Day 2: August 21

Then we called a taxi and went to the city center.

In Lima, all tourists stay in the Miraflores or Barranco districts, located by the ocean.
In these districts, it is hard to believe that in Peru almost half the population lives below the poverty line (if Wikipedia is to be believed).
There are nice high-rises, restaurants, shops, and parks here. We are staying in Barranco.

It is not advisable to stay in the center; they say it is not very safe there, and there are not many hotels.
But during the day I really liked the center. I did not feel unsafe at all.

On the main square, I saw a café where, for some reason, I suddenly really wanted to eat.
Almost all the tables in the café were occupied, and not a single tourist in sight. The locals were eating here.
Through the glass display window, you could see chicharrón being prepared everywhere (of course, I later learned that this is what it was called).
A kind of Peruvian hamburger — a bun with appetizing pieces of fried pork and thin fried slices of sweet orange potato. Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?

We went up to the second floor. Took a table in the corner, ordered chicharrón, two coffees with milk, and separately a plate of fried sweet potato (we had noticed that everyone eating here ordered one for themselves).

Chicharrón was very tasty. It was served with pickled red onions, and Serzhyk really liked the onions.

We wandered around the center a bit more, and then headed on, finding on the map an area where there were many exchange offices.

We exchanged money, and next on the plan was to buy a local SIM card so we’d have internet.

It was a long story, how we bought a SIM card… First, the security guards at the entrance didn’t want to let us in.

Inside the store itself, chaos reigned: lots of workers, little windows, and it wasn’t clear how to buy a card.

No one speaks English. In the end, we bought something.

At home it became clear that we had bought a contract….

It turns out this mobile operator doesn’t sell regular SIM cards to foreigners, only contracts. The logic is not very clear.

The next day we’ll go to cancel it :)

And for now we’re happy that we now have a SIM card and mobile internet, we bought some not very tasty ice cream at McDonald’s, and went on.

We got to a park where we sat for a bit. I wanted to go home by taxi, and Serzhyk suggested taking the bus.

The bus stop was a 10-minute walk away, and we went there. At the stop there was a woman who looked like a conductor. We noticed that people were coming up to her and buying something. We approached too; she showed us a card similar to a transit pass and asked whether we had one. Of course, we didn’t. Then she took out her own, punched something there, and we paid 25 UAH per person for the ride. When the bus arrived, the female inspector got on with us. On the bus she tapped her card and we went through.

We rode for a long time, about 30 minutes. It was joyful to sit by the window and watch the world.