Day 11 - Red Head vs. The Sun

The following takes place on Wedenesday December 8, 2010

You would think that after 25 years I would learn. I mean, I’ve been a red head my entire life. A two week vacation to the cabin at the lake usually ends up with me having to swim with a t-shirt on halfway through the trip because I’m too sunburnt to do otherwise. So I was prepared. SPF 40, hat, kept my clothes on.

No dice.

I have recieved my first lobsterfication of the trip.

And it hurts.

Today(December 8) is a national holiday in Peru celebrating the Immaculate Conception of Mary. As such, Mauricio got the entire day off from work and from school. The plan: hit up Costa Verde beach for a couple hours and then Historic Lima downtown.

After another breakfast of buns with cheese and warmed soy milk(god I love that stuff), we quickly wandered down to the nearby market to pick up supplies for that days lunch/supper(lunch is at 5, supper[if they eat supper] is at 10) before taking off for the beach. It was already nearly 27C outside and I had lathered on a healthy layer of sunblock knowing what my poor pale skin is like when it sees natural light.

While the beach itself was just water polished rocks, the combination of the sun plus the sound of the waves crashing on the shores quickly lulled me to sleep. I’m not sure how much time past but before I knew it, Mauricio was calling my name to get up as it was already time to leave to pick his girlfriend and daughter up. Of course, I had to quickly dip my feet into the water to say that I did. Almost slipped on the extremely smooth stones, and stumbled across a beached jellyfish,which is also also called a malagua. According to Mauricio, this particular type spits something at you that caused an itching reaction. There were no sticks around that I could find for me to poke at it. This time at least.

Back in the car, I noticed a peculiar thing. The sunblock didn’t seem to have worked. I could already feel the warmth radiating from my skin as the first sign of a bad sunburn. I shrugged it off. I’ve handled worse.

We picked up Mauricio’s girlfriend and his daughter and drove to Centro Lima. Parking underground, we walked to Plaza de Armes where The Amazing Race 7 actually visited(For Megan, that’s the season with Rob and Amber). Being a holiday, there were people everywhere.

 

 

 

 

 

It’s an absolutely beautiful area. Really hard to put into words. The surrounding area is filled with shops and restaurants(the high end, tourist, expensive ones) and little tiny museums including one showcasing sculptures and artwork of some Peruvian artists. I’m not sure if it was because of the holiday or if it’s normally like this, but the museum was completely free of charge. I’ve been pretty lucky so far finding free stuff. Fingers are crossed that this luck keeps following me on this trip.

However, even though it is a holiday, parking is not free so we had to cut our visit short in order to avoid paying through the nose. It was all fine by me. I still haven’t quite gotten myself used to the whole traveler’s mindset of finding things to see for myself. I’m still very much a follower. Need to fix that soon.

Back at the house we took out the ingrediants and proceeded to make a very traditional Peruvian dish – ceviche. Basic gist: take fish(I can’t tell you what kind. It has to be thick though), cube it. Mix with a ton of lime juice(which ‘cooks’ it), chopped onions, chili pepper, and some herbs. Serve cold with white corn and/or rice. If you don’t like sushi, you probably wouldn’t like this. The ceviche I had back in Saskatoon wasn’t very good so I was a bit hesitant. But, surprisingly, this was really good. Though, considering the meal also consisted of sliced sweet potatoes, white corn, rice, and fried fish, I had a hard time moving afterwards, let alone finishing the two full plates placed in front of me.

 

 

 

 

Although, when everyone else started turning in to go to bed around 7:30, I didn’t feel too bad about having wanted to do the same. Too much sun and too much food completely wiped me out.

But that’s not such a bad thing.