It felt surreal to be back at the airport for the last section of our trip. We were both so excited to be on to South America both because we knew it had some amazing places and also because we were happy to be wrapping up. 15 months is a long time to be traveling. Our first flight from Chicago to Houston was only a few hours long. The last flight to Lima was 6.5 hours long, had amazing food, and was on time. We both watched several movies. Trying to get from the airport to our hostel was a bit of a challenge. We tried taking a bus, but we could not find the bus google wanted us to take, only another type of bus that would require us to switch 3 times. At that point it was almost midnight so we decided to just uber. After a series of uber cancellations we finally got one and made it to our hostel. The hostel was an old mansion that was later converted to its current purpose. The ceilings were super high, it had lots of paintings, and a beautiful rooftop.

We usually like to have a relaxed day after starting a new section, and South America was no exception. After our late night arrival, a sleep in and late breakfast was perfect. It was 90% relaxing, with 10% of stress from a jump scare in the bathroom. That hostel had many cats, and they often stood on the ladies’ toilet seats. Maybe they used them instead of litter boxes? It happened to me twice where I’d go to the bathroom and open a stall to seemingly be interrupting a kitty. Nick and I didn’t venture outside until it was time for lunch, where we ate at Liko’s Restaurant. That was our first time trying lomo saltado and it would not be our last. It is probably my favorite dish in Peru so far. It’s french fries, meat, sauce, tomatoes, onions, and rice. It doesn’t sound that complicated, but it is delicious. We thought we ordered papa rellanas (mashed potatoes fried and stuffed with meat) but accidentally got mashed potatoes with boiled meat instead. That was not as good. Nick tried his first Inca Cola, also the first of many.

Our first impressions of Lima were that it was relaxed, a bit chilly, and there were many food carts with yummy food items. In the late afternoon we began our long walk to the ocean pathway, Malecón de Miraflores. Many of the boulevards have tree lined paths in the center for pedestrians and bikers. Our walk was going smoothly until a creepy guy ran up fast behind us and kept pace with us only about 1-3 feet away. He continued doing this for several blocks. We stopped to check our map and hid behind a small wall so he would continue and get ahead of us. As soon as we did this he slowed way down. Eventually we could no longer see him and we continued on our way.

Once we got to the ocean walk, we admired the beautiful views. We could see many surfers, a cool building, cliff side views of the highway, and more. Surprise, creepy guy from earlier was there sitting on a piece of workout equipment and he perked right up at the sight of us. Later on when we sat on a bench to watch the sunset he reappeared and sat on the bench across from us. Nick’s theory is that he was a foot guy as I was wearing sandals. We didn’t see many others in open-toed shoes, so maybe he was having stranger-foot-withdrawals.

Leaving the ocean behind, we walked to Mayta for dinner. Lima is known for it’s fine dining, so we figured we would try it out. We don’t do that often, but we felt like it would be a nice addition to our trip in places that were well known for it. Mayta was so much fun and very delicious. Each of the 10 courses was focused on one category of traditional Peruvian ingredients. I wrote down the menu for reference. I tried my best to put which course number each photo belongs to. I also tried a cocktail that was a mix between a pisco sour and another iconic Peruvian drink who’s name I am blanking on, but it was delicious. It had mint, passion fruit, and pisco. Our reservation was for 6:30pm, which as it turns out is too early for everyone in Lima because we had the restaurant all to ourselves for a while.

1. Tubers
2. River shrimp, whey, rocoto, artichokes
3. Porcon, callampas, lion’s mane, chestnuts
4. Corn, chullpi, quinua, panca chili
5. Paiche, sachaculantro, tucupi, chonta
6. Guinea pig, mashuas, cushuro, andean herbs
7. Duck, loche, nir rice, chicha de jora, mochero chili
8. Cocona, lulo, sachatomate
9. Beterraga, cacao, ayrampo
10. Tunta, muna, chaco, lucuma

Course 2: River shrimp in the form of a warm fried ball, coral spongey thing (very yummy), and shrimp tartar. The guy beside us thought the tartar had too much citrus, he complained about it a lot to the waiter until finally she told him river shrimp need it since they are not like ocean shrimp. Was awesome to hear her put him in his place.

The next day was a big walking day which started with a 1.5 hour walk to the Miraflores neighborhood. There we had our lunch of sandwiches at La Lucha Sangucheria Criolla. Those sandwiches were absolutely delicious, especially once we figured out that the sauces were for them, too, not just the fries. The first one had beef and cheese, and the second one had pork belly, onions, and sweet potato. Both of us liked the sweet potato one best, it was so good. Nick tried chicha morada, and I had a frozen mango drink. They were both so refreshing. Peru was not disappointing on the food, everything was so yummy.

After lunch we made our way over to the trendy Barranco neighborhood where we saw the Bridge of Sighs and walked the Avenue San Martin. That did not take as long as we had hoped and we had plenty of time to kill before dinner. To pass the time, and for necessity, we walked to Manolo for some fancy churros. We got the dulche de leches filled ones and they were incredibly yummy. We did have some miscommunications trying to order them, though. I could see in the display that they had the one we ordered, but Nick did not see that. In the menu they did not list it as an option, but Nick tried to order it (in Spanish) anyways. The waiter simply pointed to the churro section with an eye roll, indicating that we were trying to order something they didn’t have, but they did. I just walked up to the front display and pointed to what I wanted, to which they told me to sit back down and someone would take our order. The second attempt was successful, so we don’t know what happened there, Nick said the same thing as before. Luckily we got the churros in the end.

After the churros we sat by the ocean watching the sunset, this time with no foot fetishist following us (that we were aware of, anyway). I did wear running shoes the rest of our time in Lima, though, just to be safe. The walking path by the ocean is super nice, with tennis courts overlooking the water and palm trees everywhere. We also liked how the highway looked lit up at night along the cliffside.

Our third day was spent exploring the historical center of Lima, which was much closer to our accommodations than our previous days’ activities. There we walked down a long pedestrian street lined with shops and dotted with food carts. We enjoyed some churros in the morning from one such cart on the way to the Main Square. Another snack for me was a small chicken empanada, and Nick and I shared an ice cream with cinnamon served from a barrel. The square was beautiful with palm trees, nice landscaping, mountains in the background, a church, and other buildings. There were a lot of temporary fences up for an upcoming music festival, though.

After the square we found a lunch spot nearby where we shared ceviche, lomo saltado, and chica morada drink. Chica morada is made from black corn; it is our favorite drink in Peru so far. I was not a fan of the ceviche as I thought the fish was too firm. Nick loved it, though. The lomo saltado was also not as good as the one we had before, but it was fun to find a place that had every table filled with locals.

Once that was done, we did a tour of the Convento de San Francisco and associated catacombs. We were not allowed to take photos inside, which was a shame. The church had many impressive original parts remaining. A highlight was the choir, where each seat was engraved wood. The catacombs themselves were interesting, but archeologists were the ones to arrange the bones. They were not displayed how they were found as most of the bones were already too broken. Femurs and skulls made up the majority of the bones that remained. On our way out of that area we saw women selling pork sandwiches with a pig’s head as a display.

After that we walked home and tried papa rellenas from a food cart. Those are mashed potato fried and stuffed with meat. We had unsuccessfully tried to get them earlier, so we were happy we saw them again. It was delicious and will not be the last time we have them, I’m sure. I convinced Nick to let us get another round of churros, too, which were not as fresh as the morning ones, unfortunately. The food day did not stop there as we got ice cream cones, too. Our hostel did free pisco sour lessons every night, so we tried that in the evening. I thought we were going to get a glass each (so two for me) but it ended up being just two shot glasses. That was probably for the best, and it was just fun to learn how to make them. Unsurprisingly, it was very easy.

Our last day in Lima was long and filled with walking. It started with our classic 1.5 hour walk to get from our hostel to the main tourist areas near the ocean. On our way, we walked through El Olivar de San Isidro Park and by the Pucllana Archaeological Site to make the walk more interesting. After that, it was time to get a coffee from Milimétrica Coffee. Unfortunately for me nothing was sweet; it was definitely a Nick place. The pastries were great, though. After fika we made it to El Chinito for another chicharron sandwich like we had the other day, but from a new establishment. Nick loved his, but the sauce was too spicy for me to add so mine was very dry. I feel like getting the sandwiches was a stressful process, too, as Nick saw that they were closing in 15 minutes while we still sat at our fika. He grabbed paper water cups, put our drinks in those, and off we scurried. No more seating was available so we got ours to go and ate by the ocean.

We had a hard time finding sunscreen that wasn’t $40+ so Nick lent me his sweater for our walk so I wouldn’t sunburn. The UV was so strong in Lima, I had burnt myself pretty badly on our first day. The heat and unsatisfactory lunch definitely impacted my enjoyment of the afternoon. Our walk along the ocean brought us through several parks where kids were flying kites, roller skating, and having picnics. One little kid told Nick very aggressively to watch him on his scooter, which was hilarious. The day was saved in the evening. We found more reasonably priced sunscreen (thank God), and had an unreal last dinner at La Mar Cevicheria Peruana. It was also fun to see the black corn that is used for all the purple drinks in the store.

Nick had found two nice ceviche restaurants in the area for us to pick from. I had wanted to go at 4:00pm since I was hungry and tired of walking, but he wanted to wait until a ‘real’ dinner time. In classic fashion, he had not checked the hours of the restaurants until he pulled up his first choice to route us to. It was closing very soon and by the time we got there they were no longer taking customers. We had to go to his backup option, which was fancier, so that was a win for me. We made it there and put in our order 9 minutes before the kitchen closed. Such a close call! It wasn’t the first time that had happened, but in his defense, many places have super strange opening hours. A sandwich shop that closes at 2:00pm and a restaurant that closes at 5:30pm? Crazy. The server was great and gave us housemade chips made from a variety of potatoes, and three sauces. We also got crunchy corn kernels. Nick and I split a ceviche with scallops, sea urchin, shrimp, milk, avocado, and a mystery sea food. We loved it; it was the best ceviche I’ve ever had! Everything was so soft and citrisy. For our main we split the crab ravioli, and for dessert we shared an interesting chocolate mousse. That place was divine and I was happy again the rest of the evening. What an end to our time in Lima. Thinking back, all I remember is the food.