Peru, Days 2 and 3

Sunday we woke up bright and early for our tour of Pachacamac, an old Indian village outside of Lima. Of all the things we did on the trip, this is the only thing I would probably not bother to recommend. There was nothing wrong with it; it's just that it was underwhelming, especially compared to the ancient ruin sites we would see later, in Cusco. Even the tour company must have realized it was underwhelming. The first hour of our tour was not even spent taking us there; instead they drove a few miles south of our hotel in Miraflores and gave us the history of the Barranco.

Essentially, if Miraflores is Santa Monica, the Barranco district is Venice - more artsy, laid-back, bohemian. It was nice. But not necessary for a day tour.

Anyway, I had been excited to see Pachacamac, thinking it would be rich with history and energy and spirits. While we did see a human skull by the side of the road, there were few other signs of life to be found. It was primarily brown scenery, worn-down, ill-preserved architecture, and, compared to the stuff we saw later in the trip, kind of lame.

The tour ended around 1, so we got dropped off near the Indian market and shopped around for a little while. Then we ate lunch and went back to the hotel to rest before what would end up being our biggest night out.

We started with (a free) cocktail hour in the hotel bar. I ordered a martini, which I RARELY drink, but I figured, when in Peru... or something. For dinner, we took a taxi back to the Barranco district, and found the cutest little restaurant at which to eat. It was a small, family-run place with only one other table of diners, and both the owner and his waiter son took a liking to us. There was a special on beer, so we ordered a half-pitcher. After dinner, we decided to check out the nightlife, and ended up at this cute little bar that had a 2-for-1 special. And that's when I stupidly switched back to vodka.

Now, because drinks were already cheap in Peru, with the 2-for-1 deal, we were paying something like $3 for both drinks. So of course we had to have a second round. Did I mention that I very, very, very rarely even drink vodka? I learned, about a year ago, that I absolutely can not metabolize it anymore and I get a raging hangover anytime I have more than one cocktail. However, the funny thing about vodka is that it always renders me incapable of remembering this - as if, with the first sip, it just shuts off that part of my brain - so I ALWAYS end up having more than one.

So you can probably guess what happened the next morning. I was a hungover mess and couldn't get out of bed. What you probably couldn't guess was that before I felt like complete ass and made us miss our historic Lima tour, I initiated a dance party in the hotel room. Unfortunately, of all the wonderful amenities the Radisson had, an iPod dock was not one of them, so we just danced sharing the earbuds.

Dance, party of two.

Anyway, I felt like crap the next morning and even worse that we missed the tour. Heather, who has a liver of steel, was so understanding and was happy to let me rest. Ultimately, though, I knew I didn't want to spend the day in the hotel, so we rallied and just took a cab ourselves to the historic municipal district.

I won't go into all the buildings we saw - in part because that would take too much time but also because I don't really know everything we saw - but I will tell you my favorite: the Convento de San Francisco, where we took a tour of the Catacombs. We weren't allowed to take photos, but I did buy some post cards. After going on a labyrinth-like tour of the underground, we saw this:

and this:

and room after room of more human bones than I think probably most people have seen in their lifetime.

And dare I say? It was so cool!

We also got to see an incredibly old library which contains 25,000 books written in the 17th century. I walked in, and immediately recalled the opening scene in Ghostbusters, which, as I write this even now, gives me the chills just thinking about.

The entire time we were in there I spent transfixed, staring off into the distance, trying (hoping) to catch a random movement or gust of wind or any change in energy. The whole room felt charged.

After seeing that, it was hard to maintain energy for much else, so we headed back to the hotel to rest again before dinner. At which, in preparation for our early morning flights to Cusco, Heather and I wisely stuck to wine.