Day 32: Good Company, Good Food, & Good Views (Lima)

When I woke up this morning at 7 to get ready to meet my dad at 7:30 at the hotel, I was surprised to see him walking up the stairs to the hostel. I had just woken up; I didn't even have my contacts in yet. He was worried because I hadn't shown up the the hotel to meet him, but they had said I was there the day before. I said "yeah, it's only 7:10, I'm getting ready to head over. Did you arrive early?" He looked at me perplexed and said "no, it's 8:10." I said "no, I set my alarm for 7, it's definitely 7:10." That's when I realized I never switched my phone into the eastern time zone after flying from central America. Oops! I had been living an hour behind for a whole day now. Clearly, I hadn't needed the time before now.

He waited for me while I finished getting ready and packed my bags. We went back to the hotel for me to leave my luggage, then went out for breakfast. We went to a delicious little cafe that was recommended to us. We had the churros with a wonderful omelette. Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel but still couldn't check in for a few hours. Then we went down to the overlook on the water. We sat and watched surfers for a while, then went back to check into the hotel. After a nice nap, we were refreshed to continue with the day. That afternoon we took a taxi down into Callao to Fort Real Felipe. It was an old fort built in the 1700's by the Spanish. We had a great guide who spoke English; despite us being the only English speaking people in the entire group of 20+ people. (The tour was in Spanish but he would translate as we walked between sites.) Afterwards, we caught a bus down to La Punta (the point.) There were gorgeous views of the ocean here with a waterfront park that was filled with locals. It seemed to us that there were few to no tourists here. I think it's because it's not in the greatest neighborhood of lima, so it's not as popular; even though it's beautiful with tons of restaurants.

From there we were looking for the restaurant Rana Verde (green frog.) However, it showed up on the map as about 10 blocks away, so we took a taxi there. This was suggested to us by a local man that we had met at breakfast for having great civiche (fish cooked using fruit and lima juice with peppers - Peru's national dish.) The taxi driver had no idea where it was, so we went to Regattas Union, a nearby destination. From there we had to ask around where to go. We were directed around the building, through a boat yard, and into a dilapidated dock where we found a plain wooden building. This must be it, right? Apparently so. There were no signs ANYWHERE. I have no idea how people even find this place. We came all this way, only to find out that they only serve lunch! On a Saturday?! How strange. Alright, so what's plan B? We could either go to Barranco (a popular place for restaurants and bars), go back to the point and find a restaurant, or go to a place that was also recommended to us for ceviche in Mira Flores... neither of us cared what to do, but we finally decided to go back to the point and find a restaurant there.

We ended up at a little restaurant with several locals which was right across from the park with great views. We both ordered ceviche with rice. It was delicious, but the portions were huge! We definitely could have split one. We spent a while eating and drinking beer while enjoying the amazing sunset. After some time, we headed back to the hotel for the night.

Back at the hotel we showered, packed, and went to the bar for our welcome drink, a pisco sour. I'm not a fan of raw egg, so dad partook. We looked at things to do in Cusco because we're flying there tomorrow then headed to bed for our early morning.

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