Last Day in Peru: Day 13

We made breakfast at Jessie's apartment and did some laundry in the morning. We headed out to do the last of our shopping at the Inca Plaza (yes Carrie, we found some yarn... first time I'd seen it the whole trip but then again I wasn't looking for it before!), then went to La Mar for our last meal out in Peru (a late lunch).

La Mar is an upscale restaurant that supposedly has the best ceviche (also cebiche) in all of Lima. It isn't too far from Jessie's apartment; it's only about a 5-10 minute taxi ride. My doctor also recommended this place, so it was the last thing on my 'to do' list for this trip to Peru.

We were really impressed overall. It is a nice atmosphere of gray stone, dark wood, and turquoise-colored cloth and decorations. We ended up sitting at the bar because the place was absolutely HOPPING at 4pm. It is only open from noon until 5pm; in Lima it is more common for people to eat lunch and dinner later than most people in the US. 3-4pm is a more common lunch time and 9pm is a common dinner time.

Jim and I both ordered a limonada, our favorite drink while in Peru that I've ordered with almost every meal. It's like lemonade, only with limes and always fresh-squeezed. None of this Minute Maid silliness; this is the real stuff.

They served as a complimentary appetizer freshly fried potato, sweet potato, and plantain chips with three different sauces as well as freshly fried (still warm) corn kernels called cancha that are common around here. The cancha are light, salty, and crunchy.

Jim and I ordered a sampler of five different cebiches, and all were equally delicious. There was the more traditional Peruvian lime, a sweet one with soy, a Chinese-fusion style with sesame and ginger, A chili-flavored Peruvian take, and a multi-seafood cebiche. All of them definitely topped any cebiche I had the week prior. Between the different cebiches and the chips and toasted corn, we were stuffed. What a fabulous way to end our time in Peru.

Now we are back at Jessie's getting ready to pack up as the laundry finishes drying. We'll head to the airport around 8:30pm to allow for traffic (since it's New Year's Eve) for our 11:39pm flight. We're taking the red-eye to New Jersey (Newark), then it's another 4-5 hour flight to Denver from there. I guess when Erik and Steph went home on Thursday their first flight (to Houston) ended up being canceled because the plane didn't land in Lima on time or something and they had to switch to a continental flight through Newark, so cross your fingers for us that we get home on schedule. If all goes well we should get home Sunday afternoon... otherwise it may be later.

Well Peru, it's been great, but it's time for us to go home. Buenas noches y Feliz Año Nuevo.