South America: Here I Come!

It has been years since I’ve been able to “scratch” my wanderlust itch….I have finally made it to South America. I am scheduled to return to the USA on November 20th. I’ll travel to five countries by train, plane, bus, boat and auto.

I have to start this journey with a: Thank you God! In June I was having a really hard time recovering from knee replacement that I had in February and I needed to have courage from a higher power to think about driving across Pgh let alone traveling to foreign soil. I got the strength of will and scheduled my trip. I was worried and excited (I’m sure my family thought I had gone crazy) but planning and research was a wonderful way to focus on something other than my knee.

I was supposed to fly to Lima, Peru via Florida the day after Ian (my condo on FMB is fine- – not so for so many other folks/ places). I didn’t want to take a chance on being canceled so I diverted to DC and Panama. I didn’t get to really see the canal but I did see boats lined up.

I got to Lima, Peru and took a taxi ($16) to my hotel in the Miraflores district of this city of 11 million people. The whole county has about 30 million residents.

The first day I was on my own so I planned and plotted a “walk about”. I walked several blocks from my hotel to the edge of the Pacific Ocean. It was very close but down at the bottom of a giant cliff…..if you look real close you can see little black dots that are “very hardy surfers”.

I walked along the Boardwalk, past the Lighthouse to Love Park.

This lovely little park (a tourist asked me what ocean we were looking at and I was proud to give the right answer) was opened to celebrate love in all forms and in the middle is “The Kiss” (which I photo bombed).

My next stop was to a restaurant for my first lunch of ceviche. The Peruvians won’t eat this after 5 pm because the fish would not be fresh. I had a little map with clues on how to find the restaurant.

I would move here so l could eat ceviche for lunch everyday. The lime juice and coconut liquid that the raw fish is marinated in is called Tiger Milk”. It is supposed to be good for hangovers which you can get if you drink too many Pisco Sours. I had to try this national drink: Pisco Sour. This is made with Pisco (grape) liquor, lime juice, simple syrup and egg whites. It was invented by an American in 1921 and is very good. The smiley face is bitters to hide the egg white smell.

After lunch I headed to my next destination: Kennedy park. It is a green space dedicated to JFK. Famous for his bust, cats and donuts. Story goes that the city relocated the cats to this park to get rid of rats. The cats where not good at that job but an underground garage did the trick— they let the cats stay. One found my lap for a nap.

The donuts are delicious. They are made of sweet potato flour and drenched in syrup.

I walked back to my hotel and tucked in for the night. The weather is cool. It is spring but without sun – -a “puffy” jacket is required. Even in winter the weather is very tolerable. Also they get very little rain in Lima: 9 inches a year. It is green and has flowers all year long because the plants, grass and green spaces are watered.

Tomorrow I have a gourmet food tour and then will meet up with my little group. Two people will be doing the whole tour until November and we pick up and loose others along the way.