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Published: February 25th 2020
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The house in Lima
They even matched the ceiling light with the floor tiles We went straight from Medellin to Barranco, the area in Lima that was recommended to us, the colonial barrio with the hipster flavour. Tired from 5 weeks in Colombia Daria needed a rest, we get a room on airbnb in a pretty house hosted by Peruvian descendants from Tuscany; a house with a lot of 60’s design taste, nice sofas, pretty textiles and art books for flicking through, the predominant colour is brick red.
The guy that runs the bed and breakfast is called Juan Carlo - he lived 8 years in Florence and speaks good Italian with funny Tuscan dialetc, very helpful guy, he told us places to go, little restaurants in the area and enjoyed a lot to chat in Italian with us. Daria loved the house and found every possible excuse to stay in and not leave the comfortable room, me, as much I loved the design of the place I couldn’t t keep my self in, I had to go and explore the city.
At first I went around Barranco to get a taste for it before bringing Daria to experience the area. Then I had to go to Lima city centre to
Barranco
This is a colonial area that now is become the hipster quarter, graffiti and street art given an even more European flavour. Many beautiful are still abandoned, giving interest to investors. have my Rollei non digital camera to be repaired because it was the only place where I could have it repaired. In a big city like Lima I was sure I could do it. I broke my camera in Gitana del Mar, in Colombia and I knew it was my fault, so I had to find the way to get it working again. I want to continue shooting Analog pics during this trip so repairing the Rollei was a must. Finally after reading different blogs and google reviews I found the place. I called the guy and with the help of Juan Carlo I spoke with him and he told me that he will do it for me asap, so asap I left the house to go to his repair shop in the city centre.
I had to take the bus for 10 stops or more. This is a bus that runs on a special fast lane from one side to the other of the city passing throughout the heart of the town, it’s the fastest way to go from A to B in Lima city. Going by public transport in a foreign city is one of
the best ways to understand the laws of that city and to understand how the social layering of the town works and interact with each other, so I silently watch the people with interest through my journey till the town main square.
Then, just before getting off I spotted a huge market where many people were directed for probably buying cheap goods so first thing I did when I went out of the bus was to follow this mass of people. I did it quickly just to have a look at the proper Peruvian people of Lima. To see what they sell, how and how cheap. In this 20 minutes I saw many new things for me - I was impressed by how they cut the fruits, especially the pineapple and the watermelon. I see that they sold a lot of fake brands and for very cheap and how many of the goods they had for sale were just Chinese plastic low quality items, few used stuff, mainly new plastic and all the shop selling the exact same shit. I move fast away from there looking for my man, the camera repairer.
Before arriving
The man who repaired my camera
When I saw him try to repair a digital SRL camera I got a bit scared thinking that maybe he cannot repair my Rollei, than i saw all the derelict of digital camera he got in his mini store and I got even more concern about his skills. In the end he could adjust my camera so i was even happy to give him 250 soles(35£). to him I reach an area where all the shops were selling musical instruments, crazy, hundreds of shop selling instruments, one after another one, similar of Denmark street in Covent Garden in London where there are the guitars shops but 100 times more. A guy from one of these shops told me that the place I was looking for was 12 blocks away, I had to rush even more, finally, after passing through very stinky places and see poor people sleeping on the pavement, people selling grapes on bikes, the front of the hospital, derelict police cars, kids selling candies and a lot of decent people standing out between the poverty and the dirt, I arrived to the micro shop where this man with special tools was try to repairing a digital camera.
The man saw my camera and told me straight away: you should have told me it was a roller and specially this mini model. I knew he was right, this camera is so compact that the mechanism is tiny and complicated like a Swiss clock, he told me, at least I need some hours to repair it, come back before 7pm tonight. I left
Selling grape on the run
While you take your wife to the restaurant you can sell some grape or bananas and make it enough to pay the bill ;) him the camera, 10 dollars in Peruvian Sols and ran all the way back to Barranco where me and Daria had to go for ceviche at the nice place that has been recommended by Juan Carlo. On my way back I was faster and I saw other Lima’s street life similar to on my way there.
I arrived at home not that late and I grab Daria to go and enjoy the ceviche at “Canta rana” I saw the place the day before in my barrio exploring and I realised it was “the place” it was inside a little market and reminded me of Tooting Broadway market in London. Very busy and with big and pretty dishes of raw fish and sea food. We arrived at 2pm and still the queue was long, we had to wait 40 minutes before we were seated, Daria was practically fainting from how starving she was but once we sat down and they brought us the inflated corn nibbles she filled her mouth and felt better and happy to be there.
Obviously we order too much food, but obviously we didn’t leave anything and even Daria drunk the
The art of peeling a pineapple
Note the watermelon in the glass cart, they sell slice of it ready to eat. juices of the ceviche from the plate with her distinguished naughty style.
We had a ceviche and a marisco seafood rice and then this dish called Causa de Langostinas, a double yellow potato cake with a prawn layer and topping, it looked amazing - everybody was having it and also Juan Carlo recommended but for us the best was the ceviche, the tiger milk was absolutely fantastic and the abundance was a Marco size. Slowly we rolled back to the bed and breakfast, left Daria home and it was time for me to go back to the centre to get the camera. On my way there I found a second hand antique covered market, there were different shops all with very interesting items but we don’t have space for souvenirs in our bags so I couldn’t buy anything, not even a record. I left the place with a bit of sadness and I continue my way towards the camera shop, the experience was very similar to my way there in the morning, the difference was that the evening was approaching and so the colours were getting darker and some prostitutes were popping out, they were fat, ugly,
in mini skirts and smoking cigarettes, a classic stereotype.
Got my camera repaired for almost the same price I spent to buy it but totally worth it I was happy to have it back ready for a new 36 exposure roll. My way back home was quick, I felt like I knew the city well, after doing that route for the fourth time. Same people, same stinks, same prostitutes, just even darker colours.
I had to arrive home quickly to leave the Rollei and go for dinner with Daria that after the big, tasty and late lunch wasn’t hungry at all but it was my time to go to Tio Mario restaurant and try the anticuchos, the cow’s heart kebabs with potatoes, a classical Peruvian dish.
In the end I liked Lima, as I usually like a big city, if I didn’t t I wouldn’t have lived in London. In the case of Lima, many people recommended us to don’t stay in Lima at all and in case to stay in Barranco or Miraflores because it’s safer. Comparing it to Bogota, Lima looks like a quiet city of, yes there is
poverty and dirt at similar level but the Peruvians looked to me more chilled and less dodgy. Barranco is the Bricklane of Lima, graffiti and street art on every corner, small alternative semi chic or hipster food place opened recently, tourists around, bicycles locked to poles. Probably less stink of piss than Bricklane and more beautiful looking buildings that remain, reminiscent of the wealth of a 20’s South America, some of them still abanded.
Daria didn’t see much of this city, she didn’t have a camera to repair.
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