Summer Evening

It's summer in Lima. The evenings are warm, and people are out and about. Friday evening, we strolled around Parque Kennedy, which is a large park in Miraflores, one of the pretty and more touristy neighborhoods of Lima. The park was buzzing with activity. There are lots of artists who set up and try to sell their paintings along the alleyways of the park. Most of them are pretty dreadful, but it doesn't matter.

People of every age and type are there to enjoy the outdoors.

And off to the side you see a big group gathered around in a circle. You also hear the sounds of samba and marenge. In the middle of the crowd is a sunken area filled with people dancing. Most of them are well over the age of 65, but their joy and youthfulness is apparent and contagious.

Just off Parque Kennedy is Calle de Pizza. This is one of the few places in Lima where we've seen groups of loud Americans. It is a pedestrian street, lined with restaurants (mostly pizza places, but not exclusively). It's very touristy. Each restaurant has it's own specialty - Karaoke, Tango, Disco, whatever. And they are all blaring their music, one next to the other. It's kind of fun, actually. However, we followed the advice of friends Sarah and Mark, and did not try any of the restaurants.

Instead, we headed to another part of Miraflores and ended up wandering into a Uruguan parilla restaurant. Here they offer all sorts of meats, ranging from beef and chicken to sweet breads, hearts, and cuy (guinea pig), which are grilled on the parilla (sort of bbq grill). The place was run by a guy who had been a former soccer player in Uruguay and was decorated with signed jerseys. His father was a Tango singer, so there were also lots of photos of famous tango people. They had 2 TVs going. One had a S. American basketball game going. The other was offering competitive marathon billiards. That's probably not what it's called, but it featured two opponents, who would each try to clear the table as fast as they could, and this went on for many rounds. It was oddly mesmerizing.