Let’s talk about Peru
My first big trip after the pandemic was to Peru. Stepping out into the world after lockdown, after vaccinations, after quitting my old job and starting a new career as a creator and not really knowing what the fuck I was doing, Peru was my entree into trying to make travel content.
I went for a gig, trekked the Inca Trail as part of a project, and got to see Machu Picchu. I left wanting more and I’ve been back every year since.
There’s no way I can put everything you should know about Peru into one guide and I’m just a visitor so I truly know very little… But I’m going to give you the goods the best way I can. Enough to start building your own trip, or at least keep it in your back pocket.
Let’s start with Lima.
Lima is a food city, and oh did we eat well. This was a presentation at Mayta using Amazonian fish heads.
Lima is the capital, nestled right along the coast of the Pacific Ocean, so you get these dramatic cliffside views of the water from the city above. A lot of people fly into Lima and barely stop. Maybe a day or two, then straight onward, because they’re going for the Inca Trail, for the picture they saw on a postcard. But skipping Lima, or shortening your time here, is a mistake.
This is a city with serious food and coffee culture. I don’t even drink coffee regularly, and I’m more particular about coffee than I am about most food, and there are coffee shops in Lima I went back to multiple days in a row because they were that good. Lima has also been home to the top restaurant in the world for two of the last three years, and it’s a place where a lot of innovation and culinary mixing has happened and keeps happening. You can have a $1,000 dinner and then walk down the street for anticuchos, an iconic street food that’s now served in sit-down restaurants too. It’s one of the most recognized Creole dishes, a culinary tradition that “flourished in the creative hands of Afro-descendant women.”
Lima also has the biggest airport, so if you’re flying in and out of Peru you’ll probably have a layover here anyway. Leave the airport. Explore.
My Lima recommendations:
Mayta. My top for a fancy meal. It’s not in the top 10, but it’s as creative as some of the top five restaurants in the world. I went to Central a couple years back, which was the best restaurant in the world at one point, and it was wonderful, but it felt like every course was just foam. At Mayta you get more than foam. You get storytelling, and you learn about local ingredients and tradition as you eat. Reserve in advance. They’ll ask for a credit card to hold the reservation.