How To: Live in Perú

There are lot of recipes on the Net, but the way I make it:

1. I use shaker, the portion is for ~4 cups.

2. Put some ice cubes into shaker.

3. Pour one part of pisco, one part of fresh pressed lime juice, half part of egg white and some jaraba de goma (sugar syrup). If I don’t have the syrup, I just give teaspoon or two of sugar.

4. Shake really well, until ice breaks in very small pieces and there is nice foam on top.

5. Pour in the glasses, give few drops of Angostura bitter. Disfruta!

Actually I don’t give exact proportions and use rule of thumb. Taste if it’s good, and if not, give some more pisco or juice or sugar.
It’s important to use limes, not lemon. It tastes better.

There are a lot of false coins here. Especially coins of 5 soles. I asked some people from bank how to recognize it. Now I think I know what to pay attention to. Here’s what I found out:

• 5 soles coins are bimetallic, so the color is first thing. The ring should be from stainless steel - shiny and clear, and inside from copper-aluminium-nickel. Just learn what’s the color of good coin.
• When you put coin on glass or desk, it should not “wabble”. False coin may be skew or crooked.
• Pay attention to “escudo” on reverse side. On good coin thin lines in the background should be good visible.
• Lines of the number on front side (5 or 2) must be straight

If you don’t have your own car, there are two ways to go around the city. You can take a taxi or you can take a bus (called kombi or micro).

Bus

Buses don’t have timetable. But they go every some minutes. Buses are cheap – at most you’ll pay 1 sol. You pay the man at the door.

Each bus has a line number or letter in the window. Also route is often written on the side. Additionally someone at the door is shouting where the bus is going, so just ask the doorman.

Buses have several disadvantages. The are very often in bad state. And they are often crowded. They stop very often to take new passengers, so your ride will take ages.

Taxis

Taxis in Lima are relatively cheap and there are a lot of them. They are good alternative when you’re with more people who will share the fare, or when you don’t know which buses to take. Taxis don’t have taximeters, so you will have to negotiate the price with the driver before you get in.
Unfortunately lot of taxi cabs are also in bad state.