Back in Lima for the first time in several years, other than passing through on our way to other parts of Peru. We’re only spending two days here – I don’t know why, neither of us ever seem to have much interest in spending more time here other than to try a restaurant or two – I think, perhaps, because it’s just another big city like BA and our goal is more to get away from that. The name Lima comes from the Quechua rima, the river that speaks, hence the name of this post. But, on to a quick first post that’s mostly just photos as we arrived exhausted after leaving home at 7 yesterday morning, and arriving at 6.30 in the evening local time, which is 8.30 in the evening BA time. Flight delays and other such things….

I just love flying over the Andes (or any mountains for that matter), just really beautiful.

On arrival, we checked in at our hotel, the Gran Bolivar, on Plaza San Martin – a beautiful old building built, I think, in 1924. Very elegant and perhaps a trifle formal in comparison to our usual spots to stay, but we got a great deal online and why not? Despite the elegance, it has its negatives – the bed is, to the best I can determine, a flat board with a half-inch pad over it to ostensibly soften it – great, I suppose, for the back, but not all that comfy. Our room faces onto the street leading into the plaza and traffic pretty much stays at full strength 24 hours a day – and limeños love to use their horns, constantly. I also get the impression the electricity in this place hasn’t been upgraded since it was built 90 years ago, other than adding in wi-fi.

Back in our early Casa S days our second dishwasher/cleaning person was a youngster names Lucho, who grew up in and around his mother’s restaurant here in Lima, but never planned to follow in her footsteps. He got so interested in cuisine working with us that he went to cooking school and has been working in La Plata for that last couple of years. He’s shortly going to start working in BA to “up his game”. His mom’s place, Restaurant Isabel, is just a trio of blocks from the hotel, at Jr. Huancavelica 270 (roughly), and she closes early, so we dropped our stuff in the hotel and then zoomed over to see her. She was getting ready to wrap things up for the night but sat down with us and treated us to a couple of bowls of delicious noodle and vegetable soup and plates of stewed chicken legs with rice. Add in a couple of Cusqeña Negra beers and we were sated and happy. Especially after the truly wretched food that we had at both the Ezeiza airport and on our two LAN flights (LAN’s food used to be far, far better, they’re clearly cutting corners these days). [Closed in 2019]

A short walk to see the Plaza de Armas litup at night, then back to the hotel for some much needed rest. This morning, coffee and toast in the hotel and then grabbed a “quinua”, which is basically a thin gruel made from the grain, apples and sugar and served up hot by street vendors. Waiting for a friend to come by the hotel and then we’re out for the day.