We were so thankful that we got the bikes out on Friday. The realization that we could ride out of Lima on a Sunday had sunk in. The Hostal was about midway through Lima, a city of some 7 million people. You cannot believe the traffic unless you experience it. Lane markings are guidelines at best and stop signs may as well not exist. I think it is a requirement that signal lights be removed from any vehicle imported to Peru, however several horns of varying pitch are mandatory. There is no way in the world to explain the seemingly complete lack of accidents (we never saw one) with the horrendously unruly traffic and complete lack of law observance.
Surprise lunch. But enough of that, we had the whole day Saturday to leisurely uncrate and assemble the bikes, do a little shopping and enjoy a bit of downtime.
We needed it. After the bikes were ready to roll, we caught a taxi to a major shopping area near the Hostal called “Wong”. It could have been called Shawnessy Shopping Center on steroids. The ACE hardware store was like Home Depot mated with Rona. It was in a Restaurant near Wong that I ate my surprise lunch.
Corinne likes chicken gizzards and I like beef skewers. We spotted a mixed meat plate on a mini tabletop BBQ on the table next to us that looked very interesting. A beef kabob, a cut up European hot dog and a number of chicken gizzards all sautéed in a rich dark sauce, in a serving large enough for two. Si, senor that’s what we want!
It was delicious and the chicken gizzards were actually quite tasty. I ate quite a number of them. I had never got to eat any before because Corinne or her sister Sandy always got first dibs.
But wait, the mollejas de ternera noted on the menu didn’t sound right. Pollo (chicken) should have been somewhere in the name. Consulting our increasingly valuable pocket Spanish dictionary, I discovered that mollejas de ternera were “calves sweetbreads”. Wait isn’t that….. Arrrgghhh. Oh well I was done eating anyway.
Shopping and eating out of the way it was back to the Hostal for a good nights sleep. Sunday was going to be an interesting and exciting day. The plan gelled to be one of heading south down the Pan American Highway to Pisco. We wanted to see Islas Ballestas (the poor man’s Gallapogos) and Peninsula de Paracas sometime on our trip and we had lost enough time to rule out heading north.
