Our friend Elisa, who we met in Lima, introduced us to her friend Coral who does street food tours in La Paz! So we went out last night and even though it was a bit cold and a bit rainy we had a great time. She came by in her Read more…
Before you go I always thought that Machu Picchu was only for young fit people. That you had to trek in and walk up a mountain to get there. Not true. Even old less than fit people can easily visit. You don’t have to sign up for an expensive tour Read more…
Cusco Cusco is a beautiful World Heritage city. We decided we’d spend some time here on our way from Lima to La Paz. Besides being the gateway to Machu Picchu, it’s the former capital of the Inca empire and arguably the cultural capital of Peru. We stayed for nearly a Read more…
Arequipa On our itinerary between Lima and La Paz we knew we wanted to spend a few days in Arequipa. It’s sometimes called “the white city” because of the beautiful buildings made from the local white “silla” volcanic rock. The architecture is beautiful in a very Spanish Colonial sort of Read more…
Nazca The Nazca “lines” are a group of lines and geoglyphs carved into the desert plain outside the city of Nazca. They’re about 2000 years old and were constructed by the Nazca culture (who also made some pretty awesome ceramics.) Most of them are lines and geometric shapes, but the Read more…
Huacachina Huacachina is a natural desert oasis, just outside the city of Ica. There’s a small lagoon, surrounded by high sand dunes. There are maybe a hundred residents and thousands of visiting tourists each year. It was once a getaway for Peru’s elite, a secluded garden to enjoy nature and Read more…
The bus we’re taking, “Peru Hop,” stops first in the town of Paracas a few hours south of Lima. There’s not a whole lot there, a couple of fancy beach resorts, a main strip of restaurants for tourists, and a couple of low and mid-range hotels. Peru Hop promotes a Read more…
Lima has an active bakery scene both pastelarias or pastry shops, and panaderías which are bread shops. There’s a standard repertoire that includes alfajores de manjar, a sandwich cookie made from cornstarch and filled with manjar (dulce de leche) caramelized sweetened milk.) The cookie came to Peru from Spain, and Read more…
The food The first time we went to Maido we had their “Nikkei Experience,” a multi-course degustation menu. We saw some dishes go by that looked pretty interesting but weren’t included so we decided to go back and try the a la carte menu. (Getting in to the #2 restaurant Read more…