It’s Never Sunny in Lima

After an adventure in El Salvador and a smooth flight in a plane without mechanical issues (Britto and Lara checked to make sure it was a different plane), the travellers finally made it to the real first stop of their trip – Lima.   

Where they stayed: Dragon Fly Hostel – which looked great on the website but subpar in person.  Pros:  It provided them with a room they could all sleep in together and was in the best part of Lima to stay in, called Miraflores.  It was pretty cheap.  Cons:  It was dank and moldy, and their room was situated right next to the front desk so they heard people coming in and out all night, staff stocking fridges, and the sounds of the busy street below.  It was pretty cheap.

What they ate and drank:  All the things!  After a mad dash to the immigration check point, only to be thwarted by chaotic non-lines, a grumpy officer who made Britt, JD and Ash move to the back of the line to fix up their paperwork, and a very late taxi driver, they made it to their Gourmet Food Tour.  First stop was Calla, a classy bar/restaurant overlooking the Pacific, where they learned how to make pisco sours.  True pisco sours are made with three shots of pisco (40% alcohol).  JD warned the girls, “Don’t finish these, they’re strong”, which Britt, Ashley and Lara heard but Alice did not.  The second stop, Amaz, a restaurant inspired by flavours of the Amazon, held many treasures.  At Amaz they filled their empty stomachs with chicken and peanut sauce, corn pancakes, a variety of plantain and potato dishes, and gelatos made of lychee, mango, and passion fruit.  They topped it all off with another version of pisco sour made with mango puree.  The third stop was a Huaca Puclanna, a restaurant situated at the base of an archaeological site by the same name on which pre-Incan tribes would sacrifice young women to the Gods to ensure good weather, especially in El Nino seasons. Given the general grayness of the weather during the stay in Lima, it was obvious that no women had been sacrificed there in a while. There they ate octopus, scallops, antichucho (beef heart) and cold potatoes (causa) blobs topped with salmon, and drank different flavoured pisco sour: passionfruit, mango, coca.  JD isn’t sure what the cost of the pisco sours were, so whether or not they were under $20 remains to be seen.  The last stop of the night, La Bodega Verde, was a dive-y chic dessert bar situated in the upscale neighbourhood of Barranco which offered them a milkshake made using a local fruit called Lacuma which looks like an apple on the outside, with an avocado pit, and orange starchy flesh. Oh, and it tasted like butterscotch!  On day two they ate at the popular seafood restaurant, La Mar where they had way too many servings of potato chips with pepper sauces, ceviche, chaufa, fish burgers, and a traditional meal of beef in tomatoes and onions, along with their first dose of altitude medication, Diamox.  Peru’s ceviche far exceeded that of El Salvador.  That night they tried a traditional chicken dish Aji de Gallina and a local favourite purple corn drink called Chicha Morada at a trendy (though mostly tourist geared) restaurant called Tanta. 

What they did:  Apart from eat (which made up about 80% of what they did), they checked out the local cat park, attempted (unsuccessfully) to get in on some street salsa, and took all the taxis…a feat which exhausted Alice’s expansive Spanish vocabulary of 8 words and haggling skills and never seemed to guarantee the cost, destination or appropriate number of seat belts. Despite the travel confusion, they group did make it to the Larco Museum which houses a permanent display of pre-Incan erotic pottery and provided them with their first lesson on pre-Incan and Incan tribes and mythology.  Britt didn’t find the museum particularly interesting – the history put her to sleep and the erotic pottery gave her scared eyes – but she loved having tea in a Britt café mug and trying new desserts.  They later went to a park to see a  water fountain laser light show,  which far exceeded Lara’s expectations.  The water tunnel and the water game were especially fun (and wet) additions!  They learned that the water in the Pacific that flows past Peru comes from an Antarctic cold current, so Ash did not even look for the place where locals were swimming. 

Lessons learned:  Drinking after no sleep, no food, and flying all day will invariably result in at least one person bent over a toilet by 7 p.m. and another in the middle of the night.

Most unfounded judgment by a local:  Gourmet Food Tour Guide:  Are you going to do the Inca Trail? Us: Three of us are and three of us aren’t.  Guide:  Oh you’re the lazy ones! Us:  Yeaaaah, how is the trail? Guide:  I don’t know, I’ve been to Machu Picchu three times and have never done it.  I’m lazy.

Some questions:

Now that he’s learned of Incan history, will JD find a shirt representing the sacred animals of Condor, Puma, and Snake?

Will Ashley’s mounting nervousness about altitude result in fake symptoms of high altitude cerebral or pulmonary edema

Will Britt get to take photos of anything other than food

Will Lara be terrified or excited after they meet their G adventure guide and learn of the trek itinerary?

Will Alice make the most of her one day in Cuzco? 

Will Jenna be there when they get there?

Stay tuned!