BUMPY ARRIVAL, Lima & Arequipa, Peru

Our 17-day journey didn’t start off as smoothly as we wanted to. Our Toronto-New York-Lima flight was unfortunately hindered by awful delays. The flight to New York was an hour late, but then the worst didn’t come until we arrived at New York JFK. Time ticked way beyond the scheduled time but our LAN Peru plane was nowhere in sight. That night, no special weather alert was reported but the plane never came. LAN Peru ended up sending all passengers to an airport hotel to rest. In the next morning, we finally got on a plane for Lima, 11 hours beyond the scheduled time.

It was past dinner time when we arrived at Lima Airport. Our taxi sped through the streets of Lima for Miraflores District, where our friend from Chicago was waiting for us at Kokopelli Hostel. After we met up with our friend, we decided to grab some supper in the neighborhood. It was a quiet neighbourhood with dim street lights; but there was one street interaction where people clustered around a food cart with a bright lamp. It was one of the most renowned street food carts in Peru, Dona Grimanesa Vargas’s anticuchos skewers. We joined the locals with great expectation. The beef heart skewers didn’t disappoint us. They were tender and juicy, but it took us over two hours queuing on the street with empty stomach before we could even place our orders. The famous owner, Tia Grimanesa, represented the icon of Lima’s street food for almost four decades; and we recently found out that visitors can now enjoy her anticuchos at her new restaurant.

In the morning, we checked out Kokopell Hostel and headed to Lima Airport again for our morning flight to Arequipa. At the airport, we met up with our other travel buddy who just arrived from Toronto to join us for the trip. The four of us boarded a LAN Peru plane for the 1.5 hour flight. At 10:30 we landed at Arequipa. Our journey up to the Peruvian highlands officially began. Arequipa, the second largest city in Peru, lies at about 2,300m above sea level. In the area around Plaza de Armas, there are a number of splendid colonial buildings, churches and plazas from the Spanish era. Just around the corner from Monasterio de Santa Catalina, the biggest attraction in town, we checked in at our bed and breakfast Torres de Ugarte, a delightful hotel with colourful walls and a relaxing atmosphere.

We wouldn’t know what seemed like a short delay at Toronto Pearson Airport would end up to be an 11-hour belated arrival at Lima.

Our 11-hour flight delay was followed by an 2-hour wait on the street at Miraflores, Lima for Dona Grimanesa Vargas’s anticuchos skewers.

The renowned beef heart skewers were very delicious. Though if we knew it would turn out to be a 2-hour wait, we would probably go somewhere else to fill our bellies.

Dona Grimanesa Vargas (right) has been selling anticuchos on the street for about four decades. Today, she has moved her business into a restaurant.

The atmosphere was causal and friendly at the Kokopelli Hostel in Miraflores, one of the most popular and safest neighborhoods in Lima according to guidebooks.