Parque de Los Gatos, and other Lima Reflections

Yesterday we hit what we are calling our 7/7 mark: 7 days in South America and 7 months married. In case you were worried, we’re still very fond of each other after both milestones, although after enduring some illness together in small quarters, in the words of Kristy: “well, the mystery is gone”.

I’m writing this from Huacachina, Peru, but wanted to tell you about Lima where we spent our first three days. We got an overall “meh” review of Lima from other visitors before we left, and unfortunately we didn’t like it much better. As advertised, amazing food and people, but expensive, loud (honking is used as a form of communication everywhere here, but especially in Lima) with tiny, crowded sidewalks and an oppressive layer of smog from what seems like a constant traffic jam in every direction.

All that said, I’m going to acknowledge that this is a totally unfair review because we didn’t do a whole lot Lima. Transitioning into our new latitude took us longer than expected, especially since on our second day I got…let’s just call it an unpleasant traveler’s illness…after ignoring one of the following pieces of sage advice from my wife:

1) “You probably shouldn’t brush your teeth with tap water”
2) “You probably shouldn’t eat those tomatoes, they were likely washed in tap water”
3) “You probably shouldn’t drink so much in this arid climate when you’re super dehydrated and haven’t eaten dinner”

Anyway, ONE of these three variables meant that we spent at least half our time in Lima in our rented apartment generally acclimating and regretting my unfounded confidence in my digestive fortitude. And since I would be furious if someone spent two days exploring Seaport Village and then told me that that San Diego sucked, I will assume that there were Lima treasures that we just didn’t get to.

When we weren’t recovering, we were hanging out in a suburb of Lima called Miraflores where they encourage the tourists to go because of the “dangers” of staying in central Lima. There were a lot of young people in Miraflores, particularly university students, and kind of a hip vibe. We went to a bar called Bar Publico to do a couch surfer “meet up” and it could have been a North Park bar except that Kristy was the only blonde. We had lunch the next day at a ritzy mall along the water where we could have grabbed a few sweaters at Banana Republic if we were so inclined. Miraflores is not the place to go if you want to feel like you’re in a different world.

We did take the metropolitano (express bus) to central Lima for a day to check it out. We did the standard walking route to check out Plaza San Martin, Plaza De Armas (where the presidential palace is) and Parque de Muralla where there are some cool remains of the city wall that used to protect Lima.

We didn’t find central Lima all that scary – in fact, the scariest place in Lima was in Miraflores at Parque Kennedy. We strolled through this tiny park during a night walk and Kristy, who has a sixth sense for these things, immediately spotted a cat. I glanced up when she squealed, and said “oh yeah, I see it, that’s nice dear, don’t touch it”.

“No! You’re seeing a different cat!” she exclaimed. That’s when we realized that there were actually cats everywhere. Literally every few steps was another cat – frolicking in flower beds and begging at the feet of people eating on benches in such a familiar way that Kristy said, “so much cuter than pigeons!”

Why is this terrifying? As you may know, in a sad twist of irony, the one vaccine that animal lover Kristy couldn’t get before our trip after she had a bad reaction to the first shot was for rabies. Ever since I’ve been teasing her about how I can hold all the strays I want while she sits sadly on the sidelines. Now we were standing in the middle of a park with cute, cuddly temptations of unknown, dirty origins closing in on all sides. I escorted her out of there but it was a close call.

We’ll take our chances with pickpockets, but Parque de los Gatos is a danger I wasn’t willing to risk.

Until next time!