7 days, instead of 2

The friendliest & most helpful people.

Incredible food… very unique.

30 surf spots: from 2ft to 15ft…mainly lefts,  4min to 2h from Lima

Couchsurfing is unreal. My awesome host Jano made me live Lima style

I lost most of my photos! no worries!

Got upgraded to Business class from Madrid to Lima… so good!

I guess, a lot depends on who you meet when you travel.  Jano, who I met on Couchsurfing.com (crazy advertising guru) didn’t show me any tourist attraction, and made me live the way they do… a very entertaining lifestyle. Here is what I enjoyed the most:

• 6am on my arrival, the absolute first thing Jano said: “ Man, let’s go surfing”. We went again the following day at 4:30am with all his mates
• Drinking Pisco Sour, local alcohol with lime, ice and an egg, or Chicha Morada (purple corn drink)
• Eating “fusion food”: mix of traditional Peruvian with all kind of Asian or western food…
• Munching on Choclo (Peruvian corn), Cecina (smoked wild pig from the jungle) or cow heart skewers
• Having a beach break 4 min from my house in Miraflores
• Paragliding over the city, with Marco (crazy instructor)
•  Playing soccer with keen Peruvian guys
• Grocery shopping at Wong. The service is that good that they walk you home if your trolley is heavy!
• Hanging out with incredibly happy locals, so proud of their country
• Having crab soup at Mi Peru in Barranco (bohemian district)
• Sharing waves with super welcoming local surfers

Happy days!

PS: here is what I was initially going to write… I’ll include it anyway!

1^st I flew out of Lyon, via Madrid,  with Iberia. They were supposed to charge me 300Euros for the board. They didn’t. On the Madrid-Lima leg,  I got upgraded to business, then I got to Lima and used the Spanish word that my “plane-neighbour” taught me… 30 min later, I was on the 7^th floor of a cool building on the beach in Miraflores, with my own room and bathroom…. All of that is cool but my host made it even better: an awesome dude,  who’s first words at 6:30am when I woke him up was: Man, Let’s go surfing… But before he insisted to take me out for a Peruvian breakie. “This sandwich is the best, they boil the meat in water until the water is completely evaporated, then they use the fat left at the bottom to fry the meat!” I asked how healthy it is, and he said “Well, It is food, so it’s healthy!”. Then he proceeded to explain to me why food became such a huge scene in Lima. His explanation included a succession of crazy presidents, some terrorist attacks, economic failure… it all made sense but would be pretty hard to explain it again! It was only 8:30am.  Then he dropped me off at the local surf break on his way to work…