Lima

Seeing that the epidemic situation in Peru has improved, I flew from Ecuador to Lima, the capital of Peru, last night. The flight requirements to Peru are much stricter than those of Ecuador. Two layers of masks must be worn, and the crew members will spray hand sanitizer on everyone's hands before boarding. After boarding the plane, the two people sitting next to me heard that they were from the United States. When I asked about them, they were brothers from a small city in Missouri. I saw that they looked like high school students, and I was surprised that they came to travel on their own. But in fact, the younger brother just graduated from high school, and the older brother has been working for a year after graduating from college. When they came to Ecuador, they only went to the Galapagos Islands, and did not go anywhere else. Then they transferred directly to Lima, Peru, and then immediately transferred to a particularly remote village in the Amazon jungle, and they would not go anywhere else in Peru. At first, I didn't understand how they only go to one place in one country, but only after chatting. The two brothers are both particularly interested in animal biology and medicine. Their father is a horse surgeon. It is said that there are only more than 400 professionals in the world. They have been exposed to animals and medicine since childhood. Of course, they went to the Galapagos Islands to explore the local flora and fauna. They chatted with me about a lot of topics such as the origin of species and biological genes that I didn't know much about. They went to a farm in the Peruvian Amazon because the farmer was a friend of their father, and he arranged for them to explore the local flora and fauna there. Before they came, they had been vaccinated against various diseases caused by insect bites. The younger brother, who just graduated from high school, said that he mainly wants to study the healing properties of herbs in the Amazon jungle for some diseases. He will fly directly to Miami in two weeks to attend a speech at a youth association on the problem of teen drinking and driving. My brother went on a six-week study tour to China during the summer of high school. It was his first time leaving the United States, and he said the experience was eye-opening. My younger brother even chose to go to New York University's Shanghai campus for college, but he didn't go because of the epidemic and tuition fees. Afterwards, the two of them talked about professional issues along the way, and they felt that they were really young and promising brothers. I admire them for exploring the world on their own at such a young age, combining their hobbies and interests.

This morning, I took the bus to the ancient city of Lima, and found that I not only have to wear two layers of masks, but also a transparent plastic mask. I didn't, and the ticket seller secretly told me that he could buy me a face mask, and then took out a face mask from his locker and sold it to me. Taking the bus to the ancient city of Lima, I found that the main square area was closed, and there were armed police patrolling everywhere. During the more than 300 years of Spanish colonization of South America, the ancient city of Lima was an important witness to the Spanish colonial rule of Peru. In 1820, an Argentine general led an army to land in Peru, forcing the Spanish governor to withdraw from Lima, and declared Peru’s independence the following year. Lima has been included in the "World Cultural Heritage List". The Catholic Cathedral on the square is a mixture of Baroque, Gothic and Romanesque buildings. In many buildings, you can see delicately carved dark wood balconies.

There is a shop selling the famous pork belly burger sanguche de chiccharón next to the main square, and there is a long queue of locals at the door. Fortunately, I asked if the queue is waiting for dine-in, but if you take out, you don't have to queue. I bought one and tried it. It was really delicious. When I was standing outside eating hamburgers, I saw soldiers in uniforms riding horses, and I learned that there would be a national military band performing in half an hour. It didn't take long for the police who suddenly closed the road to let us pass into the main square and watch the performance of the National Military Band on horseback up close. Local friends have never seen this fight. He chatted with the guard next to him and learned that today is the first performance since the epidemic last year for a year and a half. Before the epidemic, there would be such performances on the first Sunday of every month, but they were all inside the fence of the Presidential Palace, never outside the fence. After a while, the door of the presidential palace opened, and the president of Peru came out to review. Friends said that during the general election in November last year, the place was very chaotic. Before he was appointed, three elected presidents stepped down one after another because of political scandals and bribery. The previous term was president for only seven days. Since he was elected, my friend said he hadn't seen it with his own eyes. He said I was lucky to see this country's military band perform right away today!

In the afternoon, I walked all the way to Kennedy Park. There are wild cats everywhere. I can also see some bowls filled with cat food. There is also a small shelter at the door. Many locals walk here, and there are many small shops around. There are also many stalls selling snacks on carts in the park. I tasted emoliente, a local specialty drink. The basic ingredients are roasted barley, flax seeds, plantain leaves, lemongrass, lemon juice, honey and some unnamed herbs. The drink can be hot or cold. Then I tried picarones, a common street dessert from Lima, made with sweet potatoes and a pumpkin-like melon, fried and dipped in syrup.

Then I met a friend on the couch in the park, and every now and then it was a joy to catch up with a local foodie friend. He said that when he travels, he generally saves money on accommodation and other expenses, but only on food. In the evening, he took me to a restaurant in a shopping mall by the sea for dinner, and waited outside for half an hour before entering the mall, because the number of people in the mall was very strict due to the epidemic. The location of the restaurant is excellent, right next to the beach, you can see the entire coastline, but unfortunately it is a bit foggy at night. In the early days of Peru, there were many immigrants from China and Guangdong. His grandfather was Cantonese, and the great-grandfather of another local friend I knew was also Cantonese. He said that the practice of many foods in Peru is influenced by Chinese food, forming a mixed style of Chinese and Peruvian food. The Chinese restaurants here are called chifa. The most traditional and common dish is called lomo saltado, stir-fried beef and rice with fries, mainly beef marinated in soy sauce, vinegar, non-spicy yellow peppers and then stir-fried in a large pot with onions, tomatoes and other ingredients. Also ordered a soup called sopa criolla, which includes beef cubes, fettuccine, red pepper sauce, onion, garlic, beef broth and fried eggs. The portion of each dish here is full and filling.

In Lima, I met the Canadian foreign teacher I met when I was working in Nanjing nearly three years ago, and her fiance who just got engaged not long ago. I remember that it was the sofa guest software that she highly recommended to me before I left Nanjing, which changed my travel mode and opened up a new way of traveling alone. She went to Bolivia two years ago to teach English and moved to Lima last September with her Peruvian boyfriend. I really envy her for being super fluent in Spanish, and she communicates with her fiance all in Spanish. They took me to a local restaurant for really authentic Peruvian food. Ate the famous Peruvian national dish ceviche lemon juice marinated sashimi, arroz con marisco seafood rice, tiraditos similar to ceviche and Japanese sashimi sashimi, the sauce is a spicy sauce, which is made with lemon juice, various spices, hot sauce, etc. of. The difference from ceviche is that the sauce is poured before serving, so the fish is still a little bit raw and you can taste the freshness of the fish. And ceviche is marinated for a few hours before eating. Also had the leche de tigre (sauce in which ceviche is pickled) and cancha fried corn bean appetizers. After lunch they took me to the beach and the Banrranco area, which is very artistic with graffiti everywhere. In the evening, I ate street food anticucho beef heart skewers and pollo a la brasa charcoal grilled chicken.

I originally booked a long-distance bus ticket to Paracas at noon on the Internet last night, but this morning I suddenly received an email notification saying it was cancelled, presumably because there were too few people on the afternoon shift. The long-distance bus here is indeed not as convenient as Ecuador. Just go to a bus station and buy a ticket on the spot. There are many choices. Here you can only buy tickets from the bus company alone, and the station may be in a different place. Later, I found out that this company is the only long-distance bus going to Paracas. During the epidemic, the number of shifts has decreased a lot, so I can only change to the same company and leave tomorrow morning. The public transportation here is really inconvenient, and the local bus lines cannot be found on Google Maps, but I also found that there are many cyclists here, and there are many dedicated bicycle lanes in the city. Private cars here don't drive as fast as those in Ecuador, and some cars here actually slow down to give way to pedestrians. After a day in Limado, you can try more of the delicious food here. At noon, I went to a local market to eat cau cau stewed tripe, and at night I drank caldo de gallina hen soup, which was extremely delicious.