Lima, Peru

We’d been looking forward to returning to Peru since our first trip here in 2005 when we hiked the Inka Trail, visited the remote jungle of Manu and discovered incredible ceviche in Lima.
We were also excited to meet up again with our dear friend Cindy, who we hadn’t seen since she joined us for a few weeks in South Africa back in May.
Lima is not what we’d consider a pretty city, but it has developed so much since our last visit and has become a major foodie destination with many new buildings lining the coast and pretty parks packed with families enjoying the outdoors.
Lima was a budget-buster because we had booked tables at two of the city’s top restaurants: Central and Astrid & Gaston. After watching “Mind of a Chef” and learning about chef Veliz’s inspired menu at Central celebrating Peru’s indigenous ingredients and bio-diversity, this had been on our wish list for years. While the experience was really interesting, the food was sometimes challenging from a taste and texture perspective. The food at A&G was much more approachable, but unfortunately Christy got sick from what she thinks was her sea urchin udon. Hopefully she can recover her taste for uni before our Japan trip.
Apart from eating, we enjoyed a visit to Amano, the Pre-Columbian Textile Museum, and the pre-Inkan adobe ruins of Huaca Pucilana.
It was an interesting time to be in Lima as the city was hosting the “8th Summit of the Americas” with leaders from most North, South & Central American countries in attendance. The security was intense and the street where our hotel was located was closed most of the time as we were near to the big hotels where many leaders were staying. While corruption is still a major issue for Peru, this is a country that has cut its’ poverty rate in half in the past decade, a remarkable achievement.Read more