lima, i love you. i love you, i love you, i love you. it’s only been a few days, but just know that you will always hold a special place in my soft, warm heart. someday i will be a limeña. maybe i’ll retire here. there’s something visceral about the way i feel for this city. i don’t know why i love it so much, i just do. i’m gushing, i know. i don’t think i’ve ever felt this way. when i visited new york, i was terrified. memphis was relaxing, but i couldn’t see myself there long-term. when i visited san francisco, i wanted to move there but it didn’t sucker punch me the way lima has… i’ve never felt this weird, unexplainable love for a city before. it’s loud & sometimes ugly & aggressive, but i still love it. it’s like a bad boyfriend. logically, i should hate it. everyone else does (two of my uncles despise lima, one told me to hold my breath until we got to cusco), but i just can’t stay away. it’s irrational.

after the last time i wrote, david came to pick us up & we went to bembos. not the best hamburguesas all over the world, but pretty okay. they have aji sauce, which is some kind of spicey goodness that makes their fries taste like delicious little dreams. plus, they played 90s music videos the whole time we were there… counting crows, cranberries, sugar ray. sweet.

from there, we went to the university where david teaches, universidad de ricardo palma, fed their llamas, drank coffee in his office, went to the top of the tallest building & took pictures of the city.

after that, we drove through the neighborhood of rimac, where david grew up & through old lima. it’s an entirely different world from our little miraflores. there were sections of the street where the asphalt was destroyed & never repaved, buildings that fell down during the last earthquake that were never rebuilt, vendors sitting in doorways selling churros & candy bars, dogs laying across the sidewalks… just completely different than anything i’ve ever seen at home.

we went to a little bar called rincon cervecero (corner brewery) that david has been going to since he was in college at the university of san marcos. david bought us beers called cusqueñas & then bought me a yard of beer & these little yucca & cheese baked/fried things covered in huancaina that were really effing good. we sat & talked & shot shit for a couple of hours & then david walked us through the plaza de san martin to get pisco sours at hotel bolivar, which david says has the best pisco sours in lima. after that we had turron especial de doña pepa (the peru cuisine guide says it’s an “anise and honey nougat”) at a little cake shop. so good. so, so good. we drove back listening to some peruvian comedy show that i didn’t understand whatsoever.

now we’re back at the hotel.

so far the trip has mostly consisted of the following: walking around miraflores, waiting for david to come pick us up, me & david drinking & then me & david eating. eating a lot. i’m going to gain 15 pounds here, no doubt.

we’ve got a tour scheduled in the morning to go see pachacamac & then i’m hoping for chiva (peruvian chinese food) or the indian market, but my mom’s feeling sicky all of a sudden, so plans may change. i may go see pachacamac by myself. we’ll see. i’m excited. just way, ridiculously excited.