PERU DIARY #2

You would think that with a 7-hour time difference from my hometown the mornings here would be easy. And they are when I wake up at 4 AM and then again at 5 AM, but when my alarm goes of at 6:30 AM or 7 to get up and out of bed, I really do struggle. We’re always off to a really early start in the morning so I usually spend 80% of the morning car rides dozing off. But anyways, the last time I updated you guys I was surrounded by wine vineyards and so now onto the next part of my trip. The following morning (last Saturday) we headed towards El Carmen before the break of dawn.

El Carmen is a small little village in the Ica region. We had lunch at a hacienda aldaar, which had a rich history of slavery. We received a tour of the area, passed their torture devices, and walked through pitch-black basements where the slaves were locked up and left for dead. Let me tell you, I had a hard time ‘enjoying’ the lunch that followed after this tour. After lunch, we hopped back in our van for a four-hour drive back to Lima. Another car ride spent sleeping.

Lima has a total of 47 districts and one of them is Barranco. And let me tell you, I fell in love with Barranco. In my previous post I explained that it’s hard to fully grasp the country’s construction and Lima was another one of those area’s I didn’t fully comprehend. The only parts of Lima I had seen were the places that resembled Bagdad rather than a South American city, giving me that ‘what am I doing here?!” –vibe. But then there is Barranco. Here you can find that sultry restlessness that gives South America its charm. The houses are huge and beautiful and there are legions of bars and restaurants everywhere.

We dined at Isolina Taberna Peruana (a real recommendation) and then headed to Ayahuasca which recently was proclaimed to be the best bar in South America according to Condé Nast. So add this to your list of places to go when you’re in Peru. Oh and then do yourself a favor and order the Lychee Sour cause it might have been the best drink I have ever had. Afterwards we jumped into cabs and drove to Miraflores, another vibrant district in Lima. After a round of mojito’s, I suggested we head back to the hotel since it was about 3 AM and my alarm was set for four hours later. And falling asleep at a bar isn’t really socially acceptable either.

And then there was Sunday. We started the day of at the Larco Museum which has Peru’s entire history on display. I’ll be honest with you, I’m generally not a real big museum buff and vitrines filled with historic old stones and shards and 2000 year-old objects don’t necessarily trigger me, but I’ll admit, there were definitely things that I found very intriguing. But regardless, I was happy when the end of the museum tour was in sight.

We ended the tour at the affiliated museum restaurant and that was definitely another highlight of this trip because the view was astounding. We had some Ceviche (quite possibly the most famous Peruvian dish and my favorite) and as soon as we were through using their Wi-Fi, we headed to the airport for our flight to Iquitos for the next part of our trip: a three-day cruise through the Amazon (without Wi-Fi).

I traveled through the Amazon on a rather luxurious boat surrounded by the Peruvian jungles, peculiar birds and vast rivers. It was serene and tranquil and I was accompanied by some elderly Canadians and Americans and the fact that there was absolutely no access to Internet finally gave me the feeling that for a short while I was disconnected from the rest of the world. And what’s crazy to me is that by the time this post comes online I will already be back in Amsterdam.