Lima, Peru

Instead of traveling for days in buses through the deserts of northern Chile to Peru, we opted to fly from Santiago to Lima.... and we scored again with being hooked up in a city, this time with Amy's friend, Vanessa, and her friend Nichole.

We stayed with Vanessa (and her baby, Alexa) from Washington, D.C. Vanessa is originally from Lima so her family still has an apartment here. Lucky for us, she happened to be in town!

They showed us the good life in Lima, complete with amazing food (we would argue the some of the best we've yet to have on this trip), beaches, and best of all, shopping designer clothing at a deep discount.

Some views of the sunset in Vanessa´s neighborhood:

While we thought that this was going to be a quick, overnight stop, our city impulses got in the way. Not only that, Pascale was able to practice her Peruvian driving skills (seven years of living in New York finally paid off). They drive like there are no traffic laws at all here, anything goes. Cutting someone off is the only way to merge, and Pascale did it beautifully.

We spent a day at the beach with Vanessa and Nichole. We laid out and enjoyed fresh blended tropical fruits. It was delightful. Here we are eating lunch at the country club.

¨Best on the Beach¨ went to.....



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Pierce Brosnan and his matching blue rosary.... it really was no contest.



Perhaps the best thing we discovered in our few days here is lúcuma. It is a fruit that almost tastes like sweet potato and seems to be used in combination with everything. Whoever said, comfort food doesn't just grow on trees, was lying. This stuff is divine.

(As a side note, we were informed by Nichole that Peru has over 3,400 varieties of potatoes and found out that potatoes are believed to have originated in Peru, for those of you interested in useless trivia).

An overnight stay turned into four fun-filled days in Lima. How could we leave?

Nichole has her own t-shirt line so she brought us to the factory where they also make designer clothes out of their super soft cotton to export to the U.S. In a corner of the factory, they have a small store where they sell clothes for a fraction of the price. It was a girl´s dream.

So Lima was well worth the stop, even if we didn´t make it to any historical sites. Unfortunately, we don't have many photos from the city since we were also in some sketchy areas (we're only down to one camera right now and won't get back-up relief for anther month) but imagine another big sprawling urban environment. You get the picture?

A few more: share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8QcN2TFq0bM-q