The wrinkle about finally having spare time in a city often visited is that the things you want to check out are normally off the beaten path of the tourist track. So what with having a air ticket stub and having being dicked around at the last minute by a guy who can’t be trusted, the business trip was off but I decided to do the trip anyway and get some R&R. It all started with a pleasant plane ride into town…
…and by way of a travel hint for tall people, make sure you get the emergency exit seat row on these flights and the extra legroom in the row next to the wing (though you need to be a Spanish speaker to sit in the emergency rows, so that’s no use for Daryl Hodges).
So to the first stop on my slightly off-beat daytrip, the “Gianfranco” café on the road known as Angamos in Miraflores.
This is the coffee shop frequented by ex-President Alan García (he wasn’t in today) as well as many other less famous and far more mediocre, untrustworthy lawyers (García’s a lawyer and still practices). A very decent espresso doppio, can recommend.
Second port of call was somewhere I like to get to on occasion, but as it’s on the other side of town to the mining office district it’s not such an easy visit normally.
Today with time I got to hang around the Jockey Plaza shopping mall and buy some nice things (all the expensive shops are there, the place is superbly designed, it’s almost as if you’re in a serious country. And of course while mall-ratting there’s always time for another coffee, this time Starbucks and OH LOOK!, the barista got my name wrong!
How the devil did that happen? And of course you’ll notice that’s a copy of today’s paper, Jaime. Y’know…just in case any assholes are tuning in and think this is a bluff…
And then the best part of the day (as well as getting outdoor time with the sun our for a change), a trip to a place I’ve always wanted to visit but have never done until today, the MALI art museum.
For a S/30 entry fee (just under U$10) you get a couple of hours’ worth of excellent museum, with the main exhibit tracing Peruvian art from Pre-Columbian ceramics and fabric art, through the Conquistodor period (excellent range of Cuzco School works) through late 19th century artists such as Carlos Baca-Flor, right up to the modern day living artists of repute. Here’s my favourite of the show, one of two Fernando de Szyszlo works.
So there you go, a day out in the big city. The MALI museum highly recommended, too.
Dedicated to all my friends at Minera IRL.