Travel morning. After breakfast we loaded into a taxi and made our way to Lima. Once again we had a few encounters to make us feel more taken advantage of than welcome... the last 9 days have been very hard for me to understand in that regard, but more on that later. The cab ride to the airport was a prearranged price of S/.8, which was cheap, and nice to know in advance. Tony was obviously very sick and seemed to have a hard time the whole plane ride. We didn't have set plans for our afternoon in Lima, but that seemed fortunate at the time since it looked like any plans would be replaced by r&r. I wasn't as sick as Tony but my stomach turned, gurgled and rolled all day. Yesterday's milk adventure was clearly a bad idea.
After collecting our bags we talked to a couple of drivers but couldn't find a ride to Hotel Bolívar for less than S/. 45, which was way too much. I told the driver as much several times, but we had yet to learn where to find the better prices (exit airport building, follow the sidewalk left then right, actually out of the airport property to the main street). We paid less than S/. 45 to get to/from Miraflores, considerably further, last week... arrgh. Throughout the whole trip to the hotel our driver kept telling me that Hotel Bolívar was too expensive, in an unsafe are, and we should stay somewhere else. I told him we had already paid and got a good price. He also said he knew a better place he could take us to in Miraflores. I told him we had already stayed in Miraflores. He said it would be very loud and hard to leave the city (to get to the airport tomorrow night) because of the presidential debates. I don't know if he thought he was being nice or helpful, or thought I was a complete moron who would go along with anything he said, but it was horribly annoying. I didn't respond and stopped listening. The guy pissed me off to no end. When we got to the hotel unfortunately we didn't have the exact fare and he pretended to have no change for our S/.50. Our bags had already been taken inside by the hotel staff, so Shelly and I waited several awkward minutes while Tony retrieved extra money to get correct change. The driver asked if he could just keep the extra S/.5 as a tip, and we had to laugh in frustration about how ridiculous the situation was (it is neither normal nor customary to tip cab drivers in Lima, and the fare to central Lima shouldn't be more than S/.30).
Immediately after putting our bags down, Shelly and I left Tony and walked the pedestrian mall in search of a pharmacy. 5 minutes later we returned with several pills and a liter of electrolyte replenishment fluid. The pharmacist asked a few questions about symptoms, cause, allergies, etc., explained usage, and everything cost about $2. Something easy; phew! We then went back to the mall to get our bearings and make a first pass at seeing the sights. Using our books as a guide, we walked to several 400+ year old churches, the main plaza, a market, Victorian buildings, etc. When we reached the main plaza, where the Peruvian president lives, thousands of people were transfixed by jumbo-tron televisions. It took us a minute to figure out what the heck was going on... I assumed it was related to the presidential election, but it was the soccer championship between Manchester United and Barcelona. Nearly everyone was cheering for Barcelona. We watched for a minute and moved on in search of food. I ordered arroz con pollo, the cheapest chicken dish on the menu. I got to choose between thigh or breast, and was given literally the biggest pile or food I've ever ordered, for less than $6. I couldn't believe how much food I got, and sadly didn't come close to finishing it. Central Lima seemed refreshingly easy, cheap, and very clean.
We window shopped on our way back to the hotel to check on Tony. Prices for food, clothes, and just about everything were amazingly low. It seemed we finally had found the real cost of living in Peru. I was relieved to know it wasn't a myth. Tony was resting and on the road to recovery. After a few hours we ordered some room service for him for dinner and ate at the hotel restaurant... I was still full from lunch so just had dessert. There are mixed emotions about tomorrow being our last day.
