South America- Day 2- Lima, Peru: "Lima beans, pronounced lee*ma"

After a full night's sleep at the lovely Doubletree, we had a great breakfast and crossed our fingers while we went to check on the missing bag. Unfortunately it didn't get delivered after the flight from New York yesterday, but our incredible concierge Vilko took us over to a LAN office where the attendant got us on the phone with the luggage department at corporate and we were told our bag was definitely now in Lima! We weren't sure what time it would be delivered but the agent put a note on our file that we were flying out the next morning and said they would rush it and try to get it to us today. To cut through the suspense, our bag arrived at our hotel at 6:30-- so relieved!

Back to the actual fun Lima details.... after breakfast and our trip to LAN, we grabbed a cab back up to the Centro area to do a few things we didn't get to yesterday. We first went to the church of San Pedro; it was gorgeous. Very ornate and beautifully restored, the interior was the prettiest church we've seen so far. From the wood work to the soaring ceilings to the gilded alcoves and pulpit, this should be on the short list of historic landmarks. Make sure to look up the hours beforehand though as they close it for several hours in the middle of the day.

After San Pedro, we walked the few minutes back to Plaza Mayor to see the changing of the guards. We were a few minutes early so we grabbed a seat on a bench across from the Palacio Gubernatorio and tried to keep the chilly air at bay. It was another overcast, gray day with very high humidity-- apparently this is what Lima is like in the winter! There are guards stationed both around the square as well as outside the square's barricade to help keep protesters away from the government buildings. We didn't encounter any yesterday, but today we could hear chants and noisemakers from outside the perimeter. One set of the guards outside the palace had a golden retriever as their guard dog-- absolutely adorable to watch since the puppy wanted to befriend every stray dog that walked by and clearly wanted to play. He got very excited when he actually got to perform some sort of check on the bars; jumping up and bouncing every few feet. Anyway, at 1130, a large state marching band emerged and marched to the front by the gates to put on a performance. They probably played around five songs and played for 15-20 minutes which was very impressive. Then the actual changing of the guards occurred including different groups, formations, salutes etc-- it's difficult to describe without the proper vernacular but it was surprisingly cool and we would highly recommend it.

After our cultural entertainment, we headed slightly off the beaten path and around the corner to the Amazonas book market. Definitely a different feel from the more touristy area, the market can be found just past the market on the corner of Amazonas and Abancay. If you walk through the first market of misc goods and lots of bags, you'll hit the book market in the next block. Stall after stall of assorted books are all you can see and a lot of them are piled floor to ceiling-- pretty remarkable for book lovers! Since we're strapped for space and don't actually need books in Spanish, we left empty-handed but it was great to walk around.

We then hopped into a cab to head to the Museo Larco in the Puebla Libre neighborhood. The traffic honestly seems to be terrible any time of day and the drivers are definitely following their own rules to make their way through the city. This one was a particularly crazy ride (including cutting through a gas station,) but we made it in one piece and were dropped of in front if the beautiful building that houses the collection. The entrance fee is higher than what we had encountered so far (30 soles), but it was honestly a great museum. It was early in the afternoon at this point and the hotel breakfast had worn off so we stopped in the restaurant within the museum. Going hand in hand with the overall ambiance, the restaurant was in a landscaped courtyard and was split between indoor and outdoor sections. The outside was lovely with different styles of chairs, hurricane lamps, etc. We decided to split two appetizers since we're learning how large the portions can be: tequenos (won ton wrappers filled with Andean cheese and a guacamole dipping sauce) and then a sampler platter including items likes tamale, a sweet corn cake, causa, yuca etc). Before we got to our food though they brought us these amazing dried/ roasted crunchy corn kernels that were salted and heavenly-  I would like to bring a bag home with me if we can find them! Now to the museum... while I had honestly only heard of the erotic artifacts, the rest of the museum was the real highlight and also focus. The collection encompasses Peruvian artifacts from many eras including ceramics, textiles, weaponry and armor, and jewelry. The space is beautifully set with spotlight, vignettes, and terrific placards and explanations-- truly an internationally-geared museum. Also, you can walk through their amazing storage areas to see all the incredible pieces not on display. Room after room of floor to ceiling glass with thousands of items serves as a reminder of the amazing breadth of history this country has.

After the Museo Larco, we switched gears and headed to a very touristy area of the Miraflores neighborhood called Larcomar. We hadn't done much exploring in the area and wanted to see the ocean a bit despite the cloudy weather. Larcomar is basically a mall carved into the cliff which sounded cooler than it was. The shops were your typical chain stores but we were able to see the view (which must be stunning when the weather is clear) and snagged a delicious brownie before walking the fifteen minutes or so back to our hotel.

We continued with a little trip planning then got ready for one of the special dinners we planned before leaving the US: Astrid y Gaston. We heard about it via the recent San Pellegrino rankings and it turns out that Gaston is a celebrity chef from Peru who has opened several restaurants worldwide (including a new one slated to open in Chicago this summer). We decided to splurge and do the tasting. Overall verdict: good meal but the price was a little inflated and it cost basically what a meal like this would in New York which seemed out of place here. A quick recap of bites we had from the "Journey through Peru" tasting (I'll try to go back and fill in more details from online if possible since we didn't get a menu at any point):

• Nest with a phyllo twig, cactus roll with andean cheese, meringue with a begonia, a candy egg shell with passion fruit gelee, and a seaweed/rice puff
• Toasted grains, mini tomatoes, and broth
• Potatoes with some kind of orange sauce and crispy potato skin atop 
• Lima bean/fish combo (which I think was brennan's favorite) by the way, they're pronounced lee*ma not li*ma down here! 
• Scallop dish
• Cebiche with mussels and whitefish
• Whitefish with parmesan snow and capers
• Shrimp and yellow potatoes in a yellow pepper sauce
• Dashi prepared in a percolator and then poured over a bowl of octopus and vegetables
• Guinea pig taco 
• Carbonara but the pasta was tuber and it came with a roll and ricotta 
• Pork with peanuts and a crispy peanut butter tuile
• Camu camu (local fruit) ice cream with snow
• Ice cream pop that came in a box then we rolled it in melted chocolate and toasted quinoa
• Chocolate cylinder filled with something that was like a chocolate nougat
• Last bites: sweet cracker, gelee, chocolate with liquid ganache, and a truffle

Since we have to get up very early on Thursday to fly to Cusco, we didn't drink much but Brennan did have what was basically a Manhattan with pisco that was tasty!  We raced home from dinner after 11, reallocated our belongings between the two bags, set the alarm for 4 and passed out!