Back to the hotel, up those stairs, about 150 meters and over to the hotel, we have probably already hiked about 5 kms. Great way to burn off those calories we have been eating. We meet Joelle who is our tour guide the driver in another H1 Hyundai Minivan and Anna from another Gadventure who is also joining us. Anna is from Birmingham and on her last day of travel from her 3 week tour. This is her 3rd tour with Gadventures all of which she says were good.
Our tour starts with a stop at the market. This market seems much cleaner and nicer than the one in Cusco. Not many flies and the fruit looks well cared for and stacked neatly. Joelle teaches us about all the ingredients needed for Cerviche and Pisco sours along with some unique produce of Peru, such as Monkey fruit. We sample some of the fruits that Dawson tried at the farm tour that the Patricks and Julie had previously missed. After the market we drive the shore road out to Chorillo. On the way we stop at a few vantage points to take some pictures. Today is very clear which is nice as Lima often gets fog as the cold current and warm air mingle at the shore line. At one of these vantage points there is the diving friar. We watch as he waves his hand and assesses the incoming water waves, he must time his dive with a large wave as where he will dive is shallow without a good size wave. Finally after a few minutes he dives head first off the cliff and tags the high point of the an incoming wave. Good timing luckily for him. He scurries back up the cliff in seconds. Neat to see, but he is nuts. We pile back in the van, and head to our restaurant date, only to meet the Friar with his hand out. He expects payment for his dive. We dig in our pockets for some change to pass on and then continue on our way.
Now we are in Chorillo which is the seaside location of our restaurant, where we will learn about cerviche and Pisco Sours. It over looks the ocean. The restaurant is an open air type place with the food prep on the main floor and the dining area and disco bar upstairs. We are introduced to our hosts who have everything we need out. Our 1st order of business is to prepare the lime juice for both cerviche and Pisco Sours, we all take turns squeezing limes and then cutting the raw fish for the cerviche that has already been cleaned. We believe we are using sea bass but are not really sure. There is a chef and the 2 owners of the restaurant hovering around, none of them have any command of English and throw in that our guide is not translating but adding his own version of how to prepare cerviche, it is quite entertaining. One minute the chef is showing us what to do with Joelle translating and then the female owner interjecting and correcting and changing everything the chef does. Sometimes our guide who is translating is also putting his 2 cents in on the interpretation. After the demonstration it is now our turn to try. Julie goes first and has both the chef and the female owner explaining with hand signals and literally hands in to perfect her preparation skills. It is a raw fish serving that we are making so there is no real cooking as the lime juice acts on the fish. We are happy to see they encourage hand washing, new clean utensils, and cover stuff to keep the flys off. Once we complete the cerviche, we garnish the plate with lettuce, sweet potatoes and cold corn. Next is Anna, then Ruth then Dawson and finally Doug. By the second demonstration the chef has backed off and allowed the female owner to take over as each new person goes, the female owner gets more involved and bossy. We are all chuckling inwardly and are really quite enjoying the experience. Finally all the Cerviches are done and it is time for the male owner to show us how to make pisco sours. Seems like almost all the ingredients are substitutes and come out of moonshine containers. He makes 5 of them for us as opposed to us doing it. Now it is time for us to eat and drink the fruit of our labours. Doug makes the comment that the female owner's actions are a good example why most small business don't grow. The owner must allow their workers to work. Ruth's stomach is a bit sensitive today so she is opting not to eat the raw fish or drink her Pisco Sour. Lunch is delicious, the lime in the cerviche cooks the fish with the acid and the Pisco Sour is excellent with the meal. At about 2 o'clock it is time to head back to Mira Flores.
We get dropped off at Kennedy Park, say good bye to Anna, and have a look around. There is alot of activity around the park, lots of shopping and an art show. Their are lots of shoe stores in the area. Nothing we really wanted or need to shop for. We walked another 5 or 6 km around the Kennedy Park area have a Starbucks coffee and bathroom break and end up walking south to the Galleria mall where we had dinner the night before. There was an ice cream shop which was recommended so we have a Gelati which proved to be excellent. More walking back to our hotels. Doug and Ruth have to transfer their stuff to their new hotel which was about 6 blocks away. They waited for Dawson and I to freshen up so we could help with the baggage. Doug and Ruth's hotel is not as nice as the Augusta Mira Flora, perhaps a 2 star. Oh well, just 1 night here needed.
We get some advice on restaurants from the front desk and started walking again. Another 3 or 4 kms and we recognized we were back across from Kennedy Park. We had walked a full circle now during the day. There was a strip of about 8 restaurants and they were all quite anxious for our business, with all offering free pisco sours etc.. We decided on the first one we had come to and met our waiter who had an interesting story... His english has a New York accent and it turns out he had spent 24 years in the states. He says that his father first went to the states as an illegal alien due to the shining path movement in Peru during the '80s. The father finds work in New York, wins $10,000 in a lotto and with the money has the Mexican people smugglers (which he calls coyotes) smuggle his mother, him (4 years old) and 2 year old sister into the states. He then spends the next 22 years wondering when he is going to get caught and deprted. The waiting became too much for him and about a year ago he left voluntarily, as the US now have a program that if you declare your illegal status, don't have a crimaley record and spend 2 years outside of the states you are able to re-enter as a landed immigrant. We enjoy the meals he suggested and wish him good luck. Although with the growth we see in Peru and his command of english he might see more opportunity in Peru than to return to the States.
We are back at our hotels by 11:00 pm
Photo notes:
1) View of waterfront from bluff of Mira Flora
2) Julie beside VW surf van
3) View of the market
4) View of the Frier's jumping rock
5) The Frier's jump in mid flight, note shadow on rock. If you zoom in you can see the diver in flight
6) location of our cooking
7) Dawson at work making Cervici note the owner's body language
8) Pisco sour making demo
9) Enjoying the fruits of our labour
10) beach view in front of resturant
11) Julie, Ruth and Doug enjoying an ice cream
12) Dawson and Julie infront of the Frier's Jump
Cheers
Julie and Dawson
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