The sleep of champions is the only way to describe last night. Aided by having a more comfortable bed than usual we feel the draining effects of adrenaline to begin realising our fatigue from the last day or so. One thing at a time though, we need to go shopping and begin the escalation of the mountain before us, regathering possessions and getting this trip back up and running. For now we’re stuck in Lima, with little access to cash we are tied to the services that a metropolis offers, no favoured off-beat adventure for now it seems. It’s throughout this morning that the daunting process before us takes shape, between insurance and banks in a very different time zone it looks like we’ll get to know Lima by the end of this chapter of the story. Also keen to be done with Peru we are somewhat torn, we need to climb the organisational mountain before we can leave, a frustrating trap with no discernible exit.
Miraflores is known to be a nice area of Lima, an oasis in this notoriously dangerous edgy city that we’d usually shun; now it’s a blessing. Today is indeed a new day, one for us to indulgently enjoy the manicured nature of flower beds booming with colour and take on that very bourgeois past time of searching for coffee. After a quick jaunt through the manicured floral oasis of park Kennedy we settle down for a bout of caffeine and organisation, Charlie gets a little excited at the prospect of a spreadsheet in our near future, a little too excited perhaps.
Pushing aside the very present frustrations we enforce upon ourselves a positive spin to all this, we’re off to go shopping. Again a pastime that would usually induce shivers of discomfort presents itself as something that we can at least sink our teeth into as an upside. And lets be honest, Charlie has always secretly wanted to be Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman… with bigger legs. Today the theatrical little homo that has been bursting to get free has his/ her day in the sun, you go girl. There is a small hitch in the plan though; as in much of South America, retailers here do like to stay closed, our little princess held in the wings for that little longer. I wonder if Peru realises the diva-fit that is possibly about to be unleashed?
Tantrum avoided we walk, nay, sashay our way into a big department store, let the frenzy begin. It’s of course coming up to christmas but this place isn’t heaving with the pastel legging clad, tuck shop armed piranhas straight from the shopping tour bus that usually obliterate stores like this at this time of year, it’s fairly peaceful. Piling up a small mountain of this seasons favourites I can’t help but feel a little guiltily comforted by having some possessions again, surely symptomatic of moving on rather than an enjoyment of shopping; surely? Laden with a fresh range of clothes the journey into superficiality continues, it’s iPad time. Again we see this as a necessary tool to aid getting back to our feet but we can only confess to a small bubble of glee in buying something shiny and new. With no tuck shop arms I feel we need some pastel leggings to truly fit the part here.
When did this stuff become so bloody tiring? We’re happy to walk for days lugging packs up a volcano but a few hours of casually strolling posh paved streets is too much to bare, we simply must have more coffee. There we go again, we’re turning into the socialite shop-a-vultures we so haughtily look down upon. Right now though, this little deviation is admittedly a touch therapeutic. Completing the picture we find a cracker of a coffee shop, tiny and boutique of course to sip critically on our cortados (same as a piccolo in Australia) noting all manner of characteristics of the coffee, being experts and all as we are.
Throughout the haze of ‘being Julia Roberts’ we do manage to get a deal of organisation done but this day is also about a little guilt free indulgence. We needed a place that felt safe and allowed us to do all the banking and insurance stuff we needed to get to, in this respect, Miraflores ticks all the boxes. In a way it’s also an opportunity to take on a style of travel that our adventurer egos would never allow in a location equally dismissed. A silver lining there is on any cloud, surprising it is sometimes the form that lining takes.
Charlie and Steve's Excellent Adventure 