Manfred’s fist ceviche and a cosmopolitan good bye party ;)

As agreed, we met at noon in front of Manfred’s hostel. This time I was driving reloaded Kitty ;). Manfred asked me for help. He’d like to fly to Iquitos the next day, but haven’t bought his ticket yet. He checked the prices on line and they were expensive. Also another traveler at the hostel told him he got his in a travel agency. Ok, no problem! I have a friend in a travel agency, haha. We went there and asked for the ticket. It was 50% cheaper than the price published in internet and also cheaper than what Manfred’s roommate paid, haha. We found a ticket for next day at 6:30pm. Now we could keep on going without worries. Mission #1: accomplished and successful!

The fact that Manfred is a vegetarian wouldn’t stop me to make him try one of our famous dishes: “The ceviche”.

We went to one of my favorite cebicherias – which is not the fanciest, but has a great chef. We found a parking spot waiting for us and the place wasn’t full, hehe. By the time we left it was packed! First we ordered our drinks. No alcohol yet, haha. Let’s go with the 2 traditional soft drinks in Peru: Inca Kola for me & Chicha Morada (purple corn soft drink) for Manfred. He liked the Chicha Morada better than the Inca Kola, which was too sweet for him, haha. Not the first time I heard it.

We had an appetizer and it was time for the Ceviche! I ordered one with fish and seafood for me and a veggie one for Manfred. It had mushrooms, hehe. Sure it’s different, but had the traditional sour and spicy, yummy. I’m so glad he liked it! We were just talking about our different experiences at the airports and with customs agents, haha.

I thought him the right way to eat it, haha. Now he was mixing the canchita with the juice, eating like a local and enjoyed it even more, haha.  

Romain’s friend was having a good bye party, since she was flying back to France. I agreed to go to Romain’s at 5pm to help him with the party. So, Manfred and I left the restaurant. I drove back home, parked my car and then we took a bus in our way to Miraflores. It was early, around 2:30pm, so I decided to show him around the area. We had been in Larcomar before but at night + he was missing the Love Park. He really liked the view of the sea and was taking lots of pics. We walked for almost 2 hours and then he told me he wanted to get a coffee before going to Romains.

Ok, no problem. We’d go to a café nearby.

I didn’t know anyone nearby, so we just started walking and found a great one! More like a lounge. They served great coffee and their menu looks interesting too. But we weren’t hungry. Just wanted to take a sit and have a nice cup of warm coffee. It was getting windy and humid, brrr. We were just chilling out when I noticed it was already 5:20pm. We were late! So we went as fast as possible to Romain’s. Well, it was just 5 blocks away, so it didn’t take as long to arrive. Jenny was already there. I introduced Manfred to the rest of the gang and Elena (Romain’s gf) arrived. Then the 5 of us went to the supermarket to make some shopping, hehe. 

We looked like crazy at the Supermarket, worried about the alcohol stock, haha.

We bought beers, pisco, potatoes, chips, ham, cheese, olives and bread. While we were doing shopping I met an old teacher from grammar school, haha. We ended buying a lot of stuff and had to run because the clerk didn’t claim for the case of beers. I meant we paid for the beer, but the case wasn’t on sale, hehe. Now the cosmopolitan gang has a case haha.

We arrived back to Romain’s and started fixing the snacks and making the house ready. People would come later. It was getting late and we started dancing and opening the first beers. A friend of Romain came and also his neighbor who is Swiss. He and Manfred were talking in German and I was in the middle understanding it yeah! By the time Aline (the goodbye girl) arrived it was around 10pm. She didn’t come alone. A group of French and Peruvian friends were with her. 50% of the party was Peruvian and the other 50% was European, haha.

One of the Peruvian girls was an expert fixing pisco sours and thought us how to do it. She fixed a really tasty pisco sour! Manfred, Jenny and I were the official assistants, haha. We even learned how to know when it’s perfect time to turn off the blender, haha. Party was getting more and more fun. We started to dance and my boots were nice, but my poor feet were killing me. I took a sit and Manfred asked me what was going on with me. I told him about my poor feet and he took of my boot and said: “now you can dance” haha and I did it! 

We had a blast that night. Making new friends, dancing, just hanging out and having a great time. I think it was the best way to wish Aline a safe trip back home and Manfred a fun South American Adventure. Although I think we’d meet in a couple of months when he’s back in Peru with adventures to tell. He has friends in Lima and is part of the Cosmopolitan Gang!