Weekend fun in Miraflores!

Saturday morning we headed to Miraflores for a relaxing day in the nicest area of Lima. First we went to Parque de Amor (Park of Love) which is right on the coast and absolutely beautiful.

This is the statue in the middle of the "Park of love."

 

 

The original plan for the day was to paraglide in the morning and then take a chocolate making class in the afternoon. Sadly, the winds were not strong enough for us to paraglide so naturally we went shopping! Melody, our Peruvian friend, guided us into the heart of Miraflores to some great Inca and Indian markets. It was fun to look around. I bought a beautiful scarf with alpacas on it! After some shopping and walking around Parque Kennedy (another pretty park nearby) we headed to the Choco Museo to learn all about the cacao bean and making chocolate. And of course we got to eat some chocolate too.

First we toasted the beans in this pot. I cannot remember what it is called. I wish you could smell pictures because the smell of these beans when roasting was amazing.

 

After the beans were toasted we removed the shells and added the shells to boiling water to make cacao tea. It was delicious!

Next we ground the beans to an almost paste. A machine is used to make the cacao butter and paste.

 

Using our beans that were ground to paste, we made Kakaw which was a drink created by the Indians to be used in place of human blood for sacrifices to their gods. Red powder from flavorless peppers is added to the cacao paste and water to give the appearance of blood. I actually loved the Kakaw, even if it was created for a creapy reason. Then we used the remainder of our paste to make hot chocolate. This was, of course, everyone's favorite. It was simply cacao paste, brown sugar, and hot milk. SOO delicious.

 

Now to chocolate making. In order to speed the process, our beans were taken to be used later and we were given the melted chocolate. I chose to work with 70% dark chocolate. We poured the chocolate into molds and added different local fillings such as candied oranges, puffed quinoa, dried aji (mild pepper) powder, hazelnuts, and coconut. Then we added another layer of chocolate to complete our candies.

Chocolate molds in progress.

 

Then we had to wait awhile for the molds to set. So.....

We had chocolate cake!

 

After the chocolate making class, which I would highly recommend to anyone who is ever in Lima, we headed back to the hotel with bellies full of chocolate. I even had chocolate dreams.

 

Sunday morning so of us decided to go surfing! We were picked up at 9:15 and taken back to Miraflores for surf lessons. We were a little worried, well maybe a lot, that we would freeze since the high for the day was 62 (It is the beginning of winter here). But we suited up and were good to go! Not cold at all! The first thing our instructors had us do was jog down the beach in our wetsuits. I am fairly certain they just had us do this for laughs. We got a good laugh too. After being briefed on the surfing techniques and headed into the water!!

 

Before surfing. We were so excited...and extremely nervous.

 

We had SOOO much fun surfing!!! Our instructors were awesome, the water felt amazing, and the waves were perfect for beginners. Thanks to my instructor, Gustavo (who was adorable but not so great at English), I actually was able to stand and ride a few waves! We all did!

 

After surfing and swallowing a lot of water.

This is Gustavo. We fell in love. He asked me to go dancing but I had to turn him down. It was a school night after all!

 

After the morning fun we were taken back to our hotel which just so happens to be the hotel of one of Lima’s most popular professional futbol teams. The team which shares our little hotel, Universitario, was to play their rival, Alianza Lima. Their rival is like Mississippi State and Ole Miss but much worse. So much so, that the last time they played the crowds got so rowdy that two people were killed. It is crazy. There were police EVERYWHERE and of course we had to have guards at the hotel since the team stays here. Riding back from surfing thousands of people and police lined the streets.

 

 

Many were selling game day paraphernalia and according to the guy driving us back, there were a lot of scalpers. We arrived at the hotel the doors were locked and there was a sign on the door saying the Hotel restaurant was closed today. The security guard had to call someone to let us in. When we finally made it into our rooms we turned on the TV and the news was on showing all of the police in the area.

 

So crazy. The stadium is about a 10 minute walk from our hotel and we wanted to go but the Peruvian students said absolutely not. They wouldn’t even go because the crowds get so rowdy. Melody, one of the Peruvians, told us (half jokingly but also kind of seriously) that 50% of the people at the game were criminals. Milagros said that they were not good people and we didn’t need to be there.

 

The caption on the screen informed us that more than 3,000 police were securing the area

 

Since we could not go to the game Melody took us took us out of La Molina, away from the crowds, to Miraflores. We went to a cute little strip of restaurant/bars near Parque Kennedy to watch the game. Some of the other Peruvians met us there and we had a blast watching the game and cheering with the others in the packed little bar. Universitario won!!!

 

Here was the game winning (and only) goal! Universitario 1 Alianza 0

 

Friday night we took a picture with a few of the players. Of course we had no idea who they were, but come to find out, we chose pretty well. The tall bald guy in the middle was MVP of the game and the guy with curly hair to the right scored the only goal of the game!

It's hard to believe that this was my last weekend in Peru. I have really enjoyed spending the weekends exploring Lima and the surrounding area. Every moment has truly been a blessing. This is a beautiful, diverse, intriguing country.