Valentine's Day

We got up today at the leisurely time of 9.30 and were sat having breakfast by 10 which consisted of as much bread and jam as you could eat and a healthy supply of coffee or tea. Having failed the day before to find the Valentines Day present I wanted to get for Andy and him also failing in being able to book a restaurant, we decided to go out for a walk to see if we could accomplish these little jobs. Not knowing where to start we thought we'd just see what was around in the places we wanted to go anyway and so headed off to the sea front for a look at the beach, which is apparently one of the best surfing beaches in the whole of South America! After crossing a very bust main road and walking through a small park with a very old looking Incan statue and a very modern looking sculpture and fountain, we came to a mall type complex filled with various eateries, a cinema and loads of different shops, all with the benefit of spectacular views across the ocean, or they would be if it wasn't for the smog!! We were on the top level of the Mall and could see the beach and a bit of the water but then it started to get hazy and there was no chance of seeing a horizon and even the land to the sides was very indistinct! Eventually we went to look round the shops and restaurants to see if we could book a table for tonight but the only place we fancied wasn't taking any more bookings so we figured we'd just have to chance it later on and see where we could get in. I was a little more successful however as after looking round several jewellery shops, of which there are none to be found elsewhere in Miraflores, we found a lovely pendant to go on Andy's necklace, a small representation of the Inca calender using Nasca line drawings...a nice momento of our travels so far in Peru :) Feeling rather warm as its about 28 degrees here atm Andy treated us to an ice cream to cool us down and after choosing between the 20 or so varieties we went and found some shade to sit in and eat them. Where we were sat was near to some stairs and also a little look out platform where we were able to stand for a while watching the surfers in the water, being on a lower level we were underneath the worst of the smog and were able to see better. Deciding that we should have a go at surfing if we could afford it whilst here in Lima we wandered back to the hostel to chill out for a bit. Andy went out a bit later and came back with some delicious chocolates for me, some of which we devoured whilst uploading blogs (very slow process) and looking stuff up on the internet until it was time to get ready to go out. We showered and changed, Andy putting on his new trousers that actually fit him, still cant believe he's lost 2 stone, as well as a shirt he bought in La Paz and both of us looking distinctly less back packer like as we set out to find somewhere to go for a romantic meal out for Valentines Day. We went to various different restaurants Andy had looked up and marked on the map but to no avail, they all had hour long waits and were obviously overrun but we didnt give up and after 45 mins or so of wandering the streets trying not to get run over by the suddenly very aggressive drivers (maybe they're all very frustrated?!!) we came across, of all things, a Swiss Restaurant that looked reasonably busy but not ridiculously so. We enquired whether they had a table or not and were shown inside straight away to a table for two in a very elegant room and given menus to peruse. A very tough choice to make as everything sounded delicious, eventually after ordering a bottle of wine we decided on a shared starter of seafood platter followed by a typical Swiss main dish each. Apart from the service being a bit slow the meal was exquisite, when it arrived, our seafood platter came on a huge fish shaped plate and included octopus in an olive and cheese sauce that was purple in colour, 3 scallops with cheese each, some huge prawns in a tomato sauce that was to die for and something we'd been meaning to try since Chile....Ceviche. It was all incredible and I was surprised that I even enjoyed the Ceviche which is raw fish, but it was done so beautifully that I would quite happily have had a whole plate of it, however we were quite full after all that fish so the slow service was appreciated as it gave us time to digest before our main courses came out. Andy's main was veal in a mushroom and cognac sauce with potato rostis which were like a cross between mashed potato and hash browns..NOM!! and mine was cubes of beautifully cooked beef in a delicate stroganoff sauce with what I think was similar to italian gnochi or potato dumplings, whatever they were they were very tasty but I was quite stuffed still from the starter and had to ask Andy to help me finish them off, not that he minded of course! Stuffed as we were we couldn't resist looking at the dessert menu, it not being feasible to come back tomorrow as we would be 15km away in the centre of Lima and so ended up ordering the most indulgent thing on the best dessert menu either of us had ever seen (it was almost as big as the main menu!)...chocolate fondue for two!!!!!! It was even more amazing than it sounds...4 large cups of assorted things for dipping, strawberries, pineapple, banana and chocolate brownie, accompanied a pot containing probably ½ liter of amazing, melted Swiss chocolate!! We also had a small plate with 4 Swiss chocolate hearts on (it is Valentines Day after all) and I proceeded to dip one of these into the fondue and feed it to Andy who almost died it was so good...of course then I had to try it myself too!! We were the last people in there and even though they were cashing up the waitress told us we could stay all night if we wanted and to take our time and enjoy our meal...which we did, very slowly as we could barely eat another thing until it came to the inevitable point of fullness and we had to give up...The chocolate fondue had beaten us!! We waddled back to the hostel, the 15 minute walk taking nearly an hour and collapsed on our bed stuffed to bursting point and fell instantly to chocolate dream filled sleep!!