Lima was primarily a rest stop and school stop for us so there is nothing terrible exciting in this post compared to some of the posts of the last couple of weeks. Our time in Lima had strange weather: everyday it was always overcast and it felt like it could rain but never did. This somewhat dampened our impression of Lima, but we did get some small excursions and walks in and enjoyed a few parts of the city.
Lima is known for its cuisine culture, but that also means that restaurants aren’t cheap and we need to do some of our own cooking when we stay in an AirBnB. Thankfully there was this really nice grocery store a couple blocks from our AirBnB and to Annika’s delight, it was two stories and had the long ramp escalators we had first seen in Santiago, Chile. The wheels of the cart auto-lock on the track and so it won’t roll down the escalators which Annika thinks is pretty cool.
The girls have fallen in love with dulce de leche (okay, to be fair, I have too) and we had looked up how to do it with the thought of trying to make it when we got home. When Annika stumbled on a really mini can of condensed milk at a mini-mart store (the ingredient needed), she wanted to try now. Our first attempt was a little light on colour, so we need a few more attempts to improve it, but it tasted pretty close to success to us!
Maybe it was just the neighbourhood we ended up in, but we found it a bit ironic that there were so many US based restaurants in our area when Lima is supposed to have it’s own world-renowned cuisine. We try to do local restaurants when we can, so after walking past Papa Johns, Little Caesars, Starbucks, and TGI Fridays, we found this local Peruvian sandwich shop chain next to McDonalds and Chili’s. They were amazing sandwiches with fresh made buns and we went there twice for lunch.
About 2 km from where we were staying was this Pre-Incan ruin called Huaca Pucllana which was made out of clay and adobe. We walked around it but didn’t take a guide tour inside. Instead, on the recommendation of our AirBnB host, we went to the restaurant that is associated with the museum which overlooks the ruins. It was very unique restaurant experience.
We had a really thoughtful gift from friends before we left. They gave us some cash with specific instructions to go out to a fancy restaurant and splurge a bit. Well, this was the place and the night with apps, dinners, and desserts for all. Everything was amazing but these were our favourite ones: a braised cauliflower with yogurt, lime and cilantro sauce and a meringue with a “surprise” lemon filling and topped with cinnamon ice cream. They were so good, we went back again on a different day just to have these as snacks.
Dinner was Braised lamb shank and quinoa stew with cheese and vegetables; Grilled sea bass in red quinoa crust with yellow potato puree, asparagus, artichokes and mushroom reduction; Pumpkin ravioli with goat cheese sauce and pink pepper; Deep fried chicken thighs sauteed in a butter and pisco sauce.
The other desserts where Pumpkin waffles with “picaron”, fig honey, and vanilla ice cream; Rustic goat cheesecake with berries and crunchy almond truffles; Chocolate volcano with vanilla ice cream
On one of our days we took a much longer walk to the coast, in part to just get out of the apartment for a bit and also because we wanted to go to the shopping mall to find some replacement socks. The street we took dumped us out on the coast by this park that include the paragliding club. That distracted us for a while and we stayed to watch for quite a bit. Annika so wanted to try it, but they don’t offer paid tandem rides anymore due to existing COVID restrictions.
The walk had an added benefit of going by a creperie for lunch.
On the way back we took a slightly longer way which took us through more parks while following the coast line.
Overall we had a good stay in Lima and it gave us a rest spot with a much-needed laundry machine, but wished we could have had even one day of sun.