either I got a good deal or I got ripped off, but the sweaters look and feel nice, and the labels all say 'Baby Alpaca' on them, so I'm set for gifts. Worth it regardless. I gave Roberto $15 (way too much) and took a cab back to the hotel.

Pappy was outside smoking his cigarette. His date went well. They're going to Machu Picchu for the weekend, Good for him.

We took a walk through Pizza Alley (still early) and he hung out while I completed my Day 2 report. We changed for dinner (I had a treat in store for him), but it was early, so we walked around the park area, looking at gift shops and checking out a couple more casinos (slot machines only). It was time to get a cab and go to L'Eau Vive De Peru for dinner.

L'EAU VIVE DE PERU:
Jiron Ucayalin 370, Central Lima
Across form Palacio Torre Tagle
427-5612
12° 02' 969" S, 77° 01' 775" W
(Click here for L'eau Vive de Peru discussion)

L'Eau Vive De Peru is in Central City. In fact, I walked past it earlier without noticing. What makes this special is that L'Eau Vive De Peru is a French restaurant owned and operated by a bunch of nuns. All profits go to their missionary work. Perhaps you've heard of them, they have branches of the restaurant in Rome and Buenos Aries too. The nuns live there. Ten of 'em, the one that took care of us said.

Dinner was excellent. Pappy and I both had Coquille St. Jacques for an appetizer. I had onion soup and a grilled trout to follow up; Pappy had a steak. It was all so wonderful, I even went for the dessert of ice cream and some sort of pastry with warm chocolate sauce. After dessert, the nuns came into the dining room and serenaded us with their version of Ave Maria. I'm not a big fan of that type of music, but their harmonies were good and the acoustics in the old building were excellent. And they're nuns, what are you gonna do? So we listened. The total check was $42. Pappy left an extra $20 propina for good karma, he said.

It was still early, so we went to the Casino Miraflores to play a little blackjack. Pappy won back most of his extra tip and I walked out with a hot $7 of the casino's money. We split up after that. I'm not sure about what Pappy did, but I cruised Pizza Alley.

No one really interested me except a couple of the girls trying to get me to eat in their restaurants, so I went out to the Hacienda Casino where I brought the house to their knees, netting a whopping $66.50. Not bad at $2 blackjack.

I was tired, so I decided to give Pizza Alley one more try before crashing and going to sleep. I was about 3/4 of the way through when I heard a 'hello'. I turned around and faced an acceptable-looking specimen. We chatted a little, and I agreed to buy her a drink.

The drink turned out to be pizza and a couple of belts of Johnny Walker, but what the hell. I think I fed half the girls in Pizza Alley. The tab came to $16.50. I paid and let Lucy suggest that we go to my hotel room. Shockingly, I agreed.

The session was OK. Again, another great kisser. One thing, though. It is amazing what faults the proper clothing can hide. There's no way around that, I guess. We didn't discuss money, but I still had $50 of the Casino's $66.50, so I gave that to Lucy. She made a half-assed attempt to get more, but it was the right amount, so she gave up quickly. She left and I went to sleep.

Thinking about my first three days, I decided that although I didn't do that great, I could chalk most of it up to rookie mistakes. My failure to succeed at daytime incall places, for example. It would be unfair to compare my first-time experiences here with San Jose or the Dominican Republic, where I am a professional at this stuff. I like Lima enough to give it another two or three trips before I make a firm decision.

COMING UP: The next few days are taken up with the Arequipa portion of my trip. There may be a mongering opportunity there, but it doesn't look like I will have the time. If anything of note happens, I will let you know. Otherwise, I will be back in Lima Sunday night. To be continued then.

RT, I am really enjoying your posts. You are a good writer both in description and style. It's especially nice to read a report that is not one 2500 word long single paragraph. Quick question. Where are you going to fit 10 alpaca sweaters for your trip home? You'll need to buy several extra suitcases just for them alone.

RT here. Excellent question, Tight. And thanks for the props.

My travel agent sent me with some clothes that I delivered on Day 8 to her niece. But even that wouldn't have gotten me the room I needed.

Anticipating the sweaters, I bought three of those plastic bags that you put stuff in, seal, roll up, and the air escapes out a one-way hole on the bottom.

It compressed the sweaters enough that I was able to pack them in my suitcase. Also, they really didn't wrinkle when I got home and unpacked them, being sweaters and all.

And, at the cheap price of only $10 per sweater, I scored real big points with the women in my life here in Florida! Too bad it's always hot here, but that's their problem, not mine.

(Message edited by rtgooch on May 24, 2004)

I'm looking forward to hearing about Arequipa. I heard from many during my Peru trip it was a beautiful city. Don't know much about the hobby scene but that's ok. Let us know how the city is. Please compare it to Cuzco if you've been there too.

P.S. Those packing bags really work great. I always bring some with me on my trips (as I love to buy clothes) and they always serve their purpose. It's also smart to bring an extra duffle bag so you can check another bag if you need it. You can buy those bags here:

http://www.walkabouttravelgear.com/packit.htm

Arequipa was a very pretty city. I felt safe, but I could see where you could feel not so safe, too. The people were nice, but not as warm as the Limans. This was my first time in Peru, so I can't compare it to Cuzco.

I really didn't like the cold (I live in Florida), and the dryness gave my lips a real chapping, and my sinuses wanted to revolt.

And the casinos were slots only.

But it was beautiful. I set up an ofoto.com album of some tourist pictures (I hope Hombre is OK with the link). You don't have to register or anything, just click on the 'view photos' button.

http://www.ofoto.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=53hw5yr.ceqqe7b3&Uy=hqsxcp&Upost_signin=BrowsePhotos.jsp%3fshowSlide%3dtrue&Ux=0&UV=518279051751_539381875103

(Message edited by rtgooch on May 24, 2004)

Thanks for the photos. The scenes where you can see the surrounding areas look really dry and desolate.