Magic Water!

Highlight of the trip for our friends, I think! We finally made it to the Circuito Magico del Agua. Awesome, as was the food at Tanta before we jumped on the bus to Lima for the show.

Photography Tours

For anyone hooked on travel and photography and in love with Peru, this article talks about a tour company with a different twist. It sounds intriguing. Not sure it's something that's going to work for me, but I might at least consider doing their Lima Photography tour one of these days to check it out.

Our First Visitors are On Their Way!

With the help of my friends at Expat Peru, I have put together a list of things to do - some of them are Must-Sees for the first time visitor and others are ideas so that our guests will see the many options for the fabulous experience which is Lima. M will be doing a trip to Machu Picchu and we are all excited to hear about her experiences, but that will still leave nearly two weeks to try to hit their priority items.
Things to Do & See:

• The Magic Water Fountains ***
• Peña - probably Brisas de Titicaca ***
• Walks on the Malecon ***
• Huaca Pucllana *
• Museums - many to choose from depending on what interests them the most
• Park walks *
• New Gastronomy museum
• Lima Centro walk *
• San Francisco Monastery
• Barrio Chino
• Barranco
• Mercado *
• Meet some of our new friends
• Concert
• Mirabus

Places to Eat:

• Astrid y Gaston *
• El Kapallaq *
• Menús*
• Lobo del Mar
• Mangos
• Los Pescadores - Chorillos
• Tia Gramanesa's Anticuchos *
• Rosa Nautica *
• Punta Sal
• Rincon Chami
• El 10
• Tanta
• Mercado de Surquillo
• Patagonia (Tango night) *
• La Mar
• Pecado Capitales
• Cordon Bleu Cooking School

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 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!

Our Hood: Bicycling in the Nude

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

Flamenco!

We went to a great Flameco performance tonight at ICPNA (Instituto Cultural Peruano Norte Americano) - where our Spanish school is. They put on concerts or some such event nearly every night. The price is usually 30 soles. There is also an art gallery - and probably a bunch of other stuff I haven't found yet. The center is huge.

Ceviche Demonstration

Fun time tonight at the South American Explorers' Club for a ceviche preparation demo. We got to eat the end product, too.

 

Others in attendance were a documentary film maker, an archaeologist, a teacher, a photo journalist and a few travelers. Most of them were planning trips "home" for the holidays. Kind of made me feel homesick, but I didn't know for where.

Lima's 10K Run

Last night we enjoyed being part of the watchers of the start and finish of the Lima 10K Run. I don't know how many runners there were. I can only say that the runners filled up over two street blocks at Parque Kennedy! We sat at our favorite coffee shop, which was right in front of all the action. It was wonderful to see so many people in the street, and they were not protesting anything. Just happy people ready to run and as many people ready to watch those runners. Laurie tried to get a picture of the first runner to head for the finish line but he was going so fast it was just a blur. 6.2 miles in less then 30 minutes! Around 12 mph! 

Noche de Arte

We actually took time off today to do a cultural thing!