This is the Second installment of Traveling and Portraits in Peru and again we meet great “5 minute friends” and wonderful long term buddys. Looking at all of these photos brings back good memories and helps cement them in my brain for a little while longer. Please feel free to do the same. Enjoy.

Perfection is what I desire, so when we stumbled across these, I knew I needed nothing more in life. The snow-cup, you might call it, comes with your choice of flavors: Strawberry (fresa), Mango, Tamerind, Guanábana, Mint, Piña, Limón (Lime). Forget about those High Fructose corn syrup mixed with some kind of chemical snow cones of your past, Dante’s has only fresh squeezed freshly pureed freshly sugared tastiness.

If you’re interested in a hearty dose of Peruvian history, check out Pueblo Libre. Spend an afternoon wandering through the quiet colonial streets, sipping pisco in historic bars, paying homage at ancient crossroads, and, of course, allow plenty of time for the museums. Pueblo Libre is a quiet residential area just a short taxi ride from Miraflores or Downtown, just north of Magdalena del Mar. Today its citizens are beginning to promote their tourist appeal, with signs like “No tocando el claxon tendremos mas Turismo … Al Turista Pueblo Libre conquista!” (“By not honking our horns we’ll attract more Tourism … Pueblo Libre will conquer the Tourist!”). More power to them: their little neighborhood kicks ass, and has done so for centuries.

Welcome to Magdalena, Lima Peru: Nuts and bolts. This is the first of many parts of an “over all” Lima bus trajectory list and guide to moving about the area. We have added a few landmarks and markets to see, if you’re staying in the area. In regards to bus travel in Lima; if you’re not sure if the bus in front of you is going where you want to go, then ask. Just blurt out the area or a landmark to the bus wrangler (the guy standing in the …

In this interview, Steve Roll of Travelojos talks with Ben Box, author of the South American Handbook, about Peru’s struggle against the perception that Cuzco is all there is to Peru. Ben points out some interesting alternatives to Machu Picchu and shares why he thinks it’s safe to visit certain regions of Peru and Chile that remain unaffected by the recent natural catastrophes.

STEVE ROLL – The area surrounding Peru’s main attraction, Machu Picchu, was hit hard by floods last month and won’t be available to tourists until April. Even before …

Most tourists who come to Lima stay in the Miraflores district, and for good reason, sometimes it’s nice to stay in a neighborhood that resembles, well, Lima. Magdalena was by far our favorite neighborhood in Lima, in part because of its great location (just a quick bus or taxi ride to Miraflores, the airport, or Downtown), and in part because of its quiet neighborly feel. Magdalena is the sort of place where your neighbors will greet you on the street, where old couples go out for an evening stroll, where neighborhood kids play impromptu fútbol games in quiet intersections.

As a committed cyclist in the US, I knew biking had to be a big part of my life when I moved to Buenos Aires. The city proper has just 3 million people (the metro area is 13 million), but don’t think that’s peanuts. After all, BsAs is more densely packed than New York City. With that kind of crowd, you can image what you’d be competing with in the streets if you were on a bike. Bottom line is that the streets are more stuffed with moving vehicles than an Argentine parilla with meat on a Sunday afternoon.

The most memorable part of any trip, for me, are the people you meet along the way. In this two part Photo Essay you will see people who we barely knew and people we will be connected to intimately, forever. Please connect here and keep a look out for the second part of this Traveling and Portraits in Peru.