Royal Caribbean Cruise to the Bahamas

OK, we're going to escape from Peru and the Amazon for the moment and prepare for our weekend cruise to the Bahamas in March with Juan and Mandy aboard Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas.  It leaves from Florida's Port Canaveral and cruises to the Bahamas, stopping at Nassau and Coco Cay.  I've never really looked at the Bahamas nor realized that they were so close to the U.S. coast.  But then look how close Miami is to Havana and how many years it's been divorced from Cuba.

If you would like to see what the Mariner of the Seas looks like and see how much fun the older grandkids would have on the top level of this ship, watch the YouTube video, Mariner of the Seas - Full Tour by CruiseIt.com.  And tell them about the Arctic Zone:  all you can eat soft-serve ice cream throughout the cruise.

Miniature Golf

While Fernando is relaxing in the jacuzzi, the grandkids could play miniature golf.   Even Louise and Silas can have fun here as the water isn't real or deep...

When the kids get hungry they could run over to the Dog House and pick up a hot dog, which, like the Arctic Zone, is included in the fare (complimentary they call it).  Oh Oh.  Where are the vegetables?  Ketchup, onions, relish, and sauerkraut?  Don't worry, there's plenty of fruit down in the Windjammer buffet on Deck 11.

Perfect Storm Water Slides

But Deck 13 has all the activities for the big kids: a climbing structure like the one at the Boston Children's Museum, a basketball court so the kids can stay in practice, a climbing wall and a Sky Pad bungee trampoline like the one at the Carnegie Science Center.  They even have some swings for Isabel.  But the greatest attractions will probably be the Perfect Storm dual waterslides and the FlowRider surf simulator.  A pair of grandkids can each choose a waterslide (blue or yellow) and race each other down to the finish.  I'm assuming kid-hearted adults can do the same.  Old people like Papi and me will watch and take videos...
Oh.  And I completely forgot to mention the Laser Tag...

Lots of fruits and desserts for the kids

While the kids are exhausting themselves and their parents, what are Papi and I going to do?  Papi would say "go to the Casino" but I'd rather walk around the running track -- it's complimentary :-) or I could plan what I was going to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner or I could go down to the Windjammer buffet and do a taste test.  I don't know how I'm going to try every dish they put out.  The kids would have a field day, of course, being able to see and choose their own meals.  Naturally they would prefer the buffet to the Main Dining Room but for dinner I prefer formality and meat that hasn't been sitting around getting cold and overcooked.

Teatime scones and biscuits

To prepare myself, I've been watching YouTube videos of Royal Caribbean cruises, of which there are a surprising number - maybe one for every person who's taken a cruise!  TravelTouristVideo has videos of the meals, both the Windjammer buffet and the Main Dining Room.  They sailed on the Liberty of the Seas, not the Mariner of the Seas, but the menus look pretty standard.  They had a tea time as well as a lunch at the Windjammer but that might be reserved for the days the ship is at sea and not in a port like Nassau or Coco Cay.

Aged Prime Rib of Beef

We don't have to prepare for the buffet because it is all there for the taking, but at the Main Dining Room they have "classics" that are always on the dinner menu, and specials of the day that are not.  Below is one of the dinner menus and I might have to order two starters:  the crispy calamari and the Caesar Salad.  Fernando can have the Duck a l'Orange and I can have the Beef Tenderloin.  If you want to see what a lot of these dishes look like, check out TravelTouristVideos' Cruise Ship Dining Room Food - Dinner by Royal Caribbean.  They liked the prime rib, lamb shank, rack of lamb and duck a l’orange (definitely meat eaters).  Hopefully our cruise will have some of those.  As for the desserts, they liked the Royal Cheesecake but not the Creme Brûlée.

If none of the entrees or desserts appeal to you in the Main Dining Room, you can hop on over to the Windjammer buffet, which has themed dinners (Asian, TexMex, Indian etc), a salad bar and lots of desserts (jello, cakes, cupcakes, mousses, cookies etc).  TravelTouristVideos will take you on a tour in its Royal Caribbean Buffet Dinner Food on Liberty of the Seas.    And of course they also have a tour of Royal Caribbean Buffet Breakfast Liberty of the Seas so that we can start our gourmandizing at 6:15 in the morning.

Stay tuned.  We might actually get out of the dining room and off the ship in the next episode.

Mercados and Supermercados

Mercados

Mercado Santa Cruz

In 2015, the New York Times featured Lima in one of its 36 Hours and recommended walking along the Malecón, a 3 mile promenade on the cliffs above the ocean.  If our guide takes us to the Parque del Amor, we could keep on walking north along Malecón Cisneros and Malecón de la Marina, all the way up to the Mercado Municipal "Santa Cruz".  Of course, by walking along the Malecón there won't be any window shopping but the views should be spectacular, as long as it isn't a foggy day, which is how, I hear, Lima gets all its precipitation.

There is a Peruvian, Roberto Viajero Vlogs, who has YouTube videos on the various markets, including Santa Cruz and also the Gran Mercado Mayorista de Lima which is a wholesale market like Corabastos in Bogotá and Central de Abasto in Mexico City.  The Gran Mercado Mayorista has loads of different kinds of potatoes.

Mercado 1 de Surquillo

A market closer to the Casa Andina Select hotel is Mercado #1 de Surquillo, a permanent indoor market, to the northeast of the hotel on the other side of the Via Expresa Paseo de la Republica.  We would walk east on Calle Schell and then turn left (north) on Avenida La Paz, walk 5 blocks to Ave Ricardo Palma, turn right (east) and cross the Via Expresa to Avenida Paseo de la Republica, turn left (north) and go about a block.  That's not too far, is it?  Roberto Viajero Vlogs in his Youtube video says that Surquillo is favored by chefs for ingredients they can't get elsewhere.  Our fast-talking Peruvian chef, Luciano Mazzetti, even has a YouTube video on Surquillo, although he is more interested in the food stalls than he is in the produce.

Lulú

However Luciano does try a lulú, which is not a lulo (also called naranjillo, related to a tomato and common in Colombia) but a small granadilla or passion fruit that is a bit more acidic than the larger sweeter granadilla.  I've tried to look up the scientific name but have had no luck.  We'll have to keep an eye out for it.  In the same segment Luciano tries Panky, (tuna verde in the supermarkets?) which is a cactus fruit high in vitamin C and obviously very sour so it is mainly used in juices.

Cocona

If we are lucky we might be able to find the cocona, Solanum sessiliflorum, which is related to the lulo that you find in Colombia.  It belongs to the same family as potatoes and tomatoes but grows in the Amazon rainforest rather than in the Andes.  We might have better luck finding the cocona in Iquitos and maybe the Explorama Lodges will offer some for breakfast, or at least its juice as many of these tropical fruits are too acidic and seedy to eat straight.

Lúcuma

I should also mention the lúcuma, a very popular Peruvian fruit that smells like butterscotch and that they make into ice cream.  We shouldn't have troubles finding that in Lima.  If you watch this AgroTV video about a lúcuma grower, you will see that lúcuma is not a jungle fruit but is grown along the coast in very dry conditions and belongs to the Zapote family (so it can grow in California!  Here's a video to show you how.).  Remember how the zapote that grew in Fillmore was custard-like without any acidity?  I imagine that is how lúcuma tastes.

Supermercados

We can also check out the fruits at the local supermarkets in Lima.  Sam and Audrey pay a visit to the Wong Supermarket in Miraflores and show us that we can get mate de coca in tea bags to help us with our altitude sickness.  They also have rotisserie chicken ready to go as well as tamales (in banana leaves) and humitas (in corn husks) -- does the hotel have a microwave?  We can wash it all down with Inka Cola.  And then for dessert we can pick up some lucuma ice cream and a box of alfajores!

Do you think I dare bring home some jars of Peruvian chile pastes?  Or some of their packets of instant sauces like Huancaina and Ocopa?  That way you don't see that they are made with evaporated milk and saltines, unless you still have to add those ingredients to the mix...
Perusing the fruits and vegetables on the Wong Supermarket website, everything looks pretty much the same as the U.S. except you can also get granadillas, aguaymanto (uchuvas/ground cherries), maracuyá, papaya, olluco (one of those Andean root vegetables),  yuca, caigua (an Andean vegetable that they stuff), mango, chirimoya, pepino melon (Solanum muricatum from the Andes), lúcuma, and the list goes on and on.  The meats, poultry and fish look the same as in the U.S. except you can get sangrecita.  Hm.  I wonder if they have hot foods to go!

Amazon Food

Maracuyá

I couldn't stay away from this topic for long, especially when it involves tropical fruit.  One of the best things about Colombia was its various passion fruits (maracuyá, curuba, granadilla, badea), lulo (naranjilla in Ecuador), and tomate de arbol.  Most of these were made into juices so there is some processing involved (including adding water, cross your fingers).  It seems that maracuyá is fairly common in Peru but the others less so, although I read somewhere that before the Spaniards arrived, the Moche people along the coast made ceviche with fermented curuba, called tumbo in Peru (Passiflora tarminiana or banana passion fruit).  But the Amazon has a whole new collection of fruits for us to explore.

HeNeedsFood is a blog by an Australian ex-chef who visited the Belén Market in Iquitos, the capital of the Department of Loreto where we'll be traveling.  This might be the closest we get to it since markets are not high on everyone's list, especially when the heat and humidity make them odoriferous.  The photos are interesting but few of the fruits are labeled.  Here are a few that I've identified.

Brazil Nut

Pijuayo

Sapote

Chonta

The Pijuayo (Bactris gasipaes), a palm fruit as is the Brazil nut, is called chontaduro in Colombia and is a common street food in southern Colombia, although not in Bogotá when we lived there in the 70s.  The Slow Food Arc of Taste mentions that the Amazonians in Peru make masato out of it, which is a tame form of chicha.  And in Peru, chonta is shredded hearts of palm which is a very popular salad in the Amazon, which we absolutely have to try.

Aguaje

Another palm fruit (there are many) is aguaje from the palm Mauritia flexuosa.  Unfortunately it is very difficult to do Internet searches on many of these Amazonian fruits because almost everything Google gives me are ads for dietary supplements.  Everything from the jungle is a superfood nowadays, available in pill form because it appears that the fruit itself is an acquired taste since the flesh is quite dry and tastes like carrots.

Camu camu

Camu camu (Myrciaria dubia) is a cherry-like fruit that grows on a small bushy riverside tree in the Amazon.  They make it into juices and sorbets.  It's very high in vitamin C but like many tropical fruits, it's quite acidic and you need to add sugar to the juice.

Luciano Mazzetti

Another visit to the Belén Market is done by Peruvian chef Luciano Mazzetti on his YouTube channel Taste & Travel (Viaja y Prueba) when he travels to Iquitos, the capital of the Department of Loreto and where we will land for our Amazon trip.  The photography is great but the episodes are in Spanish, Mazzetti speaks lickety split moving from one food to the next, and the background music makes understanding difficult for the non-native speaker.  Nonetheless I find his videos well worth the effort and his enthusiasm for the people and their food is contagious, even if you can't understand a word he says!

Carachama

Luciano also visits the market in Pucallpa, which is closer to Lima and accessible by road yet still in the Amazon basin.  In both of these videos Luciano eats a lot of fish and there is one curious fish, the Carachama, which is a catfish covered with an armor of gray and black scales.  It lives in swampy water and feeds on dead wood and its inhabitants.  You can read more about it in the Slow Food Arc of Taste where you can see more endangered foods of Peru.  Actually you can't "see" them because no photos are included, a real shortcoming of the site.

Paiche

Paiche is an even more famous catfish of the Amazon, partly because it is the largest freshwater fish in the world, so you can have filets and not a lot of bones so the people in Lima can eat it at upscale restaurants.  Even Whole Foods carries farmed paiche.  Me, I think I'd prefer piraña because it is a carnivore and shouldn't taste like mud.

In the Pucullpa video, Luciano also eats majas, a 9 pound rodent which is cute and is supposed to be very tasty.  It is also called a Paca, or Lowland Paca and is widespread throughout the Americas in tropical forests.  Iquitos Times has a list of Amazon creatures we can use for reference, if not for food.

Paca or Majas

Majas with platano and chonta (heart of palm) salad