The Hostel, Getting Some Rest, Meeting Travelers and Exploring CentralLima.

Because my flight arrived early in the morning the trip to the 1900 Backpacker Hostel was pretty quick, just over a half of an hour, about a half or a third of what it would have been if the morning rush had started in earnest. We arrived at a beautiful old building in Central Lima, a mansion that has become a hostel.  The taxi driver helped me with my backpack up to the main floor of the hostel where I paid him for the ride and checked in. My dorm bed wasn't available yet, people were still sleeping, so I got a simple breakfast at the hostel and sat down to await the availability of my bed.  It soon became obvious to me that I was going to sleep and is wasn't going to matter if it was in a bed or on a couch in the hostel lobby.  So, I asked the guy at the desk if there was anything available, even if it wasn't exactly what I had reserved, he looked through his computer and, sure enough, there was a bed in another, slightly larger dorm.  At that point i really didn't care, I just wanted to lie down and sleep, which I very quickly did.  Today, three plus days later, that Friday is a bit of a fog, I remember getting up several times, going for a walk, sleeping again, eating, sleeping again, and finally sleeping for the night.  My built up tiredness and the lack of sleep on the plane exacted their price, actually quite a comfortable price.  Nothing like sleeping when you are really tired!

I must have met a few people at the hostel on Friday night because I remember having the hostel free breakfast, coffee or tea, juice, bread, butter and jelly, with a few new friends on Saturday morning.  One of these new friends, Sonia, a woman from Australia, who spends much of her time doing volunteer work after natural disasters, Nepal, South Carolina, Dominique, and I ended up touring around a good part of central Lima during the day on Saturday.  When we started walking I wasn't sure how far I would be able to go, my knees and hips have been giving me trouble lately, but six hours later I was still moving when we got back to the hostel, maybe not as well as I would have liked but moving nevertheless.  We had seen a lot of historic central Lima, tried out a few places to eat, and taken a bus tour up Cerro San Christobal, a mountain outcrop that stretches nearly to central Lima and has spectacular views of the city.  From the top you begin to realize just how big Lima is, the population was at 8.5 million in 2007.  We couldn't see all of Lima because of the fog, the city gets very little rain but also has very few blue sky days because of the fog.  It was a good day that I topped off with a few beers at he hostel bar before crashing into my bunk bed at about 9:30.  I was beginning to feel like I was on the road again.

Sunday was mostly a day of rest, time in the beautiful and incredibly well used Lima parks, there is one just across the street from the hostel behind the Lima Art Museum, and a bit of computer research into the national and local buses.  I also spent some time checking on flights from Lima to the various parts of the country that I would like to visit.  Distances are long here and in some cases it is going to make sense to take the bus one way, in order to see the countryside, but possibly not both ways.  Also, there is at least one city in the Peruvian Amazon that has no roads in, so it's either a plane or a riverboat.  I ended the day with a meal in the little local eating place two doors down from the hostel.

Monday turned out to be another day of getting the lay of the land.  Sonia was preparing to take a bus to Ariquipa and wanted to check on a few of the different bus companies, most of whom had kiosks in the underground Mall that I had walked by several times without even realizing it was there.  I went along mostly because I was incredulous that I had been able to walk by it so many times without ever recognizing that it was there.  It was filled with people and the area around it had lots of street entertainment - lots of fun.  The rest of the day I filled with walking explorations to different parts of the central area and a checking out of the high speed dedicated lane mass transit bus system, really impressive, and really crowded - but so are the NY Subways.  As I've spent a few days here now I've become impressed with the city, at least with the parts I have seen, and the work they have obviously been doing to make it more livable, parks, transit, etc., and with the people who seem intent on their work during the week, but who seem to know how to enjoy the weekends when they flock to the parks and malls to stroll and enjoy the day.