The next day, I woke up refreshed and well-rested at 8.30, having gone to bed at 10pm the night before. So far, it’s been surprisingly easy to adjust to the seven-hour time difference - maybe due to the fact that this year I have become fully accustomed to dealing with sleep deprivation.
Just like the day before, Pily prepared an elaborate breakfast spread for the whole family, this time including Omar, who hadn’t yet gone to work. I took the opportunity to present them with the Earl Grey tea, Thorntons chocolates and informational book on Wombourne (with pictures) that I had brought as a ‘thank you’. Unfortunately, the London bears will have to wait, since I hadn’t anticipated that Rosi would be here and don’t want to give the other two presents and leave her empty-handed.
After breakfast, Omar dropped Natsumi, Nicole, Rosi and I at the Parque de las Leyendas, Lima’s huge zoo, which is just down the road from us, in our district San Miguel. It turns out, we are a two-car family because we have another big car, too (I couldn’t tell you what it is; it’s beige). The park consists of a zoo, dividing the animals up into the coastal, mountainous and jungle areas that constitute Peru, as well as an international zone. It also has a botanical garden, a small museum and a model mine. Not only that, but it contains several of the huacas, archeological remnants of the ancient and highly advanced cultures which used to inhabit Peru, 250 of which are still scattered throughout the city.
We spent all morning and part of the afternoon in the zoo and saw practically all the animals, apart from those living in the selva (jungle), which is currently undergoing reconstruction. The animals appear well cared-for, but you do have to feel sorry for some of them, who are cooped up alone in little enclosures, with nothing to do but pace around, sleep and be stared at all day. One poor lioness was stuck in the company of one lion; all she wanted to do was sleep, but he had other ideas. He didn’t seem to take any notice when she told him she had a headache, so she boxed him around the ears instead; I think she has the right idea.
Not long after we finished looking around, Pily picked us up outside the entrance. She dropped us off back at the apartment, where Abuelita was preparing lunch - tortillas (omelette) of quinua, with lentils and rice, and a tomato and carrot salad sprinkled with lemon. After lunch, I sat at the dining room table to work on the finishing touches of my Year Abroad Project, which I will have to email to my Mum to put with the rest of my project and send off to Exeter. This took me the most part of the afternoon, which I felt a little guilty about, since I knew Natsumi was bored, but I needed to get it done before things start to get busy here.
As soon as I finished I went to join her in her room, where she was watching an American channel showing CSI with Spanish subtitles. When Omar returned from work a while later, he suggested we go out somewhere, an offer I happily accepted; Natsumi was tired and wanted to stay home. Consequently, Pily, Omar and I took the trip just the three of us.
First we drove to the nearby district of Miraflores, which is on the seafront and is Lima’s most popular tourist area, with hotels, restaurants, shops, bars and clubs. The coastal properties are predominantly modern apartment blocks, pleasantly decorated with balconies overlooking the Costa verde (Green Coast). Further inland, modern properties are interspersed with attractive traditional houses. The beach is accessible down a flight of steps, at the top of which is a series of carefully maintained parks with lawns, paths, shrubberies and palm trees, which must be beautiful in the summer. Each section has a different name, such as Kennedy and El Parque del Amor (The Park of Love).
Whilst we took a short coastal walk, Omar explained some of Peru’s history to me - which I really needed, considering the fact that, up until a few weeks ago, I only knew Machu Picchu as a pile of rocks in the mountains. He told me that the immense illuminated cross we could see across the bay was a monument constructed from the rubble of the explosions caused by the terrorist attacks that ripped Lima apart twenty years ago and forced people to abandon their homes. It is estimated that there were around 70,000 deaths in Peru due to these guerrilla attacks.
After our walk along the seafront, we headed back to the car and made our way to the district of Barranca, which is less well-known amongst tourists but comes to life at night when the many restaurants, bars and clubs open. Nevertheless, it is the location of the famous Bajado de los baños (the closest translation to which I think would be the Swimmers’ Descent), a picturesque footpath leading to the beach, which is packed throughout the summer months. It is also home to the wooden footbridge known as the Puente de los suspiros (Bridge of Sighs) which is apparently named after the sighs of the many lovers who accept marriage proposals here.
At the end of the nineteenth century the district suffered the effects of the fire and looting brought by the Chilean invasion, and again from the effects of a violent earthquake in 1940. It has since recovered and is now home to many writers and artists, and host of many Peruvian folk concerts, in particular Afro Peruvian and Criollo.
By the time we had walked over the bridge, down the steps, and down the decent to the cliff edge and back, it was after 9pm and we were ready for something to eat. We drove around for over half an hour trying to find somewhere; very kindly, Pily and Omar wanted to take me to a Peruvian seafood restaurant, since they knew I’d like this. Unfortunately, here, seafood is considered a lunchtime food, and consequently, most of the places we tried weren’t open during the evening. Eventually we found a place that was open, which they told me I would love.
They weren’t wrong; the inside was large and beautifully decorated in a light and contemporary style, and the menu was so huge, I didn’t know where to begin. It was a real novelty to have the choice of the entire menu, and when I eventually narrowed down my selection, I asked for an explanation of one of them to help me decide. I was looking at a meal called ceviche, which consists of raw fish (in this case, tuna steak, in chunks), marinated in citrus juices and accompanied by onions, peppers, lettuce, choclo corn and sweet potato. It is traditionally very spicy, containing chili pepper, but Omar requested that mine be milder than usual.
To drink, we had pisco sours, a cocktail made from distilled white wine (pisco), lemon juice, icing sugar and egg white. Omar told me that the drink first came about when an Englishman came to Peru and requested something English to drink - and this is what they came up with. Definitely not very English, but it tasted very nice.
After a dessert made from a fruit-flavoured chocolate-covered sponge cake, we paid the bill (I say ‘we’, but they very generously treated me despite my protests; they want me to be their guest, they insist) and headed back to the apartment. It had been an unexpected but very pleasant evening.
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