Don't know where we're going, but we're making great time.
If you’re in Lima, you don’t have far to go to experience ancient history. Just hop a cab to the Huaca Pucllana archaeological site in the upscale Miraflores District. Entrance fees are s/.15 per person ($4.50 USD) and they run guided tours in Spanish and English alternating every half hour. You can take a tour…
Clearly Peru is a different country, and there are a boatload of obvious differences in living here versus the United States: currency, geography, language, and customs. However, there are decidedly unexpected things that barrel at you out of left field and leave you staring with a surprised, “Huh, that just happened,” sort of feeling. I’m…
A bouganvillea-draped hacienda in the heart of Lima is the home of the Larco Museum and the largest collection of pre-historic Peruvian artifacts to be found in the world. The collection includes examples of quipu, or Incan counting ropes; funerary clothes and jewelry; ceremonial ceramics; and ceramics used in ritual human sacrifice. The museum also…
There’s a lot of information out there about Peruvian currency, so I’m not going to cover the usual stuff about where to carry your wallet while you’re shopping for llama-themed sweaters or how to spot a fake bill. We’ve all got Google at our fingertips and there’s more than enough info out there about that….
One of the things we made a point to do last week at the Mercado de Magdalena was to pick up fruits that we’d been told we must try while in Peru — cherimoya, granadilla, and lúcuma. These fruits are native to Peru though they can be found in a few other countries in South America,…
When you don’t speak the language and have only a passing understanding of key words and concepts, simple things like getting a haircut seem ten times harder than they should be. It’s not just getting the actual work done that’s difficult — it’s finding someone reputable who can work with your flimsy American hair and…
Securing a source of excellent coffee is always a priority, and our host Jairo, recommended a vendor called D’Martin Cafe who specializes in local coffees, “It’s just inside the Mercado Magdalena.” Such simple words lead us into the mad, mad rabbit warren of twisted fishmonger, butcher, fruit stand, and housewares stalls stuffed inside a multi-block indoor/outdoor…
We made the shift from the Pacific Northwest to Lima, Peru this week. It took a few days to juggle and shift things where we wanted them, and another couple to get ourselves south of the equator. Napping became the primary objective after we arrived because nothing is more exhausting than sitting on a plane…
So, as you may have guessed by the title, not everything has gone perfectly with our travel arrangements. Why? Because people are greedy dicks. Some of them, anyway. Let me dig into the nitty gritty. Just by the way things worked out, Jan and I switch off responsibility for finding and booking places to stay…
Tucked away on a lonely road past a boarding kennel and a horse farm is a strange little enterprise that houses 57 cats of the bobcat, cougar, tiger, and leopard variety and one domestic house cat we called Mr. Wilson. We were determined to go and make friends with as many of this collected menagerie…