I just had an incredible international adventure with my partner-in-crime, Shane.
For those of you who don’t know, last July, to celebrate my birthday, my wonderful boyfriend booked us a flight to Peru for the holidays. Little did we know then that in December we would have to prepare to move back to San Francisco. So we packed up all of our stuff, I said a tough “adios” to 180, and we boarded a late night plane to Lima, Peru.
I am just going to give you a brief run-down of the trip. I will upload all of the pics to Flickr soon with a full color commentary on all of the interesting sights and experiences.
Best Food:
1) Ceviche—caught fresh every morning in Porto Callao. Fresh, spicy, and citrusy
2) Alpaca in Andean sauce—Tastes like lamb
3) Anticucho de Corazon—Yup. Cow heart. Not as chewy as I would have thought.
Best Restaurant:
Fallen Angel—Spectacular art collection, the coolest décor, San Francisco-worthy gourmet food, and hot waiters. A unique experience
Best Sites:
1) Machu Pichu—Duh. It’s why we made the trip. A majestic hike through the clouds. The terrain itself is even more spectacular than the ruins. See these ruins with a guide and you’ll get the gist of all of the ruins and history in Peru. High elevation+Lots of hiking=literal breath-taking views
2) Lake Titicaca—Puno (the starting point) is not great, but the lake itself is beautiful and immense. The artificial Floating Islands were a trip, as were the unique locals that have solar-powered electricity, but still get by fishing and making reed handicrafts. Our favorite was Taquile Island, whose views never disappointed.
3) El Parque de Amor—On the cliffs of Miraflores overlooking the Pacific, two blocks from our Lima hostel, this park is dedicated to meandering trails, poetry, sculpture, and most of all love. To that point, the park was rife with strolling and embracing lovers. It was beautiful and great to see a civic project dedicated to a specific idea/theme.
Worst of Peru:
1) Constant haggling—at some point getting snowed for being a tourist gets old and you just want a straight-up, no hassle price.
2) Not being able to drink the water—all of those fresh-made fruit juices kept calling to us, but we didn’t dare derail our trip for a day of diarrhea.
3) Pretending we were straight—sometime the jig was up and some people figured it out, but I still didn’t like being in a place where I couldn’t hold my partner’s hand or give him a kiss on the cheek because WE were having a special moment in Love Park. The hilarious thing is, Peruvians aren’t even that Catholic.
