Thursday, 19th February. Callao for Lima. Early fog now brightening 21 degrees

Woke up somewhat refreshed. I was absolutely pooped last night and had to write my diary this morning. The fog – and it seemed so much more than sea mist today – was like a blanket and the cranes loomed shadowy over us as we were having breakfast outside. Everything felt damp. However, as I write it has got much lighter although still misty.

We went off to do a ‘foodie’ day today. So a later start and earlier finish in prospect. There were more people on this outing than the one we did in Rio all those years ago – or so it seems! The early morning mist had lifted before we left.

Our first stop was at the big food market called Minka in Callao. We were really pleased that we were not going to do the route into Lima again. 50,000 are thought to use the market every day. 1.5 million people live in Callao. Fishing is one of the main industries of Callao – once again due to our old friend the Humboldt current. Anchovies are one of the main catches here.

We had noticed the erratic driving and frequent hooting during the tortuous route home from Lima yesterday and today we learnt that there are no real rules of the road in Peru. Pedestrians do not have priority. There are reckoned to be 300,000 taxis in the Lima area, only 1,000 of them are registered. A lot of people take up taxi driving to provide an additional income. The official taxis are bright yellow but the local people use the service provided by small three wheeled tuk-tuk type vehicles, that come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and colours.

When we arrived at the Minka Market, we could not but help comparing the it with the colourful local one we visited in Chile last week. The produce was similar, in fact some of the fruit today came from Chile, but the whole atmosphere was different. The difference was a purpose built location, wider aisles, proper flooring and very tidy produce. It was immaculate but more for the discerning shopper than the hard up working class customer of last week, I felt.

It was glorious and no shortage of bananas here! We were able to taste some of the more unusual fruits but neither of us liked Prickly Pear any better than we did on previous tastings!

You didn’t even have to unwrap the physalis – they came unwrapped!

The chillies looked particularly ferocious!

A number of those potato varieties were on display

There was also black corn on display, which I think we also saw last week. It is very odd looking and is used to make a drink, having been boiled with cinnamon.

There were different sections of the market and after the fruit and vegetables we came across all types of fish, with a section where women were gutting them immaculately.

There was also a large meat section and another that I particularly liked the look of – home made crisps!!

We left the market to head towards our lunch stop. On the way we were told that there are three main types of restaurant in Lima. The Cervicherias serving raw fish cooked in lime juice, chilli and onion, Polleria, selling chicken and Chifa, Chinese fusion food. It was at this point that Keith started getting a bit frustrated with our guide because he, and indeed I, are both aware that there is also Japanese influenced food, Nikkei, and some of the best restaurants in the world are in Lima, so there’s a flourishing ‘fine dining’ scene.

Our concerns were further underlined when we stopped outside the same restaurant as we had eaten at yesterday!! The food was OK and fairly interesting but not interesting enough to have it two days running! I have to admit we were both somewhat disappointed. The day had been advertised as a Peruvian Foodie Adventure, but the only difference from yesterday was that we were shown how the dishes were prepared (yesterday we had little idea what went into them). Today we had individual plates of food whereas yesterday we helped ourselves from platters delivered to the table. And that was it. Exactly the same meal. We both came away feeling a bit deflated.

We did get to try the drink made out of the black corn. It was very sweet and better once ice had been added.

So back to the ship and the end of our stay in Lima. Four days at sea ahead.

Before we turned our back on the Andes, which have been with us for a couple of weeks, I could not resist photographs of the sun setting…..

Goodbye to all that, Panama here we come!