Our last couple days in Peru were spent in Lima and were devoted almost entirely to eating. We wanted to send Julie off with a bang and decided we should take advantage of the food scene in Lima and indulge in some fine dining before she headed back to the states. We consulted the internet, read several reviews, and found a highly recommended restaurant close by in the Miraflores district called Raphael Osterling. We made reservations for the following evening and spent the rest of the day perusing the Miraflores area and treating ourselves to some awesome American-style cheeseburgers from a restaurant called Republic. After gorging ourselves with burgers and fries we had eaten our way into a food-coma and were all feeling the bus-lag for the previous night’s 10 hour bus from Huaraz so we concluded the afternoon with a nap. The afternoon nap carried into the next morning and we woke up with a full 15 hours of sleep. Excited for the day ahead and feeling very well-rested, we set out early and spent the morning in central Lima. We witnessed the changing of the guard, explored some of China town, and had some top-notch pisco sours from Hotel Maury. We returned to Miraflores in time to grab a late KFC lunch and enjoy some afternoon cervezas before our 9pm dinner date.

We all dressed in our finest – Julie and I ended up having to consult the bargain bin at a store down the street to find some appropriate attire but for less than $10 each we found some stylish duds to suit the evening. When we arrived at Raphael there were immediate good vibes – the decor was eclectic and enticing, all of the menus were beautifully made with playful print-work and simple bindings (I was so enamored with them that the waiter ended up giving me the check book to take home), and the food we could see looked delicious. Once seated, we pulled out all the stops and ordered wine, apps, entrees, and dessert and everything was so darn tasty. This definitely ended up being one of the better meals we’ve had in South America and we look forward to possibly visiting his other location in Colombia.   

Anywho, we had managed to eat our way into another food-coma and hit the hay before our last day with Julie which turned out to be a continuation of our eat-a-thon accompanied by the opening ceremony of the Olympics.

After saying goodbye to Julie, Brent and I spent an extra couple of days in Lima to figure out our plans for the coming weeks.  We consulted Airbnb and found an awesome little apartment in our price range for a few days. We were looking forward to clearing our heads, watching the Olympics, continuing to eat, and making some plans. We had yet to decide anything about where we should go or what we should do but we were both feeling a little tired from our exciting couple of weeks with Julie and were looking to stay somewhere a while and catch our breathe. We turned to one of our favorite travel websites, workaway, and deliberated over a few different volunteer opportunities throughout Peru and Ecuador. After narrowing our options down to Ecuador alone, we emailed one in hopes of hearing back quickly. Surely enough, after 12 hours and 2 large dominoes delivery pizzas we had arranged our 3rd Workaway on a farm outside of Otavalo, Ecuador.

Soooo Ecuador here we come!