Travel Day 009 – Barranco and Miraflores, PERU
Even if I arrived already yesterday evening, today was my first full Arrival Day in Barraco, in Peru and in South America…
Little yellow Cathedral in Barranco, Peru
After a good night of sleep and some nice breakfast in the hostel, the world looked very different again. Also the fact that I got to see Barranco in daylight helped me getting over the first big Culture Shock as well as it helped me getting used to the new environment and circumstances. After all not only the culture and the country were unfamiliar to me, but also the whole travel life with a backpack was something I wasn’t accustomed to so far…
By the time I left the hostel, I had a whole group of fellow travelers with me and we all had the same goal of the day, we wanted to walk to Miraflores, the adjacent area and also suburb of Lima. The walk from Barranco along the cliffs of the coast was supposed to be beautiful and even if lengthy, with a group of people it seemed to be a fun thing to do…
First we walked through the little town center of Barranco with its colonial buildings, its yellow cathedral and the sloped walkway that was leading down to the shore. But instead of going down, we stayed on top of the cliffs and enjoyed the views of the ocean while we walked. Unfortunately it was an overcast and foggy day, but apparently Lima, which was situated in a valley surrounded by high mountains, was famous for its overcast days. The clouds were simply trapped between the mountains, not permitting any sunshine though and the whole city just looked somewhat grey…
Miraflores turned out to be a much more developed and modern suburb, completely lacking the charm and traditional architecture of Barranco. But because if its amenities, Miraflores seemed to be the better place to do run errands, get some money from a bank or do travel arrangements. Since some of the hostel-mates made some arrangements at a local travel agency, I used my chance to listen to all the travel recommendations…
It wasn’t too much later that I found myself convinced to make some arrangements as well for the unplanned stretch between Cuzco and Lima. I had already a fixed date for the Inca Trail in Cuzco and I had a set date for my next Round the World flight from Lima. So in-between those two destinations I added an overnight bus from Cuzco to Nazca, a round flight in Nazca, a bus to Paracas with a boat tour and another bus back to Lima…
After so much planning, I spent the rest of the day just walking around while trying to settle-in and fully arrive. Between the new environment, the different culture, the challenging language, the unfamiliar currency and my new life on the road, it was quite a lot to take in for one day. But still, this was a great Arrival Day and what made it a perfect first day in South America was the amazing shrimp gumbo that I had for lunch in a tiny local restaurant. I could barely order it, but once I managed, it was nothing but the best gumbo of my life… : )
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