Woke up early- or didn't sleep much, either one! We had arranged to meet Omy at 9am at our hostel so busied ourselves packing our bags from things successfully spread across the room.
By the end of last night Malcolm was also ill, but we manage to eat breakfast or buns, egg and tea.
We are down in the foyer before 9am awaiting our ride.
9 comes and goes as does 9:15. Malcolm tries to ring on the number he was given, but no connection goes through. We just have to wait. About 9:30 a taxi arrives. And 3 ppl get out. I guess travel is dealing with the unexpected. We were expecting a ride, but we put on our bags and all head out to the Main Street to catch a taxi. It's so lovely to meet Mario's sister and parents. His parents speak about as much English and we speak Spanish. After Mr A flags a few taxi we all squeeze in and head off to 'someplace' yet unknown. At a red light there is a man in a black and white stripped suit and white painted face who does tricks and acrobatics with a drum as a prop. We enter an old centre centre if town where the buildings are gorgeous and historic. The square, parliament, and cathedrals. Huge ornate buildings. Side streets offer shops and the like, western food like KFC and Starbucks, clothing and even some known brands like hush puppies. We do a tour if a congress museum and see graphic demonstrations of an inquisition. We also tour a cathedral institution where fryers still live and work. Amazing art and library, catacombs and history. It had strong history with Saint Francis of Assisi. In the catacombs thousands of poor where buried, against tradition (previously only rich). By then our unexpected bags have become very heavy weights and a break is welcomed over lunch at a nearby vegetarian restaurant. We are both feeling quite ill, but don't want to offend so share a salad. We learn more about our kind hosts and take photographs together. After lunch we join a tour bus that takes us to the top of a steep hill overlooking a vast majority if Lima. A first for us all! There are dangerous looking 'homes' built into the hill and many surrounding hills. It appears to be great poverty, but as we pass there is a large flat screen being carried into one building. People have interesting spending habits and priorities it would seem.
I struggle to keep my eyes open on the back and grab a cat nap. At the conclusion if the tour we return to a main area where we decide to part ways as we don't know exactly where to go and no point us all going to one point only for the rest to turn straight back round to there home. We are invited home, where Mr A runs a shop. We decline as we no not our destination. Mr A kindly arranges and pays for a taxi to the area of our tour start/hostel (which ends up being exactly right). I'm glad as I know he will have gotten a heaps better deal than us due to his Spanish abilities! They refuse any monetary contribution for the wonderful day and we part with hugs.
The taxi trip is much shorter than I expected and we ride a main highway. In the middle of the highway there is a edged lane for the busses only; bus stops also.
At the hostel we are greeted by a lovely man who speaks English. He checks us in and directs and informs us of the local things to check out within walking distance. Everything is so much nicer, it feels like a different place. Lots of parks and grass, high rise buildings. After checking in Mal showered we go for a walk to miraflores the 2nd most 'flash' affluent area. Everything is lovely, with only small clues it's Peru: drivers and horns, construction to foot paths, and Spanish. We look for the mall, where we were going to look for supermarket, but see nothing. As we walk to the edge of the park we come to the mall: build below ground level into the cliffs! 3 levels and not visible from the street. The mall is very high end and expensive brands. Even the bathrooms are deluxe. We buy nothing and walk back to the hostel in time for our 6:30pm group initiation talk. Our chief experience officer (CEO) is Elmer. We all go out for dinner as a group. I get spaghetti with a yellow chilli cream sauce. Very nice. Malcolm ordered veges and rice with potatoes and mushrooms.
On our short walk back to the hostel we see locals playing traditional music and Mal is accosted buy a man wanting him to buy his phone as he needed money & had lost his bags. We stop at the supermarket on the way and buy some water, rehydration drinks, fruit and a few small items. The lines are so slow and it feels like we wait 20min in line. We are happy our room has fan and is not on the street therefore quieter.