The drive was long, slow and for the most part painful.  As mentioned in Andrew’s previous blog it took 16 + hours to arrive to our destination of Arequipa.   When we finally arrived at the city’s bus terminal the owner of the hostel that we would be staying at was there to greet us and to take us back to her lovely abode.  This was an incredibly nice gesture and overall our stay at this place was incredibly pleasant.  If you ever do choose to visit Arequipa I highly recommend the Sol de Oro hostel.  Okay, now that I am done giving free promotional plugs, let me move on…
Arequipa located in Southern Peru is the second largest city in Peru after Lima. It was nicknamed the “White City” because of [Continue reading...]

It is hard to pass a newspaper stand and not see Gaston Acurio’s face surrounded with a mop of curly hair on the front cover of a pocket sized recipe book hanging for sale.  The man is a legend within Peru, known for revolutionizing the way that Peruvians feel about their own cuisine as well as developing and reviving the art form.  So there was  no choice but to pay a visit to Astrid Y Gaston, Acurio’s original restaurant, which is regarded as one of the top restaurants in Lima.
The restaurant, located on a quiet street is set in an old colonial house in the Miraflores district of Lima.  The interior is comfortable, not stuffy like you can often expect from top end restaurants. The back end of the dining [Continue reading...]

The plan was simple. Shannon and I would spend our last day of our week in the mountainous region of Ancash hiking to Laguna Churup. All of the tour books, other travelers and online reviews say that though the hike up to the Laguna is long and some points demanding that it is a worthwhile hike and that the Laguna which is 4450 meters above sea level is a must see. The first half of our trip went without any major glitches. After a lovely breakfast at Café California it was time for us to find the collectivo to the town of Yungay. Already behind schedule we were now left with the daunting task of finding the exact location of where the collectivo’s were parked as there is no official pick [Continue reading...]

This past Friday our little crew of four headed over to the Lima’s Parque de la Exposicion to attend the second annual Mistura Gastronomic Food Festival. Now for someone whose objective, while volunteering with Perupedia, is to contribute about Peruvian cuisine this was a dream come true. In the few hours that we were there I was able to see just how rich, diverse and delicious Peruvian food really is. The festival included food from the three different regions of Peru; the mountains, the jungle and the coast. It also joined together dozens of street vendors known as Carretilla’s, 35 of Peru’s most reputable restaurants and chefs in the country. The dishes ranged from a typical traditional meal that could be found in a small jungle community to unique and [Continue reading...]