Callao

Sunday morning rain is falling. Steal some covers, share some skin. Clouds are shrouding us in moments unforgettable, but they’re really not. It never rains here in Lima, and I guess that could be a good thing. It’s always warm, a little muggy at times, but fairly nice weather overall. The pollution is bad here, so the majority of the sky is covered in smog. Not so pleasant, but it could be a lot worse. As nice as it always is, it wouldn’t hurt to have some rain. Some days, I just want it to downpour. That must be why I love New England so much. You get the best of everything there.

We start our day off meeting at the Mirabus Tour stop right down the street from La Lucha. This is our second Mirabus tour. The first one was great because we got to see the entire city of Lima and several other districts. However, this time around, we had planned to go to the town of Callao, one of the chief seaports of Peru. Callao’s location was ideal for trades and naval activities because it's a peninsula off the coast of Peru. Since Callao has established itself as a port town, it was only fitting that they carried a naval museum which we would have to luxury to see.

Of course, the first stop we made in Callao was the naval museum – a museum decorated in Peru’s naval history. Our tour began by sitting inside a small room, watching a long navy documentary introduction. Nothing fascinating. It was like watching the opening theme of a World War movie with cheesy background music, exploitation of mass weapons, and acts of heroism. To say the least, it was quite catchy. From what I’ve learned thus far in Peru is that the Peruvians pride themselves in two things – their navy and their ceviche. We continue our tour through the naval museum and checked out cool model ships. I’m always fascinated by the intricate things they do on these model ships because the details are so fine. We wrap up the tour and head our way out of the museum towards the docks. Sitting at the docks was this fairly big submarine. This was our next stop.

Our tour guide directs us over to board the top of the submarine. This was actually pretty cool because I’ve never stepped foot on a submarine before. I was more excited than I should have been, rocking the submarine back and forth, jumping up and down, and taking selfies like a child. After getting some of my excitement out, the tour guide then opened the hatch of the submarine and directed us to all jump in one by one. I honestly had no idea we were going to be able to actually see the inside of a real submarine! I almost cried tears of joy. Finally, I hopped into the hatch and made it through to the bottom. I look around and thought that this would had definitely been the coolest hangout spot ever as a kid. I was always into those sorts of things, building clubhouses and created imaginary alliances with friends so this would have been a great place to conjure meetings or plot an attack. We moved along with the tour guide as he showed us every compartment of the submarine from bedrooms to kitchens to the navigation room. All of that was really amazing, but after a while I started to get a little sick. The submarine was submerged underwater, so the rocking motion of the water induced some motion sickness into me. I had come to realize maybe I wasn’t cut out to become a sailor or navy officer. My head started spinning and I felt nauseous. I couldn’t wait for the tour to end. We finally reached the end of the submarine, and one by one we climbed out the top hatch to resurface above water. Phew. It could’ve been bad.

The naval tours were finally over and we were all starving, ready for lunch. Monica had made reservations for us at Cabos Restaurante del Puerto in Callao – a really nice seafood restaurant with a great view over the pier. Food was delicious as always. I had ordered the sea bass and it was cooked perfectly with a side of rice. From what I’ve gathered here in Peru, it seemed to me that sea bass is a very popular fish and rightfully so because it’s so damn good. We finally end the day with a Mirabus tour back to Miraflores where I would spend the rest of the afternoon eating ice cream at Larcomar.