I'm OK

Hello from Mexico City, sorry I've been quiet but I have been sick and yesterday (yes, my birthday) was the first day off.  Today, still Sunday morning here, I feel better. :-)

That time again...

Happy Birthday Pushkin x
My only regret.

Peru gets into TOP5!!!

Sorry Bhutan, as exotic as you are, food left a bit to be desired, so in the new TOP5 destinations are (all equal!):
Berlin, Iceland, Istanbul, Libya and now Peru! :-)
Some more food photos:

More ceviche, with pisco sour
= perfect lunch

Grilled heart with aoji (spicy
 yellow pepper) sauce and of course
GIANT corn

South American hot blood (in a good way!)

I couldn't avoid it any longer... I had some business meetings and I got kissed and hugged!!!
Oh and the young man who served me breakfast said: "Miss you have SPECTACULAR eyes! Really! Like a cat!!!"
Since I woke up at 3am and did my morning run then, they must have been red!! But I'll take an honest and true compliment like that any day! ;-)

Pisco sour addiction

Practical pisco lecture...

Pisco, lime, sugar, egg white bitters...

Oh, you make one again, or 3!

Ceviche cooking class

Finito - It was the best!

Marinating....

Start with raw fish.

I LOVE LIMA!!!

I did a Lima culinary tour yesterday and drank good coffee, tried eating many different local dishes, drank too many Pisco sour cocktails, went to a market with many local fresh fruit to try, cooked my own ceviche and OMG how good is Peruvian food! I am so looking for a Peruvian restaurant back home!this would have to be one of the best and most varied cuisines in the world! What a surprise!

Oh and I saw the old Spanish city, the ocean and some old ruins... But did I mention the food?! 

ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT!!!
As my photos are transferring slowly from the phone to the ipad on the limited hotel wifi... Here are some unedited photos (unedited because I will make them arty later).

       

Purple corn, chillies, limes= heaven!

    

Freshest seafood -YUM!

Crazy Pakistan stories

Here are a few instances of how crazy the country and its people were:

• After work, I was having the food poisoning salad at the Kohsar Market (of course I would find out it was poisoned later...) and my driver was strangely chuckling to himself when I left and more when I came back. Thinking that maybe I have some strange sign on my back or something else, I finally asked him why he was laughing. "You know whereyou just had lunch? You know who Mr Tasseer is?" Of course I know the answer to neither. "Mr Tasseer, he was assassinated here last year!" Says the my driver and he's so happy I'm thinking he has the most morbid humour I have ever met... "Why is it so funny?" I finally ask. "Because of who killed him! His DRIVER!!!" Cackles my driver smiling triumphantly. I got it then!
• One of the agents I work with was taking me for a safe tour of Islamabad (it is his Merc that you can see the Mosque from) as he's driving up Margalla Hills, our conversation turns to TV, which I don't watch, except on the road when my favourite NatGeo show is on. What show, asks the agent. Air Crash Investigations, I admit embarrassed. But the agent is very excited and says he likes the show too. He then takes me on a very personal, tailored tour of Islamabad - the crash site of the crash of Airblue flight 202! Lovely!
• Talking about airplanes etc... The Benazir Bhutto International Airport (not to mention more assassinations) would have to be the worst airport I've been to, beating Kolkata by a mile! My luggage was opened and searched 4 times and x-rayed once, since Pakistan is a major route for Afghani opium trade. One of those times a sniffer woman stuck a massive needle into my open bag and as she pulled it out she sniffed it, checking for opiate smells, I was told. She surely looked a lot nastier than any sniffer dog I had seen so far! At check-in, I also had to pay some bribe fee, that was hand written on a piece of paper that was shown to me, of course no receipt was given. Then when my 29kg bag was finally closed and checked in, they protested it was too heavy and that I would have to pay excess luggage fees. Finally seeing my chance, since the only scale there was broken, I said "No! No scale no fee!" The staff there laughed so much, they gave me an invitation to the Business lounge.

Crazy Pakistan :-)

Highway repairs...

Pakistani transport options.

Roadside reading spot

Silver and guns from
Afghanistan!

"These guns, we used to fight
British!"

Detail from Pakistani truck.
All are hand painted.

Pakistan food

  

The best spinach EVER!
(At the top of the plate)

 

Food poisoning!

 

Fruit market stall