Lima Days 1 and 2

Well in the past two days I´ve tried a lot of new foods. Ceviche, of course, is a Peruvian classic. Squid, fish, mussels and shrimp all cooked with by the acidity of the lime juice that they marinate in. Topped with red onions and served with a bit of corn and sweet potatoe. It was good, I was thrown off by the the texture of the squid...and the fact that I could still see his suction cups...wait a minute. Do squid have suction cups. I don´t know it may have been a little octupus...oh well. I´m not a marine biologist I suppose. I had my first pisco sour last night of course. It tasted like a really strong margarita with froth on top. Then today I had some lomo saltado. Its a very good beef dish, the meat is cooked with tomatoes, onions and a lot of cilantro which I was a fan of. Odd though that it was served on top of papas fritas (french fries) with rice on the side. Seemed like a lot of starch. I also tried Inca Kola. Peruvians´favorite soda. I wasnt a huge fan. It tasted like bubble gum flavored soda. Very sweet too. I talked to Christian, one of the hostel owners, who said that peruvian cuisine has a lot of potatoes and rice and a lot of sugar. I wonder if they have a problem with diabetes here...

The picture above is of the Pacific Coast. Lima is right on the coast and Miraflores, the neighborhood I am staying in in Lima, is the area neighboring the playa (beach). The next picture is a close up of the shoreline. There is no sand, at least on these beaches, just these beautiful river rocks. Although I guess in this instance they´re not ´river´rocks. I understand that the surf and tide constantly washing back and forth over the rocks is what makes them so round and smooth, but they are also embedded into the sides of the cliffs which makes you wonder if at one point, the cliffs were actually the shoreline. Either way the sound of the tide rushing back off the rocks into the ocean sounds like someone pouring gravel down a tin roof, its amazing how loud it is, almost hypnotizing.

The exciting thing I did tonight was go parasailing. I didn´t realize how huge Lima is...I could not see and end to´what looked like a downtown....and I was pretty high. It was definately a rush but I was a little let down because I thought we would jump off the cliff and then catch then wind. In reality the wind just picked us up so we floated off the cliff. Then later Dillon reminding me that jumping off a cliff and the parachuting was called base jumping and is probably not something I should try. Lol, I agreed...skydiving sounds fun though! To get an idea as to how high I was check out the pictures and keep in mind: the only thing holding me to the chute is a harness! I´m glad I didn´t drop my camera!