Around Where I live
I just wanted to quickly post about the area where I live to a bigger extent than I have before. I am staying in Lima, in one of the districts called Miraflores. If you have been reading my posts you probably already know this but Miraflores is definitely more of a touristy region than many of the other ~40 districts in Lima. Its right next to the water which is quite gorgeous! My hostel itself is a 5-10 minute walk to get to the coast. Unfortunately, its not like being in California since the “winter” weather here is a lot more grey in Lima. The road we take to get to Andrea’s parent’s house which is 2 districts over is called “Circuto de la Playa” and I love seeing the water on this taxi ride! Sometimes we actually see some surfers in the water. Also if we go for longer runs, we run along the cliff (they have lots of little parks and paths along here) and I can definitely pass the time just staring out at the water.
So when we are not working and not running, the second thing we do in the area we live is eat! Though our hostel is on a quiet street, one block over is a very busy street called Republica de Panama. We walk a couple blocks up the street until we reach an intersection with another major street: Benavides. On the corner of this intersection is a store called Wong. Its pretty much a “super” grocery store with an electronics section, a home décor section, and a cafeteria. We do lots of grocery shopping here and actually have some cheap meals (salad bar, hot food section, sushi, dim sum) here when we don’t want to go to a restaurant. If you look in the picture, the outside has lots of red and white decorations. Thats for Peruvian Independence day coming up (the 28th)!
But if we want to be a little more adventurous with our personal meals we head out further down the street to where there is a restaurant and fast food conglomerate. Although we haven’t actually gone to these stores/restaurants, I was really surprised to see a KFC, Chili’s, and Starbucks all here! Like I said, we definitely live in the touristy/more americanized region. But one fast food place we have been to is this place called “Bembos.” Bembos is like the Peruvian McDonalds and they are pretty much a burgers place BUT whats cool about Bembos is that the burgers have a peruvian twist. For example there is this meal called “a lo pobre” but Bembos turns it into a burger by adding plantains, eggs, avocado. Etc. We have only eaten there once and we split a burger but it was really good and it was fun to get a “peruvian burger” per se. Also in this area are some smaller coffee places where Andrea and I might work on our projects some days when we don’t have to go to the hospital. I personally like the coffee shop atmosphere and it reminds me of being back at school in New Haven!
