Peru: Alive, Happy & At Home

“Be fearless in the pursuit of what sets your soul on fire.” – Jennifer Lee

My reentry into South America has been well received. I feel alive, I feel happy, and I feel like I could live here. I know some of you won’t like reading the latter, but the barrio that our hostel is located in is perfect. Barranco is one of Lima’s districts and is a bohemian area.

Tons of artisans take up residence here and proudly show off their work. This includes inexpensive friendship bracelets, acrylic paintings,  stunning wood and clay pieces and of course tons of beautiful street art everywhere you walk. The vibe of the people is chill and relaxed, but not so much that things don’t get done. There’s a nice bustle of people at night in the public squares and restaurant areas where I feel awake but not so much that I feel the need to heavily watch my back. Topography wise, the land is generally flat, except that it is situated on top of a all cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. There is a large set of stairs that lead down to the ocean and over the highway, with art and benches along the way. It is this passageway that we befriended the friendly and local weed dispensers that wanted to take us dancing each time we passed. We accepted their friendship bracelet and hug, but passed on everything else. :-) 

As if all of this wasn’t enough, the food here is delicious, too. Besides the large scale, more expensive restaurants, which are plentiful and delicious, my goal is to eat at smaller, quaint establishments, like I do at home. This has led us to eat much later than we would like sometimes in that pursuit. Yesterday, we went out exploring again in the Barranco area. Each day we extend the number of blocks from center that we venture out to see what more there is to this lovely place. This led us to the Plaza Barranco Butters area where encountered a large, local market selling everything you could image, including raw chicken, vegetables, fruit, sweets, home goods, clothing, etc. There was also a food court area that we decided to try. Following the rule that if no one else is eating there, then keep on going, we found a place that many people were eating at and where the food looked fresh. We sat down at the bar with a nervous smile. The lady brought a dish holding cutlery, a plastic pitcher of some kind go juice and glass mug to drink from. Even though the area seemed clean, every radar was going off inside of me about the true cleanliness of the food prep, but we stuck it out. We ordered from the menu of the day, which consisted of causa rellena (layered potato, avocado, chicken or fish, and sauce) and chicken with rice, both traditional Peruvian dishes. The cost of the dish was 8 soles, which converts to $2.25, which we then split because it was enough food for two. It was all so delicious, but still in the back of my mind, the food poisoning clock was on. I keep saying that I want a magic pill that allows you to eat anything while traveling, like tons of delicious smelling street food, without any digestive consequences. Until that pill is invented, I’ll continue being a relatively cautious eater while traveling and build up my immune system. At the time of this writing, it’s been 20 hours since eating the local market food and I’m still good. :-)

Along with the area we are staying in, we’ve also navigated public transportation to travel to central Lima where we wandered around the main plaza areas, visited a very intricate catacomb system under a big cathedral, witnessed a protest on educational reform in front of the congressional building and walked to Chinatown. There are millions of people in central Lima, millions! 

Last night, we visited another popular area, Miraflores. This is a luxurious, touristy area. All of the nice malls, restaurants and housing seemed to be here. I didn’t fit in and after walking through the very active Kennedy Park, we had to venture out a bit. A few blocks off, we found a hole-in-the-wall restaurant where we ate more delicious food (are you sensing a trend yet) and watched Argentina vs Colombia play in the COPA America soccer match up. We were going to walk a mile to the water front and only made it halfway before feeling a bit uneasy, so we turned around and called our Uber to take us back to our refuge. 

We leave tomorrow for the next leg of our trip. We are flying east to spend a week exploring Cusco and Machu Picchu and it’s surroundings.