I arrived to my hostal in Lima without a problem. The driver with the sign that said "Betsy Gartrell" was waiting for me as I left the baggage claim. He was surprised that it was just me because he thought there were two of us, Betsy Gartrell and Elizabeth Gartrell. Nope. I explained that we were the same person.
It was too dark to see much of Lima on the drive but we passed by the ocean and all of the hotels and restaurants along the shore. I was surprised at how warm it seemed. I guess after spending so long in the mountains, I expected it to be much cooler in Lima. I was completely comfortable with just my sweater. It made me think of all of you dealing with the heat wave back in the States! I will be back there suffering along with you in less than 2 days...only I will be hot AND pregnant. Yippee :)
The hostal is basic but comfortable, and the staff was incredibly friendly and helpful. They took my enormous backpack from me the moment I arrived. The hostal is called Hostal Buena Vista but it doesn´t exactly have a "good view"...unless you enjoy the view of city streets. The people across the street have a nice view of the hostal. It is a very pretty place. I will post photos to all of these photoless blog posts as soon as I get home.
So far I´ve spent the day walking around and checking out the area. I´m finding that I´m really tired today, so I didn´t even get out of bed until nearly 11am! That meant that I missed the complimentary breakfast. Instead I found a cute cafe and sat and had a bite to eat while writing in my journal.
After a month in the mountains, I decided I would indulge and treat myself to getting my nails, hair and eyebrows done. It turned out not to be much of an indulgence moneywise because the whole ordeal only cost me a whopping $25!! So now, hopefully Phillip will find this vagabond cleaned up enough to be allowed back into our house!
My indulgence continued because I then took myself out to eat to a very nice restaurant called La Gloria. It is the sister restaurant of Cicciolina in Cusco, which Phillip and I both really liked. It turned out to be a great choice. The food was amazing. I had lemonade (big shocker, between that and orange juice, I just can´t seem to have enough), a super delicious salad and lobster "ravioli", which was not actually a pasta dish, just lobster cooked into a shape of ravioli with a delicious pesto sauce. Yes, of COURSE I had dessert- a baked whole apple with cloves and cinnamon with cinnamon ice cream and a yogurt custard. YUM!
I don´t have a lot of experience with dining out at fancy restaurants on my own. I kept trying to entertain myself by looking at the pictures I took during the day or reading my Peru book...but then I just felt more like a tourist. It´s awkward to sit there twiddling your thumbs with the waiters constantly looking over to make sure you are ok. I was sitting comfortably in the bar area until one of the waiters insisted that I move to a nicer table. I explained that it wasn´t necessary because I was feeling a little sheepish by the fact that I was dressed like a grub, with super baggy prego jeans, Phil´s oversized long sleeve T-shirt and the one and only sweater that I´ve worn over and over again for 5 weeks- but they insisted.
So there I was, in the center of the white tableclothed restaurant, with my backpack, sitting amongst the dining ladies and gentlemen of Lima. I´m surprised someone didn´t come over and offer me a complimentary scarf, jewels and a pair of heels as they do with the gentleman who show up without jackets. Needless to say, I was trying to act natural but all I wanted to do was hide underneath the white tablecloth!
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