Ana’s dad, Tiberiu “TB” Craici is now visiting and traveling with us.  We picked him up yesterday at the airport in Lima, and are very happy to have him with us.  TB has been retired for the last two years, and decided he has a month to spare to hang out with his daughter and son-in-law.  We are looking forward to the company and having him around.  When we picked TB up at the airport last night, he wasted no time using the Spanish he’s been studying the last few years.  TB has a good way of always making everyone enjoy themselves.  It took no time before our taxi driver and he were laughing and joking away.

Lima is a huge city with a population of around 9 million people.  Peru has a total population of around 28 million, so that means about 1 out of every 3 Peruvians lives here in the city.  On our first day in town, we passed through much of the city driving from the north to the Miraflores neighborhood in the south.   There is a lot of economic diversity between the various parts of the city.  We didn’t see the whole city, but overall we liked Lima and thought it was well-taken care of and reasonably well organized (as compared to some of the cities in Central America we visited).  Little things like having streets signs on most of the major intersections, pretty good roads without excessive pot-holes, and drivers that aren’t always darting in front of you or honking go a long way in our book.  The Miraflores neighborhood where our hostel is located is an especially nice neighborhood in Lima.  After months of travelling in Central and South America, it was really nice staying here and having all the creature comforts of back home within walking distance of our hostel.  I’m not proud to say it, but we visited McDonalds and Starbucks coffee more than once while we were here.

This morning we walked with TB from our hostel a few blocks to the bluffs overlooking the ocean.  There is a nice boardwalk there, and we enjoyed watching the surfers below catching waves and riding them back towards shore.  Although there weren’t any out this morning, sometimes in the evenings there are paragliders flying back and forth along the bluffs.  The wind coming in from the ocean hits the bluffs and deflects upwards.  The paragliders ride the updrafts back and forth, suspended below their parachute-like canopies as they enjoy the skyline views of Lima.  We walked with TB along the bluffs, and then headed a few blocks inland towards Parque Kennedy.  Around the Parque are several inexpensive almuerzo restaurants, and we ate lunch there and enjoyed watching all the people going about their business.  Later that day we shared a cab towards central Lima with a nice Swiss couple, Jos and Beatrice who arrived at our hostel a few days ago with their Volkswagen Syncro.  They’ve been travelling in the south part of South America for the last year.  All five of us rode the cab to Polvo Azul which is a huge market south of downtown selling everything from electronics to shoes.  TB got a new watch for $5 and I bought a replacement camera lens.  Our new lens is not as nice as our original lens, but we’re on a pretty tight budget and at least our camera is functional again.  We’re looking forward to having TB with us and enjoying his company over the next month.

To see more photos from our time in Lima Peru click here:  Lima, Peru

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