Dominique- The other white meat.

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We both thoroughly enjoyed our Lima. Granted we only stayed 3 days and probably only explored a fraction of the city but here are some of my observations.

1. Volkswagon Beetles are everywhere, Ze Germans must have shipped half of their production line to Lima. Though by having so many is very useful if you want to play a quick game of spot the Herbie, as the most common colour is red closely followed by black. Double points all round.

2. Still on the roads. I love how everyone drives in Lima. Not a moment passes without the sound of a car horn being blasted either in anger or to notify the car adjacent to you that you are about to participate in a very dangerous passing move. Turning right from the left lane in a 3 lane carraigeway is very common and very amusing to watch unless you are in the back seat of the taxi as it is taking place in front of you.

3.I found Lima very safe and not as bad as it is painted. Perhaps it is the abundance of police and security guards everywhere, and I mean everywhere. Sometimes we would walk down a residential street and a security guard would pop out of the bushes, giving us a heart attack but also finding it very re-assuring. We never felt threatened once.

4.In Perth Western Australia we have only one casino. In our 3 days in Lima I counted no less than 10 casinos scattered all over town. Either the Peruvians have huge gambling problems or the local goverment may have failed in their venture to make Lima the new Las Vegas of South America as I hardly ever saw anyone visiting them.

5 Lima is a very clean city. There is far less grafitti here than Buenos Aires and heaps less dog shit also. This is probably as a result of so many people being employed to do what we best describe asl menial tasks in Australia. I saw people employed to sweep the streets with a just a broom, dustpan and a dust mask. I also saw people employed to scrape stickers off the street lighting posts and shining peoples shoes ( see comment 7). There didn´t appear to be many unemployed people or beggars.The people of Lima take a great deal of pride in their capital and it shows.

6.Occupational Health and safety isn´t a concept that has been embraced in Lima. Construction is huge and multi story apartments are springing up everywhere. However, the scaffolding is generally made of very dodgy looking wooden struts between the respective floor levels. Im sure if someone sneezed hard enough the whole building would come tumbling down.

7.Shoe shine boys and men abound everywhere. I have the shiniest black boots in the whole of Lima.

8. I have discovered that Dominique is the other white meat. No matter where we walk we stand out as a couple. However, the local men (and a few women too) are quite fixated with her, checking her out by giving her the up and down look before firmly concentrating firmly on her groin area. A nice white gringa is just what the locals want, is what I have summized.

9. Camel toes are in fashion in Lima. Jeans are tight all over and I mean all over. You can´t avoid it......and generally the worst offenders are chunky 30 plus muffin top females and no Dom is not one of them!!!

Just a quick story. We were walking in downtime Lima late in the afternoon and Dom told me she had the urge for a snack. So we called into a well decorated Bavarian looking pub where all the men of Inca descent who were employees were dressed in the traditional German Beerhall attire (A photo opportunity to good to pass up). Dom selected a snack which was named Wanton, and also ordered a glass of Pisco sour for each of us. About a dozen wantons came out and they can be best described as a fried pastry with a meat filling inside. I wasn´t very hungry but once I had one, I had another and then another. They were yum. We racked our brains about what the meat filling inside was and couldn´t quite work it out. The following morning we asked Angelo our host what the filling consisted of. He told us in all seriousness it was cattle brains. So now I have had not only a cup of cold tea, but now cattle brains , two culinary firsts for me in the space of a week. Plenty more to follow I think.

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Comments

[Linda]

What exactly is that meat you are eating?!
Cattle brains is pretty gross. I got caught out in Bolivia with what looked like normal beef skewers being sold from stalls around one of the parks in Sucre. They were particularly delicious and I did consider the possibility that I had been eating some other type of meat such as alpaca, and I was prepared for that. But my Bolivian friends soon told me that actually I had been eating cow hearts! Ew! Anyway, I hope you don't mind but I have posted a link to your blog on my Facebook Page "When I went travelling to South America". Happy travels! Cheers, Linda