September 4 — My Cacao Pilgrimage, Barranco, and Tea with New Friends
It’s Friday, September 4th. I had a good adventure today.
I woke up at about six this morning, but I didn’t get out of bed until eight. I had my tea and ate breakfast here. I finished that strawberry kefir that was so good. I wish I had more of that. I ate my last two bars that I made at home. I’m definitely going to make those again.
I put my clothes that hadn’t dried overnight into the dryer. I’ll do another load tonight, now that I think I understand how to use the washing machine and dryer combo. Right when I’m leaving, of course. It was very stressful for me last night doing laundry. The washing machine was so loud and shaking the apartment and I thought something was wrong with it, and I could not figure out how to get it to do what I wanted it to do. But I’ve got it figured out now.
This morning I worked on my blog, writing about the day before. I feel pretty proud of my post, even though only one person looked at my blog. It doesn’t matter though. I’m doing it for myself. I like having a record of what I did and the things I noticed and the pictures and all of it.
I answered a couple emails and texts, but I didn’t do much work. I had a slow morning and started planning my day, and then I went out on an adventure.
Things I keep noticing
I love that a lot of Peruvians walk really slow, because I also walk really slowly. So sometimes when I’m passing somebody, I’m like, wow, they walk really slow. I love that. Not everybody, obviously, but a lot of people. There are just so many cars and everybody’s honking all the time, and it’s kind of funny. Today I realized that a lot of the honking is a kind of preventative: Here I come, watch out! Pedestrians definitely do not have the right of way. You definitely have to wait for the cars if you don’t want to get run over. It almost seems like they speed up when they see you on the road. Like it’s a game.
I feel like because traffic is so bad, everybody walks, and so it’s just so fun to walk everywhere. All the restaurants are walkable and all these shops are walkable, and there are people out walking around everywhere. I enjoy that. I want to live here for a while and ride an electric scooter around, or a motorbike. I want to feel safe and comfortable doing that and feel like a local.
For lunch I went back to La Baguette and got a turkey and avocado pita and a green smoothie with mango, kale and coconut water. It was really good, actually. It was the perfect lunch and the perfect little amount of fuel before I went out walking. There was women’s volleyball on the TV, Japan versus Peru. I loved that. At some point I saw this woman walking by eating a big slice of watermelon, which I also loved. These are the kinds of things I notice.
And then I headed out on my cacao pilgrimage.
Walking into Barranco
I walked toward the Barranco neighborhood, and it was a 22-minute walk. I went down this pretty busy street whose name I don’t remember, and then I crossed over a bridge that takes cars and pedestrians over the freeway into Barranco. I was just walking and taking pictures of things along the way. There was this statue of Mary with flowers in front of her, murals, plants, these brightly colored recycling cans, just things that caught my attention.
I saw the building where I’m going to be staying when I come back to Lima after Iquitos, and it’s right across the street from the Contemporary Art Museum. I didn’t go into the museum because I’m saving that for when I come back. I’m going to have a couple of days in Barranco, and I want to go then and have more time to explore.
Ceremonial cacao at Ukaw
The first cacao place I went to was Ukaw, and I ordered the ceremonial cacao.
When it arrived, it was basically this bowl of steaming milk with cinnamon on top, and then there was an actual cacao bar sitting next to it. I didn’t really know what I was supposed to do. So I asked them, like, do I put the bar into the milk? And they said yes, and then stir it.
The presentation was so beautiful. It came on this wooden plate in the shape of a leaf, with this beautiful painted bowl and this beautiful wooden spoon that looked almost like a little branch. I put a piece of the cacao bar into the warm milk and stirred it around until it melted.
The whole place was really beautiful. They had all this information about cacao on the walls and this huge mural of a girl working with cacao, and they had all these incredible-looking desserts and chocolates and food. Everything everybody else was eating looked incredible, and I was basically jealous of all of it, but I had just eaten lunch, so there was no way I could eat there too. I definitely want to go back there when I’m staying in Barranco and actually eat.
The ceremonial cacao was good, and I felt it in my heart. I felt this kind of peacefulness and opening, and it was really nice.
And then this funny thing happened. There was still a lot of cacao in the bottom of my bowl, and this woman came over and said something to me in Spanish. I didn’t understand what she said, so I just nodded.
This was a lesson in: do not just nod and say yes when you do not understand what somebody is saying to you.
For some reason I thought she was going to take the bowl and put more warm milk in it so I could drink the rest of the cacao. So I sat there waiting for it to come back. And it never came back. Eventually I realized that she just took it away. I had only used maybe a third of the cacao bar, and I absolutely would have kept the rest of it, and there was still all this cacao at the bottom of the bowl. So I sat there feeling dumb for a while, trying to decide whether I was going to say something, and then I finally got up the nerve to ask. I translated what I wanted to say into Spanish, but none of them seemed to know what I was talking about and they looked at me kind of weird, and eventually I just gave up.
Because she took my plate away.
So goodbye, cacao bar. But then I bought some ceremonial cacao there for Maestro Hamilton.
El Cacaotal and the hummingbird spoon
It was just a few more blocks to El Cacaotal, which is this really specialized cacao place connected to a little coffee shop. They took me upstairs into this private room to show me their cacao selection. It was very niche. I basically had my own cacao guide, which I loved.
She showed me this white cacao powder that she said is grown in the desert of Peru, and she said it was one of the things they were known for, so I bought some of that. And then I also bought some cacao paste that she told me was grown in southern Peru.
So now I have three different kinds of cacao for Hamilton. Which might be excessive.
And then I went into another little traditional gift shop and bought a white hummingbird spoon for him to stir the cacao with, because the white hummingbird could go with the white cacao.
So now this is becoming a whole thing. I have the ceremonial cacao from Ukaw, the white cacao powder, the cacao paste, and the hummingbird spoon. And now I’m trying to think about the best way to present everything. Maybe I need to get some kind of little tapestry or woven cloth to wrap it all up in. I don’t know. It feels important to me to be respectful about delivering a medicine gift. And cacao feels like a good one for him because he talks about how much he loves cacao.
I might go back and get more cacao as gifts for other people, but I am not going to do that until after Iquitos. I need to stop buying cacao for a minute.
There was another gift shop I was trying to find, but I’m pretty sure the street where Google Maps wanted me to turn was basically blocked off. There was a wall. It was like the street didn’t exist. I was not going on some wild goose chase through Barranco trying to find another store. So maybe I’ll try again when I come back.
I really liked Barranco, though. It felt a little less urbanized than Miraflores and a little more authentic somehow, and just calmer. At first I had been thinking that maybe when I came back from Iquitos I would rather stay in Miraflores again, because now I understand Miraflores and I know where things are and it feels familiar. But now I’m getting excited to stay in Barranco and explore it. So I’m going to stick with the Airbnb I already have planned.
At one point I walked by this couple sitting on a park bench, and I could tell something about their relationship just from the way she was sitting and the tension in her face. My immediate thought was: she needs to get away from that man. I don’t need to know anything else. Obviously I don’t know anything about these people. I don’t know their relationship. But that was just this immediate thing I felt when I looked at her.
I also saw what I think was the first potentially homeless person I’ve seen here. I had actually been thinking about how I hadn’t seen any homeless people, and I really hadn’t seen anyone who looked visibly like they were on drugs. But I did see a couple of people in Barranco where I felt like maybe that was what was happening. There was one man who really looked like he was struggling. His clothes were all ripped up, and he was searching through the trash cans, and my heart just went out to him. I felt terrible for him. And at the same time, I wanted to stay far away from him.
There were a couple of times today where I just felt alert and aware of what was around me, and I think that was correct. I didn’t necessarily feel like I was in danger. I just felt like I needed to pay attention.
Home along the ocean
By then I was starting to get tired, and the street I had walked down on the way into Barranco had been so busy, and I really didn’t want to walk all the way back along that street. So I searched for Puente de la Paz, the bridge I had walked over the day before, and it looked like it was only about a 14-minute walk to get to the path along the ocean. And I thought, this is just going to be so much nicer.
It really was. I’m really glad I did that.
It was such a beautiful walk with plenty of ocean breeze. The ocean was showing off some really nice waves. It was overcast, but the sun was kind of off in the distance shining through the clouds, and it was just lovely. I want to walk that path every day now.
I saw the same guy again who was guarding the bridge. I guess because of the way they’re repairing the bridge right now, there isn’t a separate lane for bicycles, so people riding scooters and bicycles have to get off and walk their bikes across. And there was the same guard, telling everybody to get off their bicycles. He just looked so kind but also so firm. He was very clear with people on bikes. Like, no, you have to get off. I don’t know if he remembered me, but I remembered him.
By the time I got home I was feeling pretty tired, and my plantar fasciitis was seriously acting up. And I was sweaty. It’s definitely more humid here than what I’m used to, and I just keep thinking about how much hotter and so much more humid it’s going to be in Iquitos and wondering what the hell I’m going to wear. I’m kind of dreading that part. But I’m just dealing with one day at a time.
I walked into the apartment, took off my clothes, took a shower, and then lay down on the bed and did legs up the wall for a while.
Last dinner in Lima: Alegría Picantería Piurana
I decided I was still going to go out for dinner because it was my last night in Lima before I leave for Iquitos tomorrow morning. I walked to Alegría Picantería Piurana, which is only about a nine-minute walk from where I’m staying. I think I saw it when I walked to the grocery store the other day and thought, oh, I want to come back here.
It was cute inside. It wasn’t too busy, and I got seated right away. I sat down next to these two women, and I noticed them because they were sitting together talking in Spanish.
I always like to get some kind of fun drink when I go somewhere, so I ordered this thing called a Clarito, which was made from fermented corn. There was an alcoholic version and a non-alcoholic version, so I ordered the non-alcoholic one. And then it came out in this huge bowl, which was like a hollowed-out gourd. It was a lot. And once I got it I realized, oh shoot, I’m not really supposed to be having fermented foods right now. So I sipped a little bit of it. It was good. But I didn’t drink very much.
Then I ordered northern-style ceviche, partly because my friend Jen Saxer loves ceviche. The last time I was in Peru I remember ordering some in honor of her, and it was so beautifully presented and so good, and I was really surprised because I had always thought I didn’t like ceviche. So I ordered it again.
This ceviche came on a huge platter. The sea bass was actually really good. It was covered in onions, and there were beans and yuca with it. I had never seen ceviche served like that before. The food at this restaurant is from northern Peru, so it was a completely different style from the ceviche I remembered. It was enormous. I ate less than half of it, probably, and then they took the rest away because obviously ceviche isn’t something I was going to take home and eat tomorrow.
And then I had also ordered the duck with rice, arroz con pato. Which was also enormous. I ate one piece of duck and a few bites of rice, but by that point I was just really full. I had also filled up a little on the plantain chips they brought before the food, and maybe I just wasn’t all that hungry to begin with. So I got almost all of my duck and rice to go. And now apparently I’m having duck and rice for breakfast tomorrow morning because I can’t take it on the plane with me. We’ll see. I’m sure it’ll be good for breakfast.
I am also having some mild stomach pains tonight, so I’m paying attention to that.
Tea with strangers/new friends
What was really nice about dinner was that the women sitting next to me started talking to me. They asked me a little bit about the duck I ordered, and then they ordered tea, and they said, “Oh, do you want some of our tea?” And the waiter brought over another cup. So then the three of us were sitting there having tea together, and we were all really full.
They’re from Portugal, but they live in Miami. They’ve been together for ten years. One of them had been to Peru before and the other one hadn’t. They’re going to be in Lima for like ten days, and they have all this stuff planned, and then they’re going to Cusco and Machu Picchu. They also told me they love Thailand.
And then I started telling them about what I’m doing and about going to Iquitos and the ayahuasca retreat. They hadn’t even heard of Iquitos. I could feel myself getting excited and animated while I was telling them about the ceremony and being real with them about why I’m going and what I’m doing. One of them was immediately interested in ayahuasca and was like, I want to try that. And the other one was very clear that she absolutely did not. I love the clarity.
One of them followed me on Instagram, so I followed her back, and it was just really fun to talk to them. It was nice to have some company, because I have been feeling kind of lonely.
I’ve been thinking about how strange it is that I spend so much time by myself when I’m at home, but for some reason I don’t feel as lonely at home as I do when I’m traveling by myself. When I’m traveling alone and eating by myself and walking around by myself, there’s this constant feeling of nobody seeing me.
Then there’s also the fact that I can’t really communicate with people. I’m really feeling the impact of not having made any effort to learn Spanish before I came here, and honestly I think it’s kind of ridiculous. I even try. I prepare the phrases I think I’m going to need, and I write them down, and then when the actual moment comes, I lose my nerve and I just speak English. And most of the time somebody does speak English, or they find somebody who does, so I get away with it.
I heard somebody on Instagram or somewhere today saying that you just have to speak and mess up and then try again. And I haven’t really been doing that. I’ve been failing to do that. I want to make more of an effort, because it’s pretty lame of me to be here and keep expecting everybody else to communicate with me in English because I’m too nervous to sound stupid in Spanish.
There was another thing I noticed while I was sitting with these women. They both looked really cute. They were younger than me, although I don’t really know how old they were. Maybe late thirties or early forties. I really don’t know. But they were nicely dressed and looked put together. And I was sitting there in my hiking pants and my T-shirt feeling like such a schlub.
It brought up this whole thing for me, because I remember when I worked with Shana, the stylist, and I wanted to have five nice outfits that I could wear on dates, and I really worked hard to do that. And then I gained more weight after that. And I just kind of gave up. I don’t even want to wear jeans anymore. I don’t want to wear uncomfortable underwear. I don’t want to wear a bra. I just don’t care enough anymore to make myself physically uncomfortable for clothes. And I’m trying to embrace that, because that’s what’s true. But when I see women who are really nicely dressed, I still have this feeling of, wow, I don’t know how to do that anymore. And I don’t know if I even care enough to figure it out.
But it was nice that they talked to me. I don’t know if they felt bad for me sitting there by myself or what, but it was sweet that we connected. I was glad to have people to talk to. I told them about Nina and Ukaw and some of the places I’ve eaten, and I told them I would definitely go back to both of those places.
I don’t think I would go back to Alegría.
It was interesting, too, because after dinner the waiter came over with one of those QR codes and asked me to write a review. I feel like this happens a lot here. They come over and basically stand there while you do it. It’s a little aggressive. I did write him a review, and I posted pictures of my food with it, but the whole thing makes me think differently about restaurant reviews, because now I know how many of them might be written while a waiter is literally standing over somebody waiting for them to finish.
It’s not like anything was terrible. I had a perfectly good experience. But would I go back? Probably not. And that’s different from Nina or Ukaw, where I genuinely want to go back.
I’m glad I went out for dinner. And I’m glad those women were sitting next to me. It was a good night.
The end of the day
Yesterday I took 12,761 steps according to my phone. Today it was 11,500 steps, but it felt like more.
And now I need to somehow go to sleep because my taxi is coming at 5:10 tomorrow morning. I need to be up by about 4 to make sure I’m ready and down there and everything. I’ve set alarms for 3:55, 4:00 and 4:05 a.m., just to make absolutely sure I do not miss my wake-up time.
Tomorrow I’ll be in Iquitos.
I feel really good about my adventure today. I feel good about the places I found, and I’m glad I thought to look for cacao. I really like this solution for my medicine gift for Hamilton.
I’m happy I got to spend some time in Barranco, because now I’m excited about coming back there. I want to go to the Contemporary Art Museum. I want to go back to Ukaw and eat some of the amazing food I was watching everybody else eat. I want to explore the little shops and walk around and see what else I find.
So that was my last full day in Lima before Iquitos.
To be continued.
