Peru, country no. 22.
South America feels still foreign to us. And we had only just understood a little about Chile, the currency, the people, the streets, the small restaurants, when we left the country and entered Peru. Our next destination is the capitol Lima.
It’s not that different. We still have the desert on the right and the sea on the left. We stop for a few days in the first major town, Ilo. I am ill. Cystitis. It really hurt and cycling was not really fun.
But what was good was that we had time to decide on a different route. We will cycle further into the mountains, leave the coast with its few villages and perhaps take a little more of Peruvian society with us than just life as a fisherman.
We will have a lot ups and downs to cycle, so we will need a lot of energy to manage. Maybe all the potato dishes will help 🙂 Peru is said to have 3000 different potato varieties. I’m looking forward to all the dishes we can hopefully try. We’ve already made a start :-).
And since we understood, that we do not use the Spanish word patata to get one off the potato dishes, but papa, there is a good chance.
Patata is the South American name for sweet potato. Although the sweet potato is similar in shape, consistency and preparation to the potato, it is not related to it. As the first Europeans who came into contact with the tubers did not realize this and confused the sweet potato with the potato, the Spanish word for potato is still patata today. In the Andes, however, the potato is known as papa or affectionately as papita.
Just some impressions from our first days in Peru
And because I don’t have much else to report, here are just a few initial photos.
I’m feeling better again and we are travelling on tomorrow. To Arequipa!
