Day 5 & 6\7

This morning nine of us took a bus to a true locals surfing beach we heard about called Cerro Azul. It is about 3 hours south of Lima, maybe 1000 residents and was hit hard by the major earthquake back in August. Many building were still in rubble, the town had been without water for two months after the quake but the people were so friendly and happy to see us. We asked if it was safe to walk around at night and everyone said, "absolutely" but when we asked about nightime bus service to& from a nearby town called Asia we were told that they dont come at night because it was too dangerous! Go figure.

We arrived in the late afternoon so decided to stay mellow and have an early dinner. The ceviche (raw white fish marinated in lime juice) was increadibly tasty. The clams, shrimp and mussels were also great. There is something about watching your food come right out of the water and onto your plate. I´ll eat more fish on this trip than I have in all my life combined!!

The hostel we chose was also very clean & comfortable-and only US$7 each. The best part was the instant hot shower head with exposed wires - yeah, I got zapped a few times:) At least we had hot water - many places there still did not.

We woke up the next morning and went straight to the beach. The sand was hot but the water was cool. I caught a few good waves body surfing and all of caught a good sunburn. The equatorial sun is intense. More ceviche and other seafood and then is was tim e to head about 20 minutes North to an area called.

We took a public bus to Asia and when I arrived I felt like I was in an entirely different world. Picture a gigantic open air, luxury shopping mall. Rotating billboards, car dealerships, fancy clothing stores, high end restaurants, the best night clubs, etc. We were greated with free drinks, free food (sushi, brie, caviar) free internet, free this & that. This place was built for the wealthiest people of Lima to shop & play at. It is too far from Lima for the poorer people to get there. Mercedes, Lexus and Audis filled the parking lots.

There was a surf & skate expo going on so we saw some great skating, a popular Peruvian rap group and was given free T-shirts from the sponsors. We had a great meal and hit the clubs when they opened, around 10pm. The clubs were packed with beatiful people wearing glamorous clothes - I felt pretty out of place:) We left around 6am and the clubs were more crowded than earlier in the night! Not just a few but all 25 clubs were still raging! I dont think LA goes off this hard!!!

Another short nite of sleep followed by a swin in the ocean and then we all headed back to Lima to catch an overnight, 14 hour bus to Arequipa, the second largest city in Peru.