`Everybody Loves Peruvian Food

The new Casa de la Gastronomia museum had nearly 4,000 visitors in its first four days. I'm looking forward to seeing this place.
Thanks for the heads up on the article, Larry.

On Travel...

The thought for the day, by Mark Twain ~ "I have found out that there ain't no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them." 

The News this Morning

More European investors are planning to enter the Peruvian market in view of the upcoming Peru-EU free trade agreement. 

Foreign tourist arrivals to Peru climbed 16 percent year-on-year to more than 640,000 in the first quarter of 2011.

Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Florez will appear at the Teatro Municipal of Lima when the 91-year-old theater reopens its doors to the public in June 2011 after a US$27.5 million renovation. The theater was destroyed by fire in 1998. Art and architecture experts and Peruvian artisans, have lovingly executed the restoration, using pictures and design drawings from the original 1920 house.

And the final piece of news: We're headed out tomorrow night to Florida for a quick spur of the moment trip to see Aunt Kay and Uncle Nello, who at 97 is not doing as well as he used to. April is going to be an exciting month for us with this trip and then our wonderful first visitors later in the month!

Now Peru has a Gastronomy Museum

How many countries have a museum dedicated to their food, I wonder. Food is such a huge part of the culture here that it's really strange. If a stranger asks you how you like their country, they expect to hear you rave about the food. When you do so (of course!), they beam with appreciation. Now we have a museum dedicated to the incredible Peruvian cuisine. Actually I'm surprised there wasn't one before.

Earth Hour

Don't forget to turn off the lights tonight - at 8:30 for at least an hour!

Free Wi-Fi in Parque Kennedy!

Mayor Jorge Muñoz did not give a specific date, but said that wireless internet in the park would be implemented “soon.” What fun to be able to blog from the park!

Madelle & Larry are Coming!!!!!

No kidding!
Just got the email. The already have their tickets!
They'll be here April 20th!!!
Our Very First House Guests in Peru!
There's no way I can tell you how excited I am!!!!!

Day at the Market

Today was fun. My friend Dina took me to the  big market in Lima Centro.  We walked and laughed and had a lot of fun. Didn't buy a thing. But of course that wasn't the point of the trip. I had been meaning to go to see the big market for ages so this was fun. But it wasn't as interesting as I had expected. Perhaps I'm .jaded. But I think that some of the other markets are just as interesting. Maybe better. I still love markets and want to go to some of the other ones around. Besides buying fresh produce and household items, the other thing I like to do in the markets is take photos. I didn't get any photos today because I didn't take my camera. I just knew that if I took my camera along, Dina would have a fit. She wanted me to remove my gold wedding band for God's sake!  Then halfway through our day, Dina asked me "Where's your camera?" I told her that I had thought she would be angry if I carried it around and she looked at me like I was nuts. Go figure!
Dina and I also toured the Museum of Inquisition, another testament to man's inhumanity to man. It's a sharp reminder of another piece of Peru's dark history and shouldn't be missed. It is housed in the beautiful old National Senate building, which is worth seeing by itself, even without the horrifyingly realistic images of torture in the basement.

The Artist at Work

Fascinating what he can create in an afternoon while I am out and about!

Name this Flower

Can anybody out there name any of these flowers for me?
I've spent the morning on the internet trying to identify the flowers that I already have on products in my Zazzle store. I have a bunch more flowers that I want to use to make products, but don't want to add more when I can't even figure out the names of the ones I already have there!

National Day of Mourning

Tomorrow is a national day of mourning in Peru for the victims of the disaster in Japan.
Forty five Peruvian citizens who lived in the area of Japan that was worst-affected by last week's quake remained unknown Tuesday. According to an article in "Living in Peru" there are sixty thousand Peruvians living in Japan, while Peru is home to the second largest Japanese population outside of Japan.

Peru's GDP grew 10 pct in January

The growth was due to increases in both external and internal demand. Nearly all sectors performed favorably, with the exception of mining and hydrocarbons.

Combis replaced by Metropolitano

If you've ever been on the Metropolitano during rush hour, you would have a very hard time believing that there is a problem with low ridership.
Amidst concerns about low ridership affecting the profitability of our new Metropolitano bus system, 20  public transportation companies whose routes overlapped at least 80 percent with those of the Metropolitano have been withdrawn from operation.
According to an earlier article, competition from colectivos, microbuses and combis (Lima’s de facto public transport system) along the route of the Metropolitano is one of the primary reasons why the system is only working at half capacity: only 300 of the 541 vehicles that make up its fleet are operating, according to president of Pro Transporte Juan Tapia Grillo.

The Great Bike Rights Event

Where was the parade?

I swear to God - we were out there for several hours - but never saw any of this!

Piano in the Park

There's always something going on in Parque Kennedy. One day last month while walking through the park, we came across this fun event. The writing on the piano says "Play Me - Piano for Everyone!"  It was just sitting there in the park, waiting for anyone who felt like it to turn out a tune. The young man in the picture entertained a bunch of us with a wonderful spontaneous concert! I love this place!

20-25% Increase for 2011

Peru's SEC expects Lima stock exchange to rise 20 - 25% by the end of 2011

The bike affare...

What a disappointment! :-( We walked up the street to where the bikers were gathering. This was around 11;00am. There was only one person that had her body painted. No, she was not nude, no one was nude or even close to being in their "all together". After a half hour we decided to walk back to our apartment building and wait for the bikes to pass. Nothing...wait.....nothing.....wait!
We gave up and went in to our apartment.  

A slice of history in Maine...

 Laurie wrote...

"The notebook of my grandmother's poetry had been sitting in a box for nearly 50 years. Her handwritten poems told stories of surviving the long winters deep in the woods of Maine, the mystery of the icy landscape after an ice storm, the odd event when sand storms from the mid-west threw sand all the way to Maine. There were stories of her neighbors and what the women did with their time. This year I finally put all of her poetry into book form so that all of her other relatives could enjoy this wonderful little piece of Gram's story. It was a wonderful project of love to be able to do it." 

Bare biking in Lima

http://www.livinginperu.com/thebreak-1996-general-perus-nude-cycling-event-kicks-off-march-12
March 12th there will be the annual nude bikers ride for awareness of bike safety. To read about it go to the link . The bikers will be going right past our apt building as they ride free as a bird down Av. Arequipa. Laurie thinks that we should invite friends to come and stand with us as we cheer on the Ciclonudistas. I thought that things like this only happened in Seattle Washington, USA. Those who will be riding will shed to suit themselves. I have seen some in the past, had their bodies painted and it was hard to tell how nude they were. So we will have the camera ready this Sunday. Not sure how this parade will be rated G, R, or X?

Our Hood: Bicycling in the Nude

The nude cycling march which has shocked and awed the masses of Lima returns!

Carnaval!

Don't know how we missed this!  Oh, well - Next Year!

The Peruvian Dream

He's a Lucky Man

I know what my husband is thinking tonight. He's thinking how amazing it is that he is married to someone who continues to discover the most fabulous places to eat. I could just see what he was thinking tonight as he was enjoying my newest discovery - 4 blocks down the street.

La Anticucheria

What an incredible discovery! I don't know how many times we had walked right by this place without checking it out. Great anticuchos (grilled beef heart) and a really fun place, too. Prices not bad either.