Day 2, Callao (Lima Peru)

Day 2, Nov 20 – Callao (Lima Peru)

Room service breakfast was delivered promptly at 6 AM per our request the evening before. They offered warm milk as an option for your oatmeal or coffee – a nice touch. We did miss chocolate croissants, but they did offer a chocolate twist, which while good, wasn’t the same. You can find a copy of the room service breakfast hang tag HERE

The larger bathroom is nice and it is possible for two people to maneuver around at the same time and each use one of the two available sinks.

Leaving the Ship

The ship gangway is always on Deck 4 at the same location near the middle of the ship. We left the ship at 7:52 and were pleased to learn that the shuttle bus would be arriving at 8AM despite the signs saying 9AM would be the first bus. We were pleasantly surprised that this adjustment to the schedule per our request the previous day was executed perfectly with everyone we encountered being aware of the schedule change to accommodate our desires.

Lima Day Food Tour

We would spend the day with Lima Gourmet Company on their Lima Day Food Tour .  More information HERE

NOTE: There is a lot of competition for cooking tours in Lima, but we chose Lima Gourmet base on its option of a nice mix of sightseeing along with making ceviche, pisco sours and enjoying other treats. We had a wonderful time and the Lima Gourmet Company is highly recommended.

The shuttle bus arrived at 8:00 and once the four of us were onboard, the bus left promptly. Plaza San Miguel was only 6 miles away but took thirty minutes (the ship said to plan for 45 minutes). The traffic was heavy, but there were numerous traffic signals, each with a long cycle time, that seemed to be the major reason for the slow trip.

We were fortunate that our trip was on the faster side and we arrived exactly at 8:30 AM where we met our guide, Lucas, who turned out to be one of the founders and owner of Lima Gourmet Tours. The tours normally start in Mira Flores but they will make accommodations for cruise ship passengers and the options are available when you first make your booking.

The tours take place in the Mira Flores and Barranco districts of Lima, which are about 1 hour away from the Plaza San Miguel.
During our one-hour transit from the Callao district to Barranco, Lucas gave us a fascinating overview of recent Peruvian history from about 1980 onward and explained the migration from the farms to the city, years of hyperinflation and political unrest and finally reaching stability and prosperity over the last decade.

Our first stop, a coffee shop called Tostaduria Bisetti, located at Av Pedro de Osma 116, Lima, Peru.  (More info HERE and HERE)
which is in the district of Barranco.

NOTE: Districts in Peru are political subdivisions which have a certain amount of autonomy from the city, electing their own mayors, and are responsible for providing certain services. Each district has its own police department, but only the national police carry weapons and enforce/investigate the more serious crimes.

After we parked  we came across a nice park with an interesting lovers bridge that promises eternal happiness if you are able to cross holding hands while holding your breath. We probably could have done this easily years ago, but today we didn’t bother to try.

Tostaduria Bisetti

Tostaduria Bisetti is a nice coffee shop with a small museum area that displayed various techniques for processing coffee. We enjoyed our choice of espresso drinks along with some nice pastries for about 25 minutes.

La Bodega Verde

Our next stop – La Bodega Verde – was a few minutes away and we enjoyed a smoothie made from the fruit from the lucuma tree. The smooth drink has a distinctive butterscotch flavor and was very good.  More info HERE

Mercaso Santa Cruz

Our next stop was the Mercaso Santa Cruz (Calle Gral Mendiburu 1175, Miraflores 15074, Peru) which is a small, but very nice municipal market featuring sparkling clean stalls and none of the pungent smells you normally experience in similar venues.

Lucas explained the various fruits and vegetables for sale and the clerks at one stall produced a small basket with sample sizes of the fruit that were being discussed. We spotted a women preparing Causa -Peruvian Mashed Potatoes – that are rolled up and then sold in smaller packages.

 

Embarcadero 41

Pisco Sours and Ceviche are probably the most well-known foods from Peru.  Embarcadero 41, a restaurant that is part of a small chain, was our next stop where we would have an opportunity to prepare both ourselves in the restaurant before it opened to the public.

Near the front door, was a bar with samples of two types of Pisco: Pisco Puro and Pisco Aromatico. Pisco Puro is used as the main ingredient for the Pisco Sour while Pisco Aromatico is usually consumed as an aperitif.

After we sampled these two types of Pisco, one of the bartenders, Diego, showed us how to make a Pisco Sour using sugar syrup, egg whites, lime juice and of course Pisco!

Making Ceviche was our next task and we headed over to one of the tables that had all of the ingredients laid out and divided into 4 groups for the 4 people in our group. Dilbert was our instructor and he would assist us in making the ceviche, which is simple once you have the ingredients – fresh raw fish, citrus juices, a secret seasoning sauce consisting of aji, peppers, onions, salt and cilantro in various proportions. When you marinate the fish by soaking and swirling the raw fish in the citric juices, the citric acid in the juice causes the fish to become denatured and looks as if it has been cooked. You must make sure you only use very fresh fish since this process doesn’t actually cook the fish and kill any bacteria. Marinating the correct type of fish takes only a few minutes and is ready to eat almost immediately. Peruvians don’t eat ceviche after lunch as they assume that it is impossible for fish remain fresh after the noon meal.

We all made our ceviche in a few minutes and it was delicious.

Huaca Pucllana

Our final stop of the tour was at one of the nicest restaurants in Lima: Huaca Pucllana. This restaurant is adjacent to the Huaca Pucllana, a large adobe and clay pyramid built on seven staggered platforms and was in used between 200 AD and 700 AD. The site was largely abandoned until the owners of the restaurant offered to finance restoration in exchange for permission to operate the restaurant.

Once seated we sampled four of their distinctive dishes: Corn Croquettes, Causa (Peruvian Mashed Potatoes) topped with shrimp, Parmesan scallops and Peruvian Chinese Chicken. All of the dishes were delicious and this restaurant would be a nice choice for dinner if we had more time.

The ruins were closed today so we couldn’t visit.

Plaza San Miguel

A little after 2 PM we said goodbye to Lucas and piled back into our van to head back to Plaza San Miguel. The ride took 40 minutes and we arrived at the Plaza around 3 PM, We had a little more than 1 hour to shop at the large Plaza San Miguel Mall before we would catch the 4:15 shuttle back to the ship.

The mall was modern and was spread over 3 levels with some stores having a 4th floor. The stores were mainly familiar American brands with a few local stores in the mix. If you are starting a cruise here, this is a good place to pick up anything you may have forgotten on your cruise.

The shuttle bus arrived a few minutes early, departed on time and we were back on the ship about 30 minutes later.

Formal Night

Tonight, was our first formal night of the cruise. Formal night remains formal night on Seabourn and tuxedos or suits are required for men in The Restaurant (aka Main Dining Room) after 6pm. Unlike Cunard lines, the dress code is only applicable to The Restaurant and the other venues and public rooms only require Elegant Casual.

Elegant Casual attire is defined by Seabourn as follows:
Slacks, with a collared dress shirt or sweater for men (jacket Optional)
Blouse with skirt or slacks, a cocktail dress, dressy pantsuit or similar for ladies.
Jeans are not appropriate in the main Restaurant after 6:00p

Captain’s Welcome Reception

The Captains welcome reception was at 6:45 in the Grand Salon. There was a short receiving line consisting of the Hotel Director, Cruise Director, Executive Chef and Guest Services Manager. Staff was passing champagne and canapes as people chose their seats. The Seabourn orchestra along with vocalist, Anne, were entertaining the crowd as people found their seats. The room was about 1/3 full and I estimated 100 people were in attendance once the reception started.

Promptly at 6:45, the cruise director, Jan, welcomed everyone and introduced Captain Alex Golubev. Captain Golubez has been at sea since 1977 and working on passenger ships since 1987 and has been a Captain of cruise ships for over 23 years. Captain Golubev made some brief welcoming remarks and then introduced his senior officers: Staff Captain, Chief Engineer, Hotel Director, Ship’s Doctor, Executive Chef and Cruise Director.

He provided the following numbers of the different nationalities of the over 400 passengers:

Switzerland 1
France 1
Romania 1
Brazil 2
Chile 2
Malta 2
Luxemburg 3
South Africa 4
Austria 6
Germany 6
Netherlands 7
Belgium 10
Philippines 10
New Zealand 11
Canada 31
Australia 56
UK 73
USA 177

There are 247 crewmembers.

The Restaurant

We chose to eat in The Restaurant where they had a choice of Broiled Lobster, Chateaubriand, Codfish or Roasted Spring Chicken. We chose the Lobster and Chateaubriand, which were both outstanding.

For desert I selected the 30th anniversary desert, a Lemon Chiboust, St Honore which was moist cake with a cream filling, topped by a chocolate 30th anniversary medallion.

The Restaurant is large enough to accommodate every passenger so there is never a line here, or for that matter, we haven’t been in a line anywhere except for a short wait to see someone from guest services on the first day. Service in the restaurant is efficient, but like most cruise ship dining rooms that offer anytime dining, there isn’t the same level of interaction with the servers as you find when you have a fixed time and table, with the same wait staff every day. If you desired, I am sure that they would give you a table in the same area every evening.

Everyone we spotted followed the dress code with about 20%-30% of the men wearing tuxedos, the rest were in suit and ties.

Starlite Club

Seabourn has a single evening show at 9:45 PM and tonight’s show called “Starlite Club”  featured the 4 Cast Singers: Stephen Butler, Tom Langdale, Jade Spivey and Aoife Clesham and 2 dancers: Oleg Gluschenko and Uliana Khudaalong along with the Seabourn Orchestra.   The show’s premise was to take you back to a time when there were many supper clubs that offered entertainment.  They sang a variety of classic hits from an earlier era including:

• This Town – Frank Sinatra
• Shine my Shoes – Robbie Williams
• Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of you – 4 Seasons

The stage on the quest has a relatively low ceiling which requires the two dancers to be careful when executing their lifts and other elevated dance moves.

The singing and dancing was excellent and we enjoyed the show very much.

Here is a short video of the cast singers

When we returned to our room, we discovered some special decorations from Sandra to celebrate our anniversary.

This entry was posted in Callao (Lima), Peru, South America

• Aoife Clesham
• Jade Spivey
• Oleg Gluschenko
• Stephen Butler
• Tom Langdale
• Uliana Khudaalong