We awoke bright and early the next morning to enjoy breakfast on the balcony before making our way across the sunlit square to visit the great Basílica Catedral de Arequipa.
The sunshine was incredible and bounced off of the white volcanic stone, making the cathedral gleam.
After a final visit to the alpacas at the Colca Lodge we packed up our belongings, headed for the bus and began our journey back to Arequipa.
I must share with you the wonderful place that we had the pleasure of staying at during our time in the Colca Valley.
There is an amazing sight to behold in the Colca Valley.
Aside from the incredible landscapes, there is something else to steal your gaze.
We awoke the next morning to a gloriously sunny day and enjoyed breakfast out on the hotel’s balcony
My parents had booked up a personalised, private trip with Amazonas Explorers to take us into the Colca Valley for 3 days. They were familiar with the company as they had used them before on a previous trip to Peru, but within the Sacred Valley.
Arequipa is a city in the south of Peru, and it should definitely be included in your itinerary when you come to visit the country. It is just as deserving as a trip to Cusco or to the northern beaches.
It used to be the capital of Peru for a time during the 1800s once Peru had declared independence from Spain, and the historic centre is a UNESCO world heritage site.
The beautiful white stone used to construct many of the buildings here is just absolutely stunning, but we only caught a brief glimpse on our arrival as the sun was setting. However, we were greeted by this view as we checked into our hotel for the night.
An amazing sight and such a perfect welcome!
I was told that Wong‘s Expo Vino was the best wine tasting event in Latin America as fact by one of the people working for the event, and to be honest I absolutely believe it.
Another offering from acclaimed chef Gastón Acurio, Panchita centres around traditional Peruvian dishes, or, to use the Peruvian term, ‘criollo’ cooking.
Panchita is a stunningly decorated restaurant, utilising many traditional Peruvian design elements but with such a stylish and modern twist. Think colourful striped fabrics, fluorescent poster style graffiti signage, and traditional hand painted bulls on display.
Lima Food Week has arrived for the second time this year and is running for two weeks from the 17th – 30th of August. The information is the same as before (see post) but there are some different restaurants to choose from. Take a look at your options here and get booking! S/59 for a 3 course lunch and S/79 for a 3 course dinner.
This time I finally managed to get booked at Malabar. This is somewhere I’ve been really looking forward to trying, and I’m so glad we finally did!
When we travel to the North of Peru by car we always make a pitstop just outside of Trujillo at a little beach town called Huanchaco.
June marked 2 years since I started my blog. Admittedly I haven’t been writing for a solid 2 years, however, I have so enjoyed sharing my experiences of Lima with you all! Hopefully it has encouraged people to come and visit, and that you have had, or will have, a great experience here, whether it’s for one night or 2 weeks.
This blog has never been about reviewing everywhere to determine if it’s good or bad, but in fact finding the hidden, or not so hidden, gems that make Lima great. From an amazing ice cream store, to some fabulous ancient ruins, Lima really does have a variety of things to offer.
In the spirit of this, my June edition of Bookmarked is going to be a bit of a highlights tour of my time here in Lima. My favourite parts.
At the end I will also share a snapshot of greatness from the rest of Peru, but with my limited visits there are only a few places that I feel I’m qualified to judge! However, with some more trips under my belt in this coming year, I hope to shed some more light on the rest of this beautiful country.
So without further ado, here is my list, my top 40….
Suspiro de Limeña (or Limeño, or without the ‘de’, or with ‘a la’ instead of ‘de’, etc …..) literally translates as ‘sigh of a Limeña’, (Limeña meaning a woman from Lima). I’m not sure where the name comes from but I think it’s quite beautiful and original!
The dessert is made up of two parts. The top is a soft meringue (think Italian meringue) flavoured delicately with port, and the bottom is a base of manjar blanco (a caramel made from milk and sugar) mixed with egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla.
It is a very sweet dessert. No joke.
I actually really, really love the soft, fluffy meringue that sits on the top. It is definitely my favourite part and I probably could just eat a bowl of that. Isn’t it amazing what egg whites become when they are whisked, with a little sugar, to within an inch of their lives!
The dessert in general is scrumptious, but I am super fussy with the particular ones that I will eat. Although, essentially, this dessert is made from milk, I do not much like the taste of it, and therefore do not like tasting milk in my desserts. In addition to this, a shortcut to make manjar blanco is to boil condensed milk until it becomes manjar, but the taste of condensed milk is a million times worse than regular milk. For me, a good manjar blanco shouldn’t taste like condensed milk, and therefore neither should any dessert with it in. Therefore, I am always super happy when I find a suspiro that fits the bill!
Here is a list of some of the best in the city that I have tasted so far, but I’m sure there are many more yet to be tested!
Where would I recommend in Lima to eat Suspiro de Limeña?
The Little Edition 