lima, peru

A Big City
We had heard that Lima was "just a big city" and that "one or two full days would be enough", but we were pleasantly surprised as to how much we enjoyed our stay. Maybe it was the fact that we actually found a place that had soy milk (it was Starbucks, don't shoot us) and a Supermarket that stocked all of the international foods that we would get at home. OK not even international but just brown rice and garlic powder - isn't it strange the things you miss while travelling? We guessed that we had begun to miss the familiar comforts of a big city and Lima was able to provide them.


The Markets and Cooking Class
After countless visits to fruit and vegetable markets from Mexico right down to Peru, Kassandra was eager to learn more about what the vendors have on offer. Rather than seeing some brownish jelly-ish goop and thinking, "What the fuck is that?" (I'm drawing on our Mexican experience with Molet here), we wanted to have the variety of fruits, vegetables and local concoctions explained to us. Curious to find out more about Peruvian cuisine, we took a cooking class.


We booked our tour with Haku Tours and were taken through the local market. We learnt that there are over 4000 varieties of potatoes in Peru, that when we hear the word "Choclo" they are in fact referring to a type of corn and NOT chocolate, that they are skilful with mashing their capsicums and chillies into delicious sauces, they can fry anything and turn it into a snack, and that Chicha Morada is an ingeniously delicious drink made from blue corn.


Monastery of San Francisco
Photos are not allowed in the monastery, but this was by far the best church we have visited. The stories are what made it. Faces that have been mysteriously scratched from paintings, the unique interpretation of The Last Supper which features the local delicacy of cooked guinea-pig, a library full of the oldest books I have ever seen, and Kassandra's personal favourite, layer after layer of crusty dead bodies buried under the church. Those were some creepy fryers.


The Magic Water Circuit
On our first night we made the 9:30 light show at the Park of The Reserve. We have never seen water fly around to lights and music before. We were impressed. Probably not as impressed as we were with the glowing red walk-through tube of running water though.


Street Food
We don't know what came over us. We normally walk past deep fried street food. Plates of beige food with absolutely no colour variety are a a no-no for us But one night we said, "Let's walk into Park Kennedy and eat a heap of bad food." So we did. And we don't regret it. Fresh doughnuts, some shortbread type thing with something chewy in the middle and a giant flat crunchy thing with some chewy stuff drizzled all over it. We've all eaten beige meals before. All you really need to know is beige, beige and more beige.