This took a WHILE to write.
I promise I am trying to keep it as succinct as possible, but this was a lengthy trip. I usually have my trips between 4-7 days. This was longer, and I got up to a lot of shenanigans.
Before this post I released my ‘10 Days in Peru Budget‘ post, so you can check out how much my transportation and stays cost there. The spending budget I DEFINITELY went over. But, I didn’t know how much I’d love the food, so I must get some leniency. This post is heavy on the ‘where to eat in Peru‘ content. I did a lot of research before I got to the country, so I hope you guys appreciate the foodie stuff.
I’m so happy I did this trip with my mom. She likes eating almost 75% as much as I do, and she’s down to try different things – and when I say different, you will see, I had some INTERESTING things.
Come on this journey over 10-days with us via this blog post 🙂
Monday, September 5th
The first day of this trip began like all the others with American Airlines – we had to fly to Miami first.
Three things I will note here are;
- Make sure you fill out the mandatory Health Declaration Form to enter Peru, here. The requirements for entering Peru were; have two shots + booster + health declaration. If you did NOT have your booster shot then it was two shots + rapid-antigen test 24-hrs before + health declaration. We both had our boosters so we were good to go, but regardless of what you do or don’t have, DO have that declaration filled out for each passenger.
- If you do not have Mobile Passport Control on your phone, get that shit ASAP. I have a Nexus card so I get to bypass most of the unpleasantries and long ass lines to enter the USA, but my mom does not. If you download the MPC app on your phone and fill that out right before you arrive to Pearson airport, you will have your own line going through American customs. It will cut your wait time significantly, I know it did for my mom. Make sure you download that.
- The VeriFly app is still garbage. I hate AA for making us have to fill all that out before you are able to check in. Just wanted to make sure how much I hate this app now, just as much as I hated having to use it when we went to Antigua. It’s trash. PLEASE GET RID OF IT AA.
The flight through Miami and to Lima went great. I was surprised to be fed on the flight from Miami to Lima, but I guess because it was about 5.5 hours they had to feed us? Not sure if it’s a rule, but I was happy for the sandwich and snacks.
When we arrived to Lima, immigration went pretty fast and because we were traveling with just backpacks, we go out pretty quickly.
Learning from our trip to San Jose, Costa Rica – I refused to use a taxi from the airport (due to how expensive they can be) and instead called an Uber. It’s slightly chaotic when you exit Jorge Chavez airport with all the people waiting for their loved ones and the shuttles and taxis. We were able to locate our Uber driver across the chaos, in the parking lot and escape the area with swiftness.
Because we landed at 5:30pm, aka DURING RUSH HOUR, it took a long time to get to our AirBnB in the Barranco area. I believe we spent about an hour in the Uber, to go 19km. If you are even slightly squeamish about speed and car accidents, maybe unruly driving and not complying to any rules of the road? Perhaps close your eyes whilst being driven in Lima. It’s WILD. I can’t even tell you how many accidents we ALMOST got into.
I wanted to note here that the Uber driver told me to not have my cellphone visible as we drove through downtown Lima. This caught me slightly off-guard because I know to be careful with pricier things being flashed while traveling, but didn’t even consider it while inside a car. No problem man, I’ll put it down.
Also, the cost? About $12.00 CAD. This is exactly why we take Ubers, if they are an option in the country we go to.
We eventually arrived at our AirBnB, and the link to that is here.
Two bedrooms, two bathrooms. Clean. Awesome location. Super fast wi-fi AND they had Inca Kola waiting for us in the fridge. One of the best AirBnB’s I’ve ever stayed in during my travels. We loved it so much that we actually regretted choosing a hotel when we returned to Lima later in the trip. Would have gladly stayed here again.
It was probably about 7pm by the time we had dropped our things in the AirBnB.
Our day had begun at 2am – so we really just needed some food and a shower before knocking out for the night. FYI, there is a one-hour time difference between Toronto and Lima, Peru.
We walked down the street and found this nice little spot called Restaurante LA73.
The order was: two cheeseburgers, fries and a corn with cheese appetizer.
I am not exaggerating when I say, this was the best cheeseburger I had ever had. Ever. Period. My mom even agreed. If you like cheeseburgers, you have to try this place in Lima. Wow. The cheese on the corn was really good too, as well as all the sauces that came with the dishes.
Because we were REALLY hungry, we also walked by a place called Amaretto Panaderia Heladeria Pasteleria on the way back to the AirBnB.
All the desserts you could ever dream of. My mom got the pecan pie and I got the chocolate tres leches cake. When I tell you, the sleep that night was GOOD.
Tuesday, September 6th
Woke up on Lima-time the next day.
I think all-together I slept 10 hours. No joke. The entire time I was in Lima, I slept better than I can recall in any recent memory. I thought this was due to the altitude I had been warned about, no, trust me, I didn’t know a damn thing about altitude yet. I would eventually learn though.
Prior to this trip, I had researched on good spots near our AirBnB to get breakfast. Luckily, within a 10 seconds walk from our building, there was El Bigote Coffee & Waffles.
This is like a super-hipster-could-be-on-Queen-West-without-the-high-price kind of joint.
The menu is super big and the place is pretty popular. My mom got the apple cinnamon waffles, while I got this chocolate waffle concoction and scrambled eggs with chorizo in it.
I understand the chocolate concoction LOOKS like a lot, but the actual brownies on it? Oh my goodness.
Due to us being in Peru during their winter, we really didn’t see the sun while we were in Lima. Not once. It never rained, but it also never stopped having clouds. This was a shame because the waterfront in Lima is incredible. I had no idea that it was soooo long, but I also had no idea this city had 11 million people.
My mom and I walked off the breakfast going to places like Parque del Amor, Parque Chino and then took the stairs all the way down to the waterfront in Miraflores. Let me tell you, the folks in Lima are FIT.
While we were going down the hundreds of stairs, there were tons of people jogging upwards on the stairs WITH SURFBOARDS IN HAND AND BAREFOOT. What? Kudos. I was wheezing walking in running shoes going down because of the humidity. It wasn’t particularly warm outside, but the humidity and the wind was something wild as you got closer to the water.
I really wanted to do the paragliding while I was in Lima, you will see them flying over you while you walk along the water or the Miraflores overlook. But I felt there was no point, since you couldn’t actually see anything below you. The clouds and the fog would get so strong at times that if I went in the sky, the only thing I could probably see was my hand in front of me. I will be sad for a while that I didn’t get the chance to take flight – maybe one day if I return during their summer I will have better luck.
Naturally, we walked so much that we eventually got hungry again.
Doing all my food-related research prior to the trip, I had come across a place named Panchita.
We took an Uber from the waterfront (because we sure as hell weren’t going back up those stairs) over to this restaurant.
You will notice that we used Ubers throughout this entire trip in Lima and in Cusco, constantly. I’d like you to know the total for 10-days of Ubers in Peru, back and forth to airports multiple times and around the cities etc. only came to $110.00 Canadian. That’s pretty damn amazing, especially for how frequently we took them.
When we arrived at Panchita, we got the AMAZING Chicha Morada drink to start. If you’ve never had it, you must try it here. It is made from this purple corn that is grown and harvested along the Andes mountains. So good.
For our starter we had the papa a la huancaina clasica and the yuca fritas with five different types of sauces to dip it in. I literally can’t say no to anything to do with yuca, so I will always order that.
The main course we went with the octopus, and it came with more potatoes and their big corn as well.
Decent meal, nothing tasted bad, but comparing this to the dinner the night before and also the breakfast, I’d say just OK. Fancy pants place, with not as awesome food.
I’m like 99% sure after this we went and took a nap because that is what adults do on their vacations, take occasional naps.
We ended up venturing into the Miraflores area again in the evening. Saw some beautiful churches, and walked along this really pretty area with lights hanging off of it.
Decided to stop and get a drink at a place called La Glorietta.
The reason for the drink stop was to try the famous Pisco Sour.
A Pisco Sour is an alcoholic drink with a Peruvian origin and its base liquor is pisco and then you add lemon (or lime juice) and an egg white to it. I think I got through four sips. Couldn’t do it. I like alcohol and cocktails, but this was not it for me. Not sure if I just happened to get a bad version of it, or something, but I did not like it.
Wednesday, September 7th
Today I woke up from another AMAZING night of sleep.
Still not sure what it was about Lima, but I was feeling well-rested and refreshed there.
We tried to catch an Uber to the center of Lima this day. Damn near impossible. I think we waited for 30-minutes for an Uber to finally accept the ride and actually show up to take us. I get the sense that people do not like driving into the center of the city at any time of day.
To be fair, it took 40 minutes to go 7km into the center. FORTY DAMN MINUTES. We thought Toronto traffic was bad? Oh my goodness.
As we arrived to the center, we immediately noticed there was some protests going on. You could hear the people and then we also saw the groups gathered. I didn’t get a chance to see what the protest was for, but because of it, some parts of downtown Lima were cut off from people being able to walk through. So I got as many pictures as I could, from behind the gates.
Central Lima has some amazing buildings. You can see so many old remnants of the Spaniards being there. Especially when you look at the churches and the fancy pants balconies.
I, personally, became obsessed with the doors in downtown. These old buildings had amazing doors that all looked like art. See pictures below.
Of course, it was time to eat again. I warned you, I went crazy with the food budget in this country for a reason.
We took an Uber over to the famous Don Fernando restaurant.
Now, this place is only open Wednesday to Sunday, from 12pm-5pm. Make sure that before you go to ANY restaurant in Lima, you check the times it is open and which days on Google. A lot of the spots I wanted to go to, had these varied times and days.
This particular restaurant had a dish I had been WAITING to have in Peru. I had a list of three times I wanted to try, and this had #1 – sea urchin ceviche.
If you know anything about Peru, ceviche is their thing. They do it best. When I tell you, this sea urchin ceviche was heavenly. It is not a big food item, but the taste it packs is something unreal. Make sure you get there close to opening because, this place got busy FAST. We also had the garlic shrimp dish, amazing. This was one of the most satisfying meals I was fortunate enough to try in my travels. Whole experience was a 10/10 and I don’t think we were even in the restaurant more than 45 minutes.
Write it down, Don Fernando Restaurant, Lima. Go here. Eat here.
Nap time again? You bet.
I had another super duper famous place to have dinner later in the evening, so we had to be rested for that.
Fail. We arrived at Al Toke Pez for their 730pm-1030pm seating. They had a sign outside saying ‘closed for maintenance, sorry‘. Dammit. We were leaving the next morning for Cusco and I guess we’d have to try again when we came back to Lima.
We ended up walking over to one of the Chifa spots on this street. Place was called Chifa To Fu.
Can’t say it was a great meal, but it got the job done. We had two drinks, wontons, shrimp fried rice and chicken in black bean sauce. Massive portions, decent taste and it came to only $15.00 CAD. That’ll do.
It felt like it was still early in the night, so we thought maybe we should go visit a mall. I Googled the shopping spots in Lima and came up with a place called La Rambla.
We took an Uber there and it was a huge-looking mall, from the outside. Because we weren’t able to ever go inside. Why? We only had one mask on.
Imagine our surprise when the requirement to enter the mall was showing your proof of vaccination and having two masks on (or that proper 95 medical one). We had masks on, but we were not doubled up, therefore we couldn’t enter. I wasn’t mad though – I appreciated that Peru was still obviously taking Covid very seriously and I am happy to abide by local rules. Just really wish I had that damn second mask on me.
Luckily, the area around the mall was really nice. We ended up just sitting at a random little restaurant so my mom could have a beer and I had ice cream. Single masks allowed!
Thursday, September 8th
I sometimes make stupid decisions with travel, having an 8am flight to a place only 60 minutes away was one of them. I still don’t know WHY I made that decision when we could have easily slept in and flown to Cusco at like 1pm instead. Really not sure what my thought process was, but there we were, up at 5am to go to the airport to fly with Latam from Lima to Cusco.
If there is ANY flight you should pay for a window seat for, this would be the one. Wow.
Flying over the Andes and into Cusco is incredible. Also, it makes you realize how expansive Cusco is when you land there. In my mind this was going to be some village in the mountains, I was wrong, again.
Once we landed in Cusco, we walked off the plane in our happy hop-step and then our lungs said NOPE. When I tell you, from the second you get off the plane, the altitude will slap you in the face like automatic withdrawal for your rent on the first of every month.
I am someone who walks pretty damn fast because I am tall and also because I live in downtown Toronto. Well, I was humbled immediately. There will be no quick walking on this trip, even if I thought too quickly I would be out of breath. Time to slow things down.
We took an Uber from the airport to our hotel, I think it was only a 10-15 minute drive. There was much less traffic in a city of 400,000 than 11 million. Shocker.
As it was only 10am when we arrived at El Balcon Cusco Hotel, we anticipated we’d be able to just leave our bags and then go wander around until check in at 2pm. To our gleeful surprise, they told us our room was ready and clean! Awesome.
Guys, this place was so beautiful and so tranquil. The grounds were green and clean, the staff was super nice, our room was spacious (not the sexiest bathroom, but whatever, it had hot water), and breakfast was included too! In the area where breakfast was served, they even had 24/7 access to coffee and tea for the visitors. The reason this mattered is that the tea available was coca leaf tea. Yes, this is where cocaine begins. BUT, without the process, it is just a really great plant that helps people, like ourselves, with the altitude sickness.
The coca leaf tea was helpful for people like my mom, who got headaches from the altitude. For me, it was the muña tea, which was for folks having issues with breathing/lungs. Trust me, we needed all the help we could get.
After we dropped our bags we thought this was the perfect time to go explore Cusco. With the early check-in, we had the whole day to go see the city.
We saw the city, just you know, slowly.
Our hotel was in the middle of a pretty steep incline, so we had to trek down the stairs from there to walk to the center of the city.
Gorgeous city. Also, SUNSHINE!!! Lots and lots of sunshine in Cusco. We hadn’t seen the sun even once in Lima, but in Cusco the sunshine was in abundance and it was even hot at times, reaching about 24 degrees Celsius.
By about 12pm we were pretty hungry since we began our day really early and didn’t eat much.
We settled on going to eat at Inkagrill.
I mentioned before there were three things I had a goal of eating in Peru, this place had #2 on the list.
Alpaca! I know some of you screwed up your face reading that, but yes, I was excited to try alpaca.
The first item they brought out was the Chicha Morada drink and also their bread made out of local corn with a side of sauce. I am happy it was just those four little balls of the bread.
Once you try it? You want the whole damn loaf. I would have happily demolished a whole loaf of bread made like that. It was so so good.
For the starters we had some shrimp with patacones and a trout ceviche. Amazing.
Finally, we made it to the main course. Alpaca in red wine, with quinoa. What’s even crazier here is I DO NOT LIKE QUINOA. But this quinoa? Man listen. If all quinoa was made like this and tasted like this? I’d be a healthier person.
The alpaca was also very delicious. I liked the texture and overall taste. If you are a carnivore like myself, get this. Also, the dessert. Yum.
One other thing here was, while we were eating there was a random street festival coming by us. Ended up finding out it was the Virgen Natividad, which is the Nativity of Mary, a big religious festival in Cusco that happens annually on September 8th.
Following this meal, some rest was required. The walk back to our room was DAUNTING AS FUCK. It wasn’t a far walk, but heading up the stairs was incredibly hard in the altitude. We took our time and still, it wore us out. I felt like my chest was going to cave in walking on the incline.
Once back at the hotel, we were relaxing and could hear drums and music over an over for a bit. We decided to go look outside and the earlier partying for the Nativity of Mary was still going, but now closer to our hotel. It was really pretty seeing everyone decked out in their different costumes and playing all kinds of music.
From witnessing the partying, we went down to the center again, just walked down a different path to it. Seeing Cusco at night was pretty much just as beautiful as seeing it during the day.
We did some shopping and then ended up at a food stall. There are lots of stalls in Cusco on the street corners selling food, but this one stood out because you can have three meats on one plate. Hell yeah. With a little side of potatoes, it was a perfect quick meal on the road.
Eventually we had to head back to our hotel, but we were smarter this time, we caught a cab and that cost about $3.00 CAD. Totally worth not having to kill my lungs again trying to make the trek up.
Friday, September 9th
Today we woke up feeling a bit more normal, but still not fully OK with the altitude. I guess we were lucky because at least we didn’t experience any of the stomach issues I’ve heard can happen from it. However, neither of us slept a full night. For all the good sleep we had gotten in Lima, it was not the case in Cusco. My boss had warned me that she had insomnia when she came to Cusco, and I think we may have a touch of it. The entire time there barely slept 4-5hrs a night.
We walked over to our little breakfast area at the hotel and got omelets with some fruit juice, and, of course, more of the coca leaf tea.
After that we set out to do some more shopping, as there were items we would need for the following day. Luckily, there are pharmacies everywhere in Cusco, so the first item (a portable oxygen canister) was really easy to find, and it was not expensive. On Saturday we were doing the Machu Picchu trek and we wanted to make sure we had some essentials, like the oxygen cannister and I also got some Gatorade and water.
During this walk, we also managed to spot a double decker tour bus and we thought this might be a cool experience to see more of the city.
We spoke to a gentleman on the street and for $28.00 CAD per person, we happily joined in on the bus tour.
This tour had a guide giving all aboard small tidbits of history about Cusco. We headed up higher and higher into the surrounding mountains on the bus. That drive was slightly scary, but the views were amazing.
There was a point where we drove by hundreds of eucalyptus trees and it was one of the most refreshing smells. If I could be surrounded by that smell all the time, I definitely would choose to do so.
The tour bus made it all the way up the mountain to this big, white, Jesus statue. You can see it from most parts in the lower side of Cusco and at night it’s really well lit up. Beautiful.
On the way down the bus stopped at an alpaca fur factory where we had a quick information session on the differences between baby alpaca fur, adult alpaca fur, mixed and synthetic. My mom and I bought some sweaters in this place because it was WAAAY cheaper there for these nice fabrics than it was in the center.
Next door to it, we ended up (trying) to take pictures with alpacas and llamas, but I sort of think they’re sick of our tourist bullshit. Not the friendliest of animals, and I can’t blame them. We are pretty annoying.
The best part was that the woman at the llama stop was selling CHOCLO!!! I had been waiting to have this giant, Peruvian corn. It is massive, tasty and very filling. At this specific location they served it with a thin slice of cheese melting on it as well. Outstanding.
Guess what happened next?
You bet. We had plans to go eat again.
The choclo was really good, but we still needed a full meal.
It was time to go to a very popular restaurant in Cusco named Chicha.
First, I will note that you should probably try to make a reservation for this place before you go. We didn’t have one and had to wait 30 minutes for a seat, which was fine, but it was 2pm on a Friday. I imagine during evenings and weekends it must be insane.
Second, getting to this restaurant takes two flights of stairs. Now, these aren’t super high stairs, there are only 5 per flight, but with the altitude? Yeah. Rough. We were OK, but once we got to the restaurant we literally saw a woman sitting down at the reception using an oxygen tank the restaurant has ready for patrons.
This place is on the fancier end and you can feel it when you walk in. The presentation, menu and the servers are really on point.
We began with another glass of Chicha Morada and they had that delicious corn bread as well. For our mains my mom got the shrimp spaghetti and I had oxtail ravioli. This pasta was so damn good and cooked so well. Usually when I eat pasta I feel lethargic and want to go take a nap, not with this dish. Very well crafted.
Now, the best part, the dessert!
You must get the chocolate balloon when you come to this restaurant.
It’s this chocolate ball that has other deliciousness inside, but the waiter pours a hot melted chocolate on top for it to open up. Loved it. Beautiful presentation and good taste as well.
Saturday, September 10th
Insomnia is trash.
On this day we had to be up at 4am (so we went to bed at 8pm), and we STILL didn’t manage to sleep much.
We had received the below text message to get us prepared for the day ahead. For further preparation, I also took four of the muña candies I had for the days journey.
It was time to head to Machu Picchu!!!!! Something you wait your whole life for. This was the day.
We had booked our excursion on Viator about six months ahead. If you want the link to this specific one, click here. It was probably the priciest thing for the entire trip, but well worth it. You will see.
The bus came to get us promptly at 440am from our hotel.
I’d say there was only eight of us, plus the driver on the first bus for the day.
First bus: hour and forty minutes
Train: just under two hours
Another bus: 25 minutes
This was how the trip to Machu Picchu was going to happen.
The bus ride was pitch dark, so we tried to spend most of it getting another little nap in. Once we arrived at Ollantaytambo we were able to go directly to our train, with designated seats. This train was very clean and very organized. Also, there were NO empty seats. This is definitely a ride that is always filled.
After two hours we arrived at Aguas Calientes and had about an hour to roam around prior to getting on our final bus. We opted to go get some breakfast at a restaurant overlooking the center of the town. Very cute town, I understand why people come up a day early just to fully explore this place before going up to Machu Picchu.
We ate the breakfast and then lined up to get on our bus.
Close your eyes for this portion of the trip if you don’t do well with heights or have like a fear of plummeting thousands of feet to the ground off the side of a cliff. Otherwise? Wow, nice view on those narrow turns up the mountain.
We finally arrived at Machu Picchu.
Note that this is the spot you will need to present your passport to enter the place. I don’t know why that surprised me a little, but I guess since it is one of the seven wonders of the world, it was necessary to keep track of who was entering. It was fine for us, because the earlier text message from the company let us know to bring our passports with us.
I wish I could fully describe the experience of seeing Machu Picchu, but honestly? No words will do it. My pictures probably won’t do it either.
What I can tell you is that; it’s beautiful, it’s breathtaking, our group leader (Mauro) was awesome and I’m thankful it was actually of a lower altitude than Cusco. We didn’t end up needing to use the oxygen tanks! Yay.
See pictures below.
The total time spent up at Machu Picchu was two hours and the time flies by. Make sure you get all your good photos and slowly make your way down.
Bus. Train. Bus. Finally got back to Cusco.
We were hungry, and we walked over to the center again to pick a restaurant for dinner.
La Retama was the choice.
This place has the most amazing view in the evening. Just, wow.
You HAVE to try any of the soups here. We thought they were going to be appetizer-sized. No. These were whole meals of their own. My mom’s soup looked especially great, it had shrimp, a thick broth and an egg in it. On a chilly night? You really couldn’t beat this.
This is where I tell you one, small, outrageous thing we ate.
I had mentioned there was three things I wanted to try in Peru, and it was time for #3.
Had the sea urchin ceviche, amazing.
Had the alpaca, outstanding.
It was time for cuy, aka, guinea pig.
Please do not come for me PETA people, yes I know this could have been some ones pet guinea pig. This little sucker is chubby and they BBQ him up for food at some of the restaurants.
Unfortunately, my mom and I each took one bite and it just didn’t taste good. We weren’t creeped out by how it looked or what it was, but it just really didn’t taste good. I wish it did, but one bite and we both said NOPE. That’s alright. I guess not everything is for everybody. This just didn’t taste good for us. Maybe it does for others. They can have it.
Sunday, September 11th
We finally got a decent night of sleep the night before. I guess being out and about for 16 hours will do that to you. Go us.
Today we really didn’t do much.
We went out and did a bit of shopping at the local market for gifts to bring home, and my mom even got herself an ankle-length baby alpaca jacket. It was very fancy pants!
Have to tell you that since we came with just carry-ons, we may have overdone it with the gift purchases. I still have no idea how we were able to fit everything to bring it home.
Once we finished packing for our return trip to Lima the following day, it was time for something I love very much.
NFL.
This was the opening weekend for the NFL and my Dallas Cowboys were playing in the Sunday night game. No way I was missing that, even in another country.
Found a sports bar online named LaFabrica SportsCenter and we walked over to it before the 7pm start.
Don’t go here. Like, ever. Yes it is a cool-looking sport bar and they have all the sports you could possibly want to watch, but the place sucks. The only thing worse than the food were the servers there. I don’t think there were more than 20 people in the entire establishment and there were five servers – still couldn’t do their job correctly.
It took 25 minutes for me to get my rum & coke. Incorrect food was brought to us and then taken away twice. The food was pretty crummy (we got wings and mozzarella sticks). Do not pick here to come watch your sports event. Just go to a regular restaurant and hope they have a TV. Not only did the Cowboys lose, we had this subpar food and experience. Lame.
Monday, September 12th
Today we flew back to Lima.
We were really sad to leave Cusco. Although we were happy to be flying to someplace much closer to sea-level, we were sad to leave this city. Oh yes, and leave the sunshine. It was nice having sunshine.
Upon arriving back to Lima, we took an Uber to our hotel for the final two nights in Peru, this was in the San Isidro area. The name of the hotel was Hotel Estelar San Isidro.
I got the sense that this was some fancy pants area as we counted about 10 different counties embassies around the hotel. Also, the houses nearby were gorgeous. Good choice, I think.
This night we decided to take a 30-min walk over to our dinner destination.
Tonight we would dine at the Restaurante Huaca Pucllana.
I actually had no idea how beautiful this place would be in person. I only picked this place based off what I read online about their menu. Definitely didn’t expect something like this.
We began the meal with crab-claws covered in shrimp. Yep. Fancy pants.
My mom got the quinoa bowl with chicken as her main, and I got the shrimp with crayfish. So good.
Naturally, we finished the meal with a chocolate dessert with some peanut butter inside. Also good.
The best part though? This restaurant getting even more beautiful as nighttime came. Wow. I get that this spot is probably supposed to be more for couples, the setting is romantic. But it didn’t matter to us, we were so happy to be in this ambiance. Great experience. Really recommend coming here for dinner.
Tuesday, September 13th
Our final day in Peru!
Can’t believe that nine days had gone by. We did so much.
Today we wanted to walk along the water again, and there was still one restaurant left to visit!
The walk was pretty nice, like I said, the San Isidro area is very much giving ‘rich people live here‘. Between the Aston Martin dealership and Tiffany store, especially.
I will say, it didn’t matter if we were in Barranco, Miraflores or San Isidro – there was always multiple people outside cleaning the streets or taking care of the landscaping in parks. They keep these areas very clean.
After some walking it was time to head to the ONE restaurant we hadn’t been able to get into. We tried earlier in the trip but it was closed for maintenance. But today? IT WAS OUR DAY!!!
Al Toke Pez.
We got there, it was open, and we hopped in that line immediately. Make sure to bring cash.
This place was famous because it was featured on a Netflix episode of Street Food: Latin America. I knew from the reviews this place would definitely have a line, and I knew what would have to be ordered once we got inside.
The man came out and took all of our orders and gave us tickets. We ordered the Combinado which was ceviche, shrimp fried rice and calamari.
We waited outside for 30 minutes and it was finally our turn to go in. I couldn’t believe it, FINALLY, Al Toke Pez. Basically everyone that came was taking photos and videos of the spot. It only seats 10 people inside and you get your food quickly, eat, and get out.
My mom and I received our two Combinados. That ceviche though? WWOOOOOOOOO. I understand now why the place is famous. Totally.
For two Combinados it only came to $17.38 CAD. For all that food. Nice hole-in-the-wall that is only open for four hours, five days a week and specializes in only four to five items. Can’t beat it. Even if you don’t listen to ANY OTHER food recommendations I have in this post, please listen to this one. You have to come here.
While we were standing outside waiting to catch another Uber, a police officer walked up to me. He was speaking Spanish so I had him type what he was trying to tell me in Google Translate. Strange. Just like that driver when we just arrived in Lima, the police officer said ‘put your phone away around here.’
I have to tell you guys, maybe my mom and I were just oblivious, but at no point during our trip to Peru did we feel unsafe. Obviously, Lima is a big city and you always have to exercise a certain amount of caution in all big cities, but any actual ‘feeling’ of unsafe? Can’t say we experienced that. I’m thankful locals are obviously trying to give us a heads up, but speaking from our vantage point being there – I felt very safe in both Lima and Cusco.
Moving on.
My mom thought we would take the Uber back to the hotel to relax now, wrong. I had other plans.
I had our Uber take us all the way up to Cristo Del Pacifico aka Christ of the Pacific. This was a huge 37-meter statue of Jesus that overlooked Lima. During our evening rides in the Uber I would see it, but during the day it was hard because of all the fog and being overcast. I wanted to see it in person, up close.
The view from up there is insane. You can see SOOOO much of Lima. I get where the 11 million people are now spread out to. Way beyond any of the places we were staying in. It was just us up at the statue, so instead of taking an Uber back down, we decided to walk and enjoy our final views of Lima.
Along the walk we also made a friend, she owns Las Gamelas. It was a restaurant we saw on our walk downhill. If you get a chance, go eat here, the vista views are AMAZING from her restaurants terrace. You won’t regret it.
As we got further down the hill, we saw this really nice view of what I think was a country club. There was a private beach and swimming pools. Also, a really cute marina I got a photo of.
We weren’t able to get in that area but we eventually made it all the way down back to Lima’s waterfront. This area was called Chorrillos.
Again, very well kept up area and lots of fisherman here. I bet in the morning you could get some really good, fresh fish and seafood in the restaurants surrounding here.
Well, congratulations, you made it to day 10. This was the day we flew home.
This time it went Lima – Dallas – Toronto. I would like to send a personal FUCK YOU to the rules going from Lima to Dallas, they wouldn’t let us bring water on the plane – that we had purchased, 10 feet away from the gate. I asked the man why I couldn’t bring a bottle I just bought IN the airport with me and he said it was because of 9/11. Don’t understand it. It makes no damn sense to me. It didn’t make sense to my mom. Even a guy next to us who filled his personal water bottle inside the airport had to pour it out. But how come when I flew from Toronto to America my water bottle was fine? Urgh. Annoying.
To top it off, when you land at Dallas airport? You have to ‘enter America’ and go through customs – I bypassed that because of Nexus, but obviously waited for my mom after. Then you have to re-enter through security AGAIN???? I’ve only had this happen once, when I was coming from St. Lucia to Atlanta to Toronto. We missed our flight because of this BS on that trip. Luckily today our layover was three hours, so we had time to spare. I still think it’s stupid.
We made it home safe and sound, that is what matters. (we also somehow made it back with all those gifts we got, miracle)
You have to visit Peru. That’s really what you need to know.
My mom and I both loved Lima, a lot. But, even with the altitude issues, Cusco has our heart. If this was a destination I could get to within 4-5 hours? I would be making multiple trips to Peru. I swear I would. My mom even said Cusco is a city she could have seen herself living in. Now imagine, we were there during their winter. I bet the summer is even more amazing, especially with sunshine and the coast in Lima. Must be a really great sight to see.
Out of the 49 countries I’ve been to, Peru is ranked in 4th for best food for me now. As you can tell by the post, I went out of my way to visit lots of restaurants and have lots of food to report back to you about. This is a foodie heaven.
All I have to end this with is; Visit Peru. Go to Machu Picchu. Eat everything.
Simple.
- Mirna
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