Day 1 in Peru

Stayed up chatting for a bit, then had a nice restful sleep. Woke up around 10:45 AM to find out we were going to check out apartments with Eddie's realtor. Half an hour later, we were out the door and met up with the realtor at a set of apartments on the coast.

Apartment 1: Duplex with amazing views of the ocean and public tennis courts, handball courts, etc below. Decent sized kitchen. Two bedrooms and two bathrooms. Plenty of closet space. Spiral staircase. Fully furnished. Decor downstairs had a New Mexico kinda feel. Lots of dried flowers. Slightly overpriced.

Apartment 2: One level apartment. More modern decor. Views not as nice. Formal dining/living room area and informal living room. Two bedrooms and three bathrooms. More spacious living room. More spacious feel. Reasonable rent.

Apartment 3: Entire wall of the apartment was glass windows overlooking the ocean. Unfurnished. Wooden floors. Sleeker apartment and kitchen area. But overpriced and requiring too much work.

After apartment hunting, we were starving and headed to Segundo Muelle which I had read about in the Lonely Planet. They brought out roasted corn kernals (which may be the perfect bar snacks ever) and Eddie ordered a beer for himself and a pisco sour for me (hey, when in rome. . . ). We ordered an assortment of ceviche and a crawfish risotto. The ceviche was delicious- the fish extremely fresh and the sauce was light and flavorful but did not overwhelm the fish. Incredible octopus drenched in garlic. Didn't have much room for the risotto by the time it came, but it was perfectly good.

From our seats, we had a great view of the "Love Park" which I am told a lot of couples get married at. . and there is an appropriate statue of a couple embracing. I actually noticed a fair bit of that throughout the afternoon, PDA seems to be a lot more common in Peru than in the US.

After lunch, we headed to LarcoMar, an upscale mall built into a cliff overlooking the sea. I was shocked by the number of tourists there. We picked up some books for the long train ride to Machu Picchu, stopped for some gelato and coffee, and browsed the shops.

Next stop was Barranco (cliff), kind of a bohemian, artsy neighborhood Eddie equated to Venice Beach in CA. We happened across a great little market where they sold all sorts of random things and yummy looking food. (note to self: have to go back to try the skewered cow hearts).

All the walking tired us out, last stop was Wong, a very lively grocery store with amazing and cheap produce (and the biggest carrots I have ever seen!) to pick up water and altitude sickness medicine. Now, just resting a bit before heading out to meet up with some of Eddie's friends. Tomorrow will be an early day- flight leaves at 5AM.