Back in Lima

October 28 -29:

After our not so pleasant adventure, we finally made it back to Lima. Unfortunately, since we could not get in touch with Juan -the taxi driver and friend of Coco AND our "chauffeur" during our first stay in Lima - we were not greeted by his familiar face at the airport. Instead, Javier, the man who sat next to us on the plane, accompanied us out of the airport, to the main street, and bargained with taxis for a good price - only 25 soles!! Thank you, Javier!

Due to the fact that our flight was cancelled, we no longer had that much time to spend in Lima. As a result, we decided to take it easy. The one last thing on my "to do" list before leaving Lima, was to have ceviche,  a raw fish dish. Although, I had already tried ceviche once before, in Cusco, I had heard that Lima was the best place to have it. Javier, recommended we go to the port area of Lima, Callao. After wondering the streets of Miraflores for a bit, we decided to call Juan to pick us up and take us to Callao to the restaurant Javier had recommended. Juan, however, notified us that the port was too far away from Miraflores and that it would be too costly for us to go there. Instead,  we went to a restaurant called "La Onceava" in Barranco, a recommendation previously given to us by Coco. Juan did not know exactly where in Barranco it was, but he assured us that he would find it. And he did! By driving to an area with ceviche restaurants, he asked a policewoman, and she directed him to the right place.

"La Onceava" is a great restaurant, with fantastic ceviche!! Even Rakesh, raved on about it!! Coco had told me that he is friends with the owner (dueña) of the restaurant. I had written the name of the person down, but didn´t have my notebook with me. I asked a waiter if the "dueña" was around. The waiter replied, "¿la dueña Consuela?" and I immediately remembered that name! I then asked if we could meet her, as she was a friend of a friend. The waiter came back to us later and said that once we were done with our food, we could go inside the restaurant to meet Consuela.

Meeting Consuela was a wonderful experience. She  seemed thrilled by the fact that we knew Coco. Not only that, but she showed real excitment at the fact that we were non-locals who had come to her restaurant (indeed, we were the only "tourists"). Consuela was extremely warm and affectionate as she smothered us with kisses, especially Rakesh!! She then wanted one of the waiters to take a photo of us all together (it´s actually on our camera and hope we can share it with her sometime soon).

The next day, Juan picked us up in the morning from our hostel and took us to the airport. We said our goodbyes to Juan and took a photo of us three. We already have an open invitation to Juan´s house for ceviche, when we return to Lima!