Peru day 1

Lima's coastline

I woke up in my hotel in Lima and decided to go out for breakfast. At breakfast, I had the national dish of Peru, ceviche, Seabass marinated in lime juice served with chilies, boiled potato, and boiled corn. As a drink, I had a Peruvian soda called “Inca Kola.” Then, I went for a walk. On my walk, I saw a couple of American tourists complaining about how they could not go to the Andes slopes because they were scared of the paramilitary group “Shining Path.” Shining Path is a militant group who started fighting the Peruvian government in the 1980s. The insurgency of Shining Path has cost over 30,000 lives. The conversation made me notice armed soldiers appearing every once in  awhile as I walked. After an hour or so, I ended back up at my hotel where I checked out and made my way toward somewhere to eat lunch. I eventually found a small restaurant on a quiet corner of old town. The lunch was a delight to all the senses. My lunch was a modest meal of cod fish and chicha morada, a non-alcoholic drink made from purple corn cobs. Next to me was a local drinking maize beer. After lunch, I kept walking through town on my way to the airport.  On my way, I spotted a family of serranos, poor Amerindians who live with their families. The Amerindians moved into Lima in the 1950s. Many of the poorer families work in the fish processing plants or the factories that surround downtown. Even now you can see how encomienda is still around. The lower castes are still poor, mestizos are still the bulk of the middle of the middle class, and the higher classes are made up of unmixed europeans. In Callao, I stopped and ate dinner. For the first course, I ate arroz chaufa, rice with fried egg and swordfish along with some fried calamari. From the restaurant, I hopped on my flight to Cuzco.