Food Tours · Tour

Eight Hours: Ceramic Pots, Then the Catacombs of San Francisco

Eight hours, which is the whole day, and it is two tours that happen to fit together well. The first half is the cooking. Surquillo market with the chef and the guide, buying what the class needs, then up to the kitchen for the chopping and the cooking. One detail sets it apart: the pots are ceramic, the way they were here before metal, and the operator argues that the flavour stays where it should. Appetisers, a fruit festival, a starter and a main course, eaten as lunch during the class. The second half is the historic centre on foot, and it is a real tour rather than a walk past things. Plaza San Martin for the introduction. Jiron de la Union for the balconies, the carvings and the noise. The Monastery of San Francisco and its catacombs, ticket included, which is where the colonial city buried its dead for three centuries. The Government Palace, where the president still lives and the guard still changes. The Cathedral, which by rule nothing else in the city could be built taller than. Then the smaller things, which are the ones you remember: the oldest bar in Peru, next to the palace, where presidents and writers drank and Hemingway among them; Pasaje Santa Rosa, which hides a sacred rock still used for offerings by Peru's indigenous communities; the convent of Santo Domingo, the oldest in South America; and the Happy Inka market for carvings and textiles before the Plaza de Armas. Up to ten people, in English or Spanish, with a professional chef, a professional guide, the catacomb tickets, snacks, lunch, bottled water and an air-conditioned vehicle. Vegetarian on request. Tell them about dietary restrictions when booking. The profits fund Reciprocity, the company's non-profit, which runs social projects for communities below the poverty line.