I spent the day shopping for presents for my friends and family back home. It’s incredible the amount of cheesy, cheap items there are for tourists to consume here: Peru shot glasses, t-shirts with illustrations of farting guinea pigs on them and the words “Peru Cuy” printed beneath them, Peru plastic snow globes, and “alpaca” hats and gloves that felt suspiciously like 100% acrylic. Other kiosks were filled with sterling silver statues, cutlery, earrings, pendants and other jewelry. Still others were crammed with textiles, sweaters, weavings, and leather goods. But each kiosk, whether it was with cheesy trinkets, textiles, silver, or whatever… they all fundamentally had exactly the same thing.
It took hours and hours of exploring kiosk after kiosk to suss out the good stuff – the unique items – but I persevered and at the end of the day, walked away with just about everything I needed.
After a hard day of shopping, I felt like I deserved something special. Off to restaurant Haiti again. That double pisco sour from the night before was stuck in my head and the thought of enjoying one again amongst the interesting and mixed crowd that the place seemed to attract sounded exactly right. There was something comforting and bittersweet in sitting at the small outdoor table, experiencing the world go by. This was a microcosmic representation of the spirit and life of Lima and like the night before, I let myself be absorbed by the energy of the place, the pace, the sounds, sights, smells, textures, and tastes.
One perfect pisco sour and a plate of soothing food later, I headed back to the hostel, my home for one more night, and to bed. Tomorrow, my last full day of sightseeing on this South America tour. I was going to make it count.
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