From the desert coast of Huanchaco to...well... more desert along the Pacific Coast of Peru3/16/2012 Maria knows how to hail a cab. She knows that they will charge you too much and she knows how to bargain em' down. We departed our homestay in Huanchaco after a small but fun farewell with Maria, Jessica and Doggy. Maria came out to the main street with us to make sure we got a safe cab to take us into Trujillo to catch out night bus to Lima. The 9 hour bus ride from Trujillo to Lima was loads better than our last experience on a bus in Peru. We departed on time and there were no flaming cars on the road to slow us down! As it was a night bus we slept most of the way to Lima and woke only as we were on the outskirts of the city. The Panamerican Highway North into Lima winds its way high around massive sand dunes until it spits you out just before the city onto relatively level terrain. At first sight Lima looked pretty awful. The outer extents of the city are plagued with poverty and crime and the physical appearance did not give us the warm fuzzies. However, as we rolled deeper into the city in our colossal coach we were pleasantly surprised at how neat and tidy the downtown area was. And the best was yet to come! We hopped off our night bus in the morning sun and promptly bought two tickets to Huacachina for the following day to keep ourselves on track to hit Cusco for the 20th of March. We grabbed a cab and whistled towards our hostel in the bright (and fancy) neighborhood of Miraflores. We were absolutely shocked at how nice Miraflores was. Modern, safe and clean...oh soooo clean! We think that our western cities need to take some lessons on cleanliness from these Peruvians and that's not a joke. The streets of Miraflores are so clean that you could actually eat off of them. If a shred of paper hits the ground, it will be scooped up by one of the many (thousands probably) street janitors within 5 hours. Yeah its that clean. Ok enough about the shiny streets! "We only have a day in Lima!" I shouted to Courtney. "I know," she replied. And so off we went to explore they city! We started by grabbing a bite to eat on the bluffs that look over the ocean and were treated to the site of a pod of killer whales making their way along the coastline. Bellies full, we retreated to the hostel to check in and shower before zipping out again in search of a camping supply store in hopes of finding some camping cups and maybe even a cheap little stove. After finding each camping store to be closed we decided that we had been defeated and should probably go and get a burger to eat for lunch. Mas tardes, we found ourselves back on the malecon to watch the sunset and ... paragliders? Yes! Lima has a huge paragliding scene! We watched several fliers take off from the cliffs that separate Miraflores from the Pacific Ocean. It was cool to watch and tempting to go for a tandem flight but the s/ 150 price tag for a 10 minute flight turned us off the idea. We took some cool pictures anyway! From Lima we caught an early bus southbound to the desert oasis of Huacachina where the sand dunes are big and the pisco is plentiful! More to come on that soon...so stay tuned!
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