There is something relaxing about driving down the Panamericana Sur highway, a road divided by the mighty Pacific Ocean and the expansive sunbathed deserts of Peru's coast.  The southern coast is a drive that takes you towards some of Peru's most popular beaches where thousands upon thousands of Lima's city dwellers migrate to during the summer months. 

Does there exist a food worth driving an hour and a half for?  The answer is a definite HELL YEAH!  Head south towards the province of Cañete and you will see a medium sized chicken farm on your right hand side at about Km 52.  Here you will see a small straw covered kiosk accompanied by this small businesses prized gems, a trio of earth and clay made ovens.  The Tambo Rural as this unexpected roadside gastronomic landmark is called caters to many hungry travelers and road warriors making their journey's south.   What keeps people coming back is the Tambo Rural's famous and addictive artisan breads.  An intended light snack which ultimately ends up as a meal, these finger long breads (which have an appearance and flavor similar to Mediterranean bread, think Lebanese style flat bread) are filled with either Botija black olives (similar in taste to Greek Kalamata olives) or queso fresco, and are baked until golden.  Both bread fillings are guaranteed to satisfy the appetite of any individual.  






The robust aroma of baking bread that escapes from those dome shaped ovens has forever been impregnated in my mind and just to write about it causes me to drool uncontrollably over my keyboard.  Any road trip down south whether with friends or family now requires a pit stop to the Tambo Rural, a place which has made die hard fans of the skeptical.  The bread is always best eaten as soon as they are pulled from the oven with a little bit of the spicy rocoto sauce for that added kick.  I ate there last weekend and like always it didn't disappoint.  Below are the directions to this must visit ma and pa food site.  A definite 5 out of 5

Tambo Rural
Avicola Don Bruno SRL
Autopista Panamericana Sur
Km. 52 - Santa Maria del Mar

So Sunday was a fairly uneventful day given the fact that Saturday night I spent it drinking and dancing with my girlfriend and some friends of mine in Barranco & Lince. We partied in Rustica (not my favorite of places, but the drinks are reasonably priced) which was pretty fun until I was harrassed by one the security guards.

Try to picture this if you will. Here I was, this poor buzzed guy just minding my own business trying to take two full Chops (they are these huge 1L mugs filled with beer ofcourse) to our table when out of nowhere comes this huge dude in a suit and tie. He tries to pull me to one side and actually grabs me which, I was not a fan of by the way. I asked what the problem was and he asked me where I was going with my newly purchased beers? weird question when your inside a bar/club. I told him I was following some friends to our new table. He asked me where that was but unfortuantely for me I didn't know exactly where that was, so I told him "that I didn't know and that I was following my friends there".

By this time the guy was getting pretty impatient with me and just kept asking me over and over again where my table was, this really started to piss me off so I told him he should stop talking and try listening since he obviously didn't here me the first time. Finally after 5 minutes of ridiculous back and forth nonsense, my girlfriend shows and with two other guards and some wait staff. They all asked what the problem was and before you know it what was once an arguement between two became a huge orgy of a argument. I finally got fed up and handed the two chops to the idiot of a guard and told him to take them to the table. This must have really pissed him off because he looked like he wanted to beat the crap of me ( he probably could have too). Finally some manager type comes along and escorts us to our table and the whole thing was finally ended in a very anti-climatic way.

After a few hours we left that joint and headed to Voce which is a pretty swanky club in Lince on Av. Petit Thours. The place charges a S./20 cover which is fine I guess. The drinks are actually quite expensive for what you get. The same beer in Rustica costs S./7 more making it fairly uneconomic in comparison. The dance floor is fairly big but that doesn't really mean anything in Lima since by 12am - 2am the dance floors are usually so packed you can barely move. We hung out at Voce for a while and the headed out around 3am.

The next morning I woke around 11am, still in a bit of a fog from the night before. My father and I hungry headed out to Lurin a town located just south of Lima near the Pachacamac ruins. According to my father Lurin has some of the best chicarron in Lima, even though I find the chicarron in Chancay to be better. Along the way I happened to come across some horses that were grazing along the side of the road. There is a place right next to the Pantanos de villa which is located by Av. Huaylas right before it merges with the Panamericana Sur (south). There you can go horseback riding along the beach for a reasonable price (I can't remember how much exactly). I do remember it being a lot of fun the last time I did it with my friends and family.




The above picture was taken yesterday when I was driving down Av. Sucre in Magdalena del Mar yesterday when I drove by this huge church/monestary, not really sure which but I really grabbed my attention. I chose black and white because I thought it would make a more dramatic photo. The colors were to washed out which is why I chose to take the photo in B&W.