November 17, 2014
Sunday was suppposed to be a retreat day, but due to some miscommunications, it was cancelled. Around noon, Sr. Rosie's niece showed up and invited me to lunch with them. I was planning on a sweat pants kind of day with not much going on and felt like a shower, a pinch of makeup and a comb would have been nice. But, I threw on some jeans, a sloppy ponytail and headed out for a fancy lunch. Que verguenza. For this reason, there are no photos of me in this post. But I wore my jeans, a black tshirt, a hoodie and my chaco sandals...gringo i was.
Sr. Rosie's niece, Carmen, lives in the beautiful district of Miraflores. Maybe a 20 minute drive from our neighborhood in San Miguel. Sr. Rosie and I sat on her 5th floor balcony sipping our Inca-kolas(typical soda drink here they refer to as the the "national flavor"), watching the surfers, parasailers, and tourists walking while Carmen prepared lunch for us. I promise I offered to help, but they told me to sit and just enjoy myself. It's killing me!
It was a simple lunch. Sr. Rosie is from Lima and in the last few years, all her siblings have passed away. She makes a point to keep in touch with her family and it was so nice of them to invite me to along...just Carmen, her two sons Sebastien and Eduardo, Sr. Rosie, and their bulldog Jamon.
Here's the view from the apartment while there were still partly blue skies:
El Morro Solar from the apartment.
El Parque del Amor (Park of Love) A huge statue of two lovers right in the middle.
Lots of green grass and flowers and dogs...a nice day. Notice the grey skies again. Don't see blue skies for long here :(
Poor quality photo plus grey skies make for a interesting photo. But the highway Verde Express (I think) is down below and the little strip of land is a famous restaurant. I think they call this area the valley of Lima.
Oh, I'm embarassed by these photos! But this is looking to the north from parque del amor. There is the foro (lighthouse) in the distance. So pretty in person!
After our walk along the seaside (malecon aqui), Sr. Rosie, Carmen, Carmen's son Sebastien and myself went for a ride to the city center. They didn't think it was right that I spent a week in Lima without seeing it. I agree! Sebastien speaks English very well and he was easily able to tell me about all the historical stuff downtown.
Street venders:
So many people selling food, toys, balloons, etc... You'd think there was a festival or something. Apparently just a typical day in downtown Lima.
Here is the famous Plaza San Martin. It's one of the largest and most impressive squares in Lima. The square is named after José de San Martin, who was a hero of South American independence, and there is an huge monument with a bronze statue of San Martin in the centre of the square.
The square is surrounded by impressive buildings like the Gran Hotel Bolívar, the Teatro Colón, and several other. There are a few restaurants and bars around Plaza San Martin, but we visited the bar ‘Bolivarcito’ (‘La Catedral del Pisco Sour’). Carmen said this is the famous place to try the famous Pisco Sour.
The square is surrounded by impressive buildings like the Gran Hotel Bolívar, the Teatro Colón, and several other. There are a few restaurants and bars around Plaza San Martin, but we visited the bar ‘Bolivarcito’ (‘La Catedral del Pisco Sour’). Carmen said this is the famous place to try the famous Pisco Sour.
Inside Hotel Bolivar:
Where we sat to try our pisco sour!
Here it is! Pisco sour and for dessert: Algarrobina. I'd translate it as Pisco eggnog. OMG delish! It's made with Pisco (the alcohol), carob syrup (algarrobina), sugar, evaporated milk, egg whites, cinammon, and a blender. I doubt the sisters will be able to teach me how to make this one. But forget about ice cream...I've found my new favorite dessert!
And most importantly, in Peru, carob is known for it’s high nutritional value...so it's kind of a healthy drink, right?
The Cathedral...maybe someday I'll get ambitious and lighten up these pics ;) It was crazy to me how many people were downtown. The pictures can't capture it all. My favorite sighting had to be the people of the jungle. They were dressed in bright orange clothes, had funny looking hats...maybe going for the tiger look? I didn't catch a picture, but apparently every once in a while you'll catch a glimpse of the jungle people in the city. Made me think of the movie "Jungle 2 Jungle" with Tim Allen ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment