Airport Bus and Lima tidbits
Greetings everyone! Just got back from a Lima + Santiago trip that was mostly business but with a smidgen of time to try to see what's new with everything since about a year ago.
I tried the new Miraflores airport bus and it worked OK. Flight arrived at 9:45 pm And the bus runs half-hourly out of the airport thru midnight (at the top and bottom of the hour). It's 25 soles or $8 one-way. They have a booking desk in arrivals before you get thrown to the wolves with the sign-holders and touts and all, and they have their own uniformed sign-holders fighting it out for visibility in that mess. So I bought the ticket at the desk for $8 (change in soles, I believe), and then one of the sign-holders led me to the bus, which is in an area of the parking lot in the front of the airport (expect a nice bus with markings). It was the 10:30 p.m. bus and had just two other passengers.
They're trying hard to make a good impression. The person who led me to the bus also helped with luggage, and they have area maps for each of the stops and make doubly sure your stop is matched correctly to the hotel. My hotel was the Esperanza, 2 blocks away from the Casa Andina Private stop. The hotel stops are geographically spread throughout Miraflores (Jose Antonio, JW Marriott, Hilton, Casa Andina Private, Doubletree, Boulevard and Hostel Torreblanca). But if you're not staying at those then you need a taxi or to walk it for the final blocks. Which may make it a tough sell for skittish first-timers, and with more people in a party the economics favor taxis (definitely if 3+). Bus is nice and has a bathroom I didn't try, though the informational tips say #1 only, please. Also wi-fi though they say limited bandwidth.
I couldn't take the bus back because I had an 8:30 departure on Sky Airline (Chilean low-cost carrier) to Santiago and their check-in can be a bear, and the first bus out of Mirafores at 6 am Would arrive at 7:15 am And that was cutting it too close for an international flight with a not-state-of-the-art airline. The hotel called out an Uber (probably not Uber itself, but a local imitator) for 5:30 a.m. that was 50 soles.
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As for other tidbits, I exchanged only $30 or so at the airport. Scotiabank was the best ATM as far as not having fees, at least in my case. Still low tops on withdrawal amounts, though.
Las Curcadas was 38 soles to get in (still a free Cuba libre for the downstairs bar), but girls want 100 soles rather than 80. Dunno if there are holdouts. I targeted a 7 pm Arrival, which put me in the teeth of rush hour and caused taxis to want more, as I was going from Plaza San Martin through the Plaza 2 de Mayo mess, and of course supply / demand is against you at that hour. Maybe I can try a bit earlier, but even though my nights were Wednesday and Thursday the place seemed popular as ever. Lima could support 20 of them scattered geographically through the area, but I s'pose they make it hard enough for them to operate that it takes a determined owner to withstand the slings and arrows.
I was too picky at first, wanting to look at the whole field before choosing one. Maybe 85% were doable. Of course once I did mentally decide on one or two and went back, they were occupied. So maybe I needed to get there earlier.
I got the free drink and decided to take the first one on the next pass that looked good. Once again without asking ahead of time I picked an Ecuadorian (maybe it's the long, straight dark hair). She was maybe pushing 30 and a 7. 5, but tried to please and that was probably the difference. CBJ and 2 or 3 positions, with a good rhythm built up and my own raincoat.
I can only imagine what Friday or Saturday nights must look like.
