Yesterday after breakfast, a much needed work out on the beach and a swim in the pool we headed back to Lima. The traffic was fairly light so the drive was only minimally stressful. Sean and I shared the driving with him doing the lion’s share. The Pan-American highway in Peru is not an easy road to drive. I think we only survived because we are both aggressive drivers who have experience driving in Manhattan and the Bronx (and Palermo! Sean adds) where the rules of the road are a bit more lax and the drivers a little more zealous than in other parts of the country. Sean is… shall we say…an intense driver who has no patience for others on the road who are slow or timid. He told me he thought I did a good job swerving around trucks into oncoming traffic. For him to compliment my driving in Peru is the highest praise a driver can receive. (Thanks Dad, for teaching me to drive when I was 14 and telling me that all the other drivers were idiots who don’t know what they are doing. You were right!) Lima was cold and foggy when we got back in the late afternoon and the city was quiet because of Independence Day.
Today, however, was a different story. We all slept in and by the time we got ourselves out and about the sun was out. We walked to Barranco with a stop at the Contemporary Art Museum (MAC Lima) for me and the kids while Sean was on a call. We are not doing too well with the museums: this one was very small and also fairly boring maybe because one of the exhibit halls was shut. We met Sean at the Dedalo Market where we spend a long time wandering around, looking at pretty things and buying presents.
After shopping, in typical Limeño style, we had lunch at 230 p.m. at the delicious restaurant Francesco overlooking the Pacific. Sean had been to this restaurant on one of his first visits to Lima and wanted us to try it. It is a Lima establishment right on the Malecon in Miraflores. Everything was delicious, especially the tiradito. (Oh, I am going to miss the tiraditos, thinly sliced raw fish, not quite sashimi or carpaccio but its own thing: marinated, lightly cured fresh fish topped with sauce. Today it was Franceso style, bizarrely but deliciously covered in a spicy, limey white sauce.) And the Pisco Sours were pretty good too! We have been informally rating all the restaurants we have visited (a post to follow, probably once we get back home) and this one was a top favorite.
Oscar typically likes to keep Scandinavian hours (early to rise, eat and go to sleep) but has adapted surprisingly well to the Latin lifestyle. Sofia, of course has had no problem at all. After visiting the desert oasis the other day, we had lunch at the hotel at 3 p.m. The waiter asked where we were from and I told him New York. He then said, “oh, but you live in Peru now?” I was surprised and told that him that we were just here for the winter. I was so pleased he had asked this, but wondered why? Was it because we were eating lunch appropriately late or because we knew what to order? I never asked, basking if only, for a moment in the feeling that we belonged.
What To Do Tomorrow... 