I was up at 8:30, and incredibly, felt halfway human. I spent some time checking my email and was dressed and ready to go by 10:30.
I took a walk at to check out the neighborhood. Just east of the apartment on Av. Dos de Mayo (cdras 3-8) there are 7 or 8 restaurants, more than half Italian, and all nice looking, trattoria-types. I will make it appoint to investigate at least one before I go home.
I am in a constant search for cheap generic Viagra. I have been quoted anywhere from 4 to 9 Soles for a 100 mg tablet ($1.27- $2.86). I have found better prices in the non-chain stores, so I often stop in when I pass one. Well, today I did very well. During my walk this morning, I passed Boticas BVA on Av. Javier Prado Este #219, just off of the corner of Av. Petit Thouars. It's a small shop, right on the main drag. I asked the girl for Sildenafilo, she looked it up on the computer, and told me that they were three Soles each ($0.95). Jackpot! That's around what I paid for them in India, and everything is ridiculously cheap over there. I requested ten, and she went and got them and charged me 30 Soles. They are a brand that I have bought elsewhere for just over four Soles, so I was very pleased. The receipt says that they have 24-hour delivery, and their phone number is 421-8222. They also had a sticker on their window advertising the 'morning after' pill -- always good to know!
On the last few trips, I have stumbled upon people here and there that, when faced with my bad Spanish, ask if I speak English. When I respond that I do, but I need to practice my Spanish (Yo necissito practica mi espanol), they seem to really respect that, and are happy to put up with my butchering of their language.
After my walk, I was back at the apartment by noon, trying to decide where to eat, and settled on La Mar.
La Mar was as great as always. I had the special cebiche of the day (Cebiche Sexy), and then an assortment of mussels, clams and scallops, served in mussel shells and topped with diced tomatoes, onions, corn and other flavors (Clasico Chalaco).
The total check came to 53 Soles, and full, fat, and happy, I took a cab to Miraflores where I bought some tourist crap and practiced flirting with the girls in the tiendas. Strangely, that just never gets old!
Just for kicks, I took the bus back home. It was only a little slower than a taxi, and cost me 2 soles (one sol per bus), as opposed to the 6 or 7 that a taxi would have charged. And, I got to people watch!
It was now 4:30, so I called Naomi. She was awake and happy to hear from me, and said that she would get dressed and head over my way.
At 5:30, the doorbell rings, and there she was, just as beautiful as I remembered. Naomi is a professional at what she does, which is be beautiful and make the man of the hour (or afternoon, or whatever) feel special and important. For the few hours that we were together, I was her whole world. We talked and caught up with each other for a bit. Don't be fooled for a second - these girls all talk to each other. Naomi knew that I was with Nicole from Club 69 last month while she was out of town, and she also knew that I saw another girl from there outside the club. We made out in the living room and moved to the bedroom, where she picked some songs on the computer and the make out session continued.
Boy, is it great when you're with a beautiful young woman who is skilled and evidently into it. These girls from the selva (jungle area of Peru) just seem to love sex. We went on for a while, doing all kinds of stuff, and I finally busted a nut at 7:39 (I happened to notice the clock on the side of the bed as we were cleaning up). After, we shot a few photos, and I asked Naomi if she wanted to have dinner with me before we split up and went our separate ways. She eagerly agreed, and to celebrate, raided my refrigerator and ate the chocolate mousse that I had hidden behind the milk.
Photos: Naomi 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Naomi said that she liked Italian food (I think that this girl will eat pretty much anything), so we walked over to Avenue Dos de Mayo and settled on Griglia A La Italiana.
Griglia A La Italiana
Av. Dos de Mayo #785
San Isidro - 441-9715
(Note: I did not take the above photo - I found it on the web. I did take the ones that follow)
Griglia A La Italiana is an Italian restaurant that features Argentinean beef, along with pizzas and pastas. It consists of a large dining room (there was second, unused room as well), all decked out in dark wood. Its most noticeable feature is the hundreds of different liquor bottles hanging from the ceiling.
The restaurant has an extensive menu, and extensive prices, too. I didn't know it at the time, but I had stumbled upon another place in Lima with an excellent reputation. And from our meal, I can heartily recommend the joint.
Naomi started out with a Pina Colada, and I had a soda. For her main course, she ordered crab-stuffed raviolis in a shrimp sauce, and I had the special - a half-pound Argentinean steak with a side of fettuccini. My steak was delicious, and Naomi socked away all of her raviolis, except the one that she gave me to taste. Incredibly, she found room for dessert, too. I don't know where this girl puts all this food - she can't weigh 100 pounds soaking wet.
Here's some more pictures of the lovely Naomi at the restaurant:
Photos: Naomi 18 19 20 21 22
The total bill, including the sodas, coffee, only one drink, and additional tip, came to 160 soles ($50). If I hadn't ordered the special, it would have probably added another $10 to the check. I would certainly eat there again, but I would probably check out a couple of the other places on the street as well.
After dinner, I gave Naomi $100 and 20 soles for her taxi. She was going to meet her girlfriends at Plaza La Marina and go to the movies. Me, I had money to lose at blackjack, and I was meeting RBC for a trip to the clubs of Lima Central later that evening.
I took a cab to the Marriott, where I was on a modest winning streak when RBC showed up. Competition must be fierce for the betting dollar in Miraflores, because the Marriott has instituted a 'free taxi when you leave' policy. Just tell the pit boss where you want to go, and they give you a travel voucher. Give the voucher to the girl at the entrance, and they put you in a cab. So when you drop a couple of hundred dollars at the tables, at least you get a $3 cab ride home. It's just magical.
RBC and I get in the taxi and give the driver the address for our first stop in Centro.
How do I describe the Centro clubs? Well, I had been to two of them on a previous trip, and I have done a fair share of research, so let's see… There's probably 20 or so clubs in a ten square block area. The clubs are all pretty much the same: There's anywhere from no cover to a 2 sol admission charge, large bottles of beer run about 5 sols, they're pretty run down, but not necessarily shoddy, and the music's pretty loud.
As to the female action, all the clubs have girls dressed in, er, hooker clothes. Every so often, a girl will get up on stage (they all have stages) and do a one- or two-song strip, to an appreciative crowd of drooling Peruvian boys seated around the stage. The girls' looks range from not all that attractive all the way to pretty, with most of the girls earning a barely passable mark. If you see a girl that interests you, invite her over to your table, buy her a slightly overpriced glass of wine, and chat her up for a while. If you really hit it off, the clubs have private areas where, for 50 soles (around $16), you get a bottle of champagne and some private time. According to what my friends told me and what I have read, there is no sex in the private areas, or anywhere in the club, for that matter. You get a little more personal attention, some kissing and groping, and you can make a date for when the girl gets off of work, but that's it. Even though everyone tells me that's it, I personally find it incomprehensible that sex couldn't be negotiated, especially if you have money to throw around. I vowed to RBC to do what I could to prove or disprove my theory.
Centro is not the safest of areas (especially for two obvious foreigners), but Calle Colmena is pretty well populated, so we felt safe on that street, but would have taken a taxi (even if only for a couple of blocks) anywhere else.
Our first stop was the Palmeras Club. There was no cover, and a beer and a bottle of water set us back 10 soles. Aside from the girl on stage, there were about a half dozen girls, some of them passable. We caught the tail end of the strippers, and I guess that was it for a while, because the DJ said something I couldn't make out, and all the boys around the stage got up and left the club. The waiters kept trying to bring us company, and when they didn't get the hint that we wanted to be left alone, we finished our drinks and left for the Flamingo across the street.
The Flamingo had a 1 sol cover charge, and was well-lit, compared to Palmeras. We again watched a few girls dance (the quality was low to middle), and we saw a steady flow of couples heading to the 'VIP' area. I didn't see any champagne bottles following the couples, so perhaps the VIP deal is different at that club. We received no pressure to have any company (perhaps because they never saw Americans in there before and didn't know what to do with us), and when we left, a combination of the doorman and a cab driver got us to our next stop, the Safari Club.
I had been to the Safari before, and it seemed to be the most 'upscale' of the 'downscale' clubs. But not on this Sunday night. There were only three other customers in the club, and maybe three or four girls, but they mostly stayed backstage, wherever that was. RBC and I sat at the bar and ordered waters. One of the waiters was very insistent, trying to get girls to sit with us. I didn't want to, but I had to trot out the good old Ugly American. "Do you speak Spanish?" I asked (in Spanish). When he told me that he did, I then asked him, "Do you understand 'no'?" He got the hint and finally left us alone. I didn't feel good about it, but the guy was not responding to politeness. We wound up leaving there. We were only a half a block from Calle Colmena, so we took a chance and walked it, ducking into the first club we saw (I didn't get the name).
For whatever reason, I felt like George Clooney in "From Dusk to Dawn": Now, THIS is my kinda place. It wasn't really all that different from the first two clubs, but I just got a better feeling walking into there. The girls were average, compared to the other clubs.
We sat and ordered a beer for 5 soles. A girl (Esmeralda) came over and introduced herself (a first at any of the clubs), and just as a fact-finding effort, we bought her a small carafe of wine (20 soles, and it turns out that 6 go to the girl). Once we were marked as high rollers, another girl joined us and decided that she was our friend, too. Guisella wasn't all that attractive, but she had an enormous rack (I'm talking gigantic), was happy and in a good mood, and she told me that she sucks a mean dick. What the hell, a carafe of wine for Guisella, too.
I took the opportunity to ask Guisella what my options were there. Well, after the wine, my only other choice was a 50 sol bottle of champagne, and we could retire to a private area. When I asked how much time the bottle bought you, she waved off the question and told me, "Whatever we want."
I didn't really want her, but in name of research, I bit the bullet and had her call the waiter to set the whole thing up. Meanwhile, Esmeralda sucked down her wine like it was water and she was at the desert. RBC refused to throw away any more money, so he told me to have a good time and report back, and he would grab a taxi home.
Guisella and I went into the privado at 12:30. We walked all the way into the dark bowels of the back room of the club, where there was a small curtained-off area. It was pitch black, and she commandeered the waiter's flashlight after he opened the champagne bottle. As soon as he left, she set the light to give us just a little viewing ability. She then sat in my lap facing me, her top came down, and I got to mash her huge tits while we made out for a while. She let me take a couple of pictures and fondle to my heart's content. We talked to pass the time a little. I mentioned that kissing and fondling was nice and all, but I was a grown man and I had more needs than just getting to first base. She told me that sex was not allowed at the club, and she wasn't going to be breaking any rules that night. I tried to press the issue slightly, and she would have jerked me off through my pants, but my zipper stayed closed. I didn't offer her any money directly, but I let her know that a tip was out there for her for a quality BJ. Like I said, I didn't put on a full-court press, but the stories of no sex in Centro Clubs were apparently true. She did give me her phone number and email address so that she can come over and blow me, but it is unlikely. We left the room at 1:15. I tipped her 30 soles, having no idea if it was the right amount. It was probably too much, but it was worth ten bucks to play with her huge rack.
Photos: Guisella 23 24
All in all, I had fun, but I can't really recommend the Centro clubs as an important stop for a foreign visitor with limited time. Yes, you can scout out a girl, get her number, and pay her to have sex with you some time in the future, but you can do that any number of ways in Lima without the investment of time required in Centro. But hell, if you just wanted to spend a couple of hours looking at strippers, drinking cheap beer, and fondling girls in the dark, and all for much less than $50, the clubs of Centro could be the place for you.
I took a taxi back to Casino Miraflores, where I lost a few dollars. I didn't stay all that long, and I was at the apartment and in bed by 3:00 am.