Category Archives: Lima

Living in Peru: One of Those Amazing Days

Posted on April 2, 2013 | 14 Comments

Have you ever had one of those amazing days that you still reminisce about, even though you can’t figure out what exactly was so great about the day? I just had a day like that in February on my most recent trip to Lima. It turned out to be a day that encompassed a lot of what I love about living in Peru.

Viviendo en Peru: Un Día Asombroso

Spending time with my niece always makes me smile.

We arrived at an uncle’s house at 5 in the morning after a bumpy, sleepless overnight ride from Huancayo. I thought I was going to be in a bad mood, but the frown couldn’t stay long when faced with smiling, welcoming relatives and a sunshiny day.

The little things I loved about the day:

  • Seeing old photos and hearing the stories each conjures up.
  • Visiting and remembering relatives I’ve never met at two beautiful cemeteries where many other families were also spending time with their loved ones past.
  • Packing up to 8 of us in taxis to get from one place to another.
  • Having raspadillas (a shaved ice dessert) after being out all day in the sun.
  • Being a part of over 40 relatives spanning 4 generations and coming from all over Lima.
  • Mingling inside and outside of the house with aunts gossiping, uncles having a beer on the sidewalk, cousins playing video games, neighbors throwing water balloons in the street, and music blasting to encourage spontaneous dancing throughout.
  • Looking for dogs around the block with my 2-year-old niece from Quebec who speaks in mixed French and Spanish.
  • Making funny faces to see my 8-month-old godchild and niece smile and laugh.
  • Munching on homemade picarones (doughnut-like snacks) in the evening at a makeshift stand in front of the house where an aunt sold picarones to neighbors walking by as she chatted with us.

It wasn’t a particularly eventful day, but that didn’t seem to make it any less perfect.

Tell me about an amazing day that you still reminisce about!

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The Peru Hip Hop Scene and Lessons from Henry Link

Posted on March 5, 2013 | 8 Comments

I’ve always wanted to learn how to dance. I’ve also always known that I’m not very good at dancing. I’m clumsy and forgetful, which are the two qualities that work against learning choreography.

Peru Hip Hop y Henry Link en Lima

Roy and I just got back from surveying the Peru hip hop scene in Lima where Henry Link taught a 2-day workshop.

Considering how Roy’s a dancer, I had silent lofty dreams of being in his dance group and doing shows with him, but they never panned out. The positive side is that I’ve probably danced more over these last few years than I have in the rest of my life. Unfortunately, during those various times that I’ve tried to dance, I only gave myself more reason to cement the fact that I can’t really dance well at all. I’ve danced less and less, and have settled into living vicariously through Roy’s dance escapades instead.

Our most recent adventure involved the Peru hip hop scene in Lima. Roy attended a 2-day hip hop workshop in Lima led by Henry Link of the Elite Force Crew who is considered one of the founders of freestyle hip hop. I was lucky enough to be able sit in and even ask a question the second evening:

Do you think someone can learn how to dance hip hop even if they don’t have the rhythm and attitude?

Link’s answer was a resounding and eloquent “Yes.” To summarize, he believes that rhythm can be learned through practice, and attitude is expressed through understanding how music is meant to make others feel. In response to another question, he went to explain that once you learn a dance move, it’s yours. It’s not about perfect imitation because he’ll look around the dance room and even admire how others do his move in a slightly different way.

So I’m back to my lofty dreams. I liked it here in the clouds anyway.

When was the last time someone encouraged you to keep on dreaming and how’d they do it?

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Hotels in Lima: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Posted on December 18, 2012 | 12 Comments

I think I have stayed in almost 10 different hotels in Lima during my trips there as it’s only 8 hours away from Huancayo by bus. Ten is a far cry from over 100 options in the city and I’m no expert, but my experiences could give you a feel for the variety in the area and what you could face.

Hoteles en Lima

Hotels in Lima and all over Peru, in fact, often have signs similar to these to denote hotels or hostels with its ranking in stars above.

1. Cheapest Lima Hotel – Hospedaje Lima
Apart from being the cheapest accommodation in downtown Lima we’ve found at 25 soles for a 2-person room, the biggest advantage of this hotel is that it’s right beside the side entrance of the government palace. The entrance is always manned by security guards, so the area and street feels really safe. It’s so cheap because the street is tucked away and the hotel is hard to find with only a tiny frame where the “H” for “Hotel” should be at the top of its doorway and stairs that lead up to the place.

2. Worst Lima Hotel Experience – Located in front of San Francisco Church
With a deceiving entranceway that opens into a beautiful courtyard, I expected a comfortable night at this hotel and only got bitten all night by mysterious unseen bugs. By the morning, there were red welts all over my body even when I had tried to cover myself with sheets. I’ve otherwise never been bitten by anything in Lima, so they must have something akin to bed bugs.

3. Shadiest Lima Hotel – Located on Jr. de la Unión at the corner of Jr. Callao
All three different rooms I stayed at in this hotel reminded me of a horror movie. The first had vomit green walls, the second had two beds that were falling apart, and the third had a flickering light bulb. The price is relatively cheap at around 30 soles per night, but I imagine they can only charge even that much because they’re at a prime location on a main pedestrian shopping street and right beside the central plaza.

4. Best Lima Hotel – 3B
In an upscale area of Lima, 3B lives up to its surroundings with sleek design, large flatscreen TVs, and huge, comfy beds. I would describe the hotel as zen-like with it’s bright, white, minimalistic spaces. A combi stop is only half a block away from the hotel, so we were able to easily get to and from Lima’s chief tourist neighborhood, Miraflores.

5. Friendliest Lima Hotel – D’Osma
Francisco provides a warm welcome at this bed and breakfast that has 5 cozy character rooms as well as a cabin-like shared kitchen. All of the staff were super accommodating even when we asked to store tons of huge pieces of luggage in their tiny office. The hotel is situated in Barranco within walking distance of nightlife.

If you’re looking for hotels in Lima or anywhere in South America for that matter, I highly recommend checking out Pacarama.

What was the best or worst hotel experience you’ve ever had?

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Avoiding Danger in Peru

Posted on October 10, 2012 | 22 Comments

A taxi driver in Lima recently robbed one of my good friends at gunpoint. Although you need to be cautious, I wouldn’t consider the level of danger in Peru much higher than other Latin American countries. In fact, my post on scary men is an example of the goodness that can always be found and this week’s follow-up guest post by Dr. Vincent Tufano on making the best of a bad situation recounts how lucky breaks factor in as well.

Peligro en Perú: Huecos en el Suelo

Potholes are a danger in Peru, but in Dr. Tufano’s story, they’re also a lifesaver.


Potholes in Peru are everywhere and are a major danger to anyone living there, including Lima, the so-called City of Kings.

During my last visit to Peru, I was returning from a Christmas show in downtown Lima that ended very late at night, so there were hardly any taxis available to take me and my family back home. After searching fruitlessly for 45 minutes, we finally waved down a cab whose driver, after the usual haggling over price, agreed to take us home. Our alarm bells quickly began to sound when the driver began using an unfamiliar route. When we questioned him about that, he simply sped up. We were sure that we were going to be assaulted and robbed by some criminal who simply used his cab to attract victims.

Wishing to avoid that, I finally screamed at the driver to stop. He responded by taking his attention away from the road and giving me a venomous stare. But at that moment, his cab plunged into a huge pothole, ripping open his oil pan. That gave us the opportunity to rush out, run for our lives and escape.

When was the last time you were helped by adversity?

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Racism in Peru? The Case of Ricardo Apaza

Posted on February 4, 2012 | 66 Comments

Last December, I was captivated by what seemed to be a simple story that made headlines in Peru: Ricardo Apaza wasn’t allowed back into the movie theater after taking a second bathroom break and forgetting his ticket. The catch? Ricardo wore traditional Andean clothing, he was visiting from his rural hometown, and this incident happened in Lima, the busy capital of Peru. His enraged friend Pierina Papi called it racism.

Ricardo Apaza

Did this all happen because Ricardo Apaza wore traditional Andean clothing to a movie theater in urban Lima? © Pierina Papi

Although the Facebook note that Pierina originally wrote has since been taken down, I still remember some key points of discussion:

Clausurado Temporal del Cine UVK Larcomar

The UVK Larcomar movie theaters were shut down temporarily due to this case of racism. © Municipality of Miraflores

A comment that really hit me voiced the thought that we’ll just be hypocrites anyway. The cynical commenter felt that we were eventually going to continue watching movies at the same theaters and continue discriminating. Maybe so. But I personally don’t think this takes away from publicizing the case and future cases of racism, major or minor. Maybe each reminder means exponential consciousness and action.

What was the latest case of discrimination you noticed in your environment? Did you do something about it?

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