A hectic day today. Tomorrow we are heading out at the crack of dawn to hike up to Rupac which is the site of (I believe) the best preserved Incan ruins in Peru. I decided to head over to Homemade for breakfast and to work for a bit but their WiFi wasn’t up to the task, plus breakfast was underwhelming… On my way over to the work space I recalled that two of my very few articles of clothing had been ruined the night before so I swung through Larcomar to look for replacements. Despite just being a mall, this is a pretty cool place. It’s built down into the cliffs of Lima overlooking the ocean with a park on top. I quickly got annoyed with shopping, though, so I gave up and headed to the office. I worked for a while and then broke for lunch at Trattoria Don Vito. This is kind of a cute place. It had decently good food but it tries to be way classier of a joint than it actually is. I headed back to work but got a wee bit distracted by a happy hour invitation. So, ended up at this Irish pub, Houlihan’s which was a surprisingly decent representation of an Irish Pub. In Lima there is (for some reason) this place called “Calle de Pizzas” or Pizza Street which is a little pedestrian block full of places that sell, yes pizza, but also a weird combination of Peruvian cuisine. Some other folks were having pizza there so we turned up for that. And then naturally we had to have an after dinner drink at The Old Pub, an English themed place on that same street. All in all it’s exactly what you want before an early morning and a tough hike.

Sad to say that I stopped by Starbucks on the way into the work space this morning. But, I will say this for the American chains around the world. It’s always interesting to see the local twists that they add to the menu. Worked for most of the day and then walked over to BarBarian to have some beers with another Remote. It’s a cool place, typical craft beer joint playing excellent American music. You’d never know you left the States. I still had work to do so headed home in the evening to take care of that.

Managed to make it over to our work space for some productivity today and boy… was I glad I did. For reasons passing understanding a bunch of people came in at one point, shouted a bunch of stuff in Spanish I couldn’t understand and then gave each one of us an entire box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts. So that was a pleasant surprise. I resisted the urge to live entirely off of those for the day and had lunch at Madam Tusan’s. Some of the better Chinese food I’d had since leaving the U.S. but not overwhelming. In the evening some other Remotes had some folks over to their place as they have a gorgeous rooftop and grill situation. It wasn’t all fun and games, though! Sadly, during some fun and games all the clothes I was wearing were destroyed. So… guess I’ll have to go shopping again which I always hate.

The plan for the day went off the rails unusually quickly. I started doing some work and before I knew it the day was mostly over. Broke for lunch and went to this deli by my place, La Gastronoma. Much more high-end than I thought it would be and a nice spot for a sandwich. In the evening a whole pack of us went for a bike ride around Lima and then stopped for lunch in Parque Melitón Porras.

First actual working day in Lima. Started the day by heading over to Caficulto to get my caffeine fix and do some work. It’s a nice little place, more importantly they were playing some great blues when I was in there. They didn’t have what I was looking for on the food front, however, so went over to Pastelería San Antonio with a fellow remote for lunch. Also a good place but (yes, I know Clarke) nothing to write home about. Went over to check out our work space this month. It’s not as “cool” as some of the others but the space itself is really nice. It also features free coffee and *gasp* air conditioning so I imagine I’ll be spending a lot of time there this month. The big event of the day was dinner at Restaurante Central, 4th ranked restaurant in the world. Their approach to the tasting menu is really novel, featuring courses from different elevations and ecosystems all through Peru. And they give you a gorgeous art book at the end that features everything you ate over the course of the evening. All that being said, I was a little underwhelmed. Still worth going for the experience, though, I’d say.

Started my time in Lima the way I start most cities; wandering the streets aimlessly. My expectations for Lima were pretty low. Most people I had talked to said Peru was great but that Lima… kind of sucked. Apart from the downright oppressive weather I’m really liking the city. One of my roommates and I stopped in at a coffee shop on our corner, Kaldi’s Coffee, and then strolled around Miraflores. It’s got a great central park area, a lot of people were out and about, there seemed to be a lot of good restaurants and cafes around. And it’s just a couple of blocks off the beach. We walked up to La Mar Cebichería for lunch with was killer good. Came home in the afternoon to escape the heat and then in the evening walked over to Faro de la Marina to watch the sunset with everyone. This was just gorgeous. Oh, and I saw the coolest thing I’ve seen in all my travels… a skateboarding dog! Afterwards some of us went for sushi at Makoto and then I called it a reasonably early night.