Character No. 2 on our trip.
We met Señor César at his self-named restaurant in Lima, a small neighbourhood joint specialising in causas. A causa is a wonderful architectural potato salad - a tower of delight with colourful fillings of mayo-ey goodness in between beds of yummy mushy potato (as pictured above).
Señor César has seen one or two tourists in his time and knows a lonely planet follower when he sees one (or in our case, two), particularly since his restaurant is, in tourist terms at least, in the middle of nowhere. So as soon as he spotted us he came over to our table to with an enormous smile and an appetite for chit chat.
The usual questions followed - how are you, how did you find us, where are you from? To which he got a rather unusual answer - Cyprus. This was in fact a conversation that was to be repeated almost daily on our travels and with few exceptions, it tends to include an enthusiastic 'I've never met anyone from Cyprus before', and also usually a rather perplexed 'Where is Cyprus???!?' if not 'What is Cyprus?'.
In this instance such was Señor César's enthusiasm that he proceeded to sit with us, take off his belt buckle (no worries - only to show us that it bore his signature, as he designed it himself, having lived in Switzerland as a bespoke designer of ladies' skiing accessories on the slopes of St. Moritz), and graciously propose a toast to the first Cypriots in his restaurant. This was followed by a stern warning for all wannabe pisco connoisseurs: 'You shouldn't down a shot of pisco; you should kiss it slowly!' - Señor César.
Señor César has seen one or two tourists in his time and knows a lonely planet follower when he sees one (or in our case, two), particularly since his restaurant is, in tourist terms at least, in the middle of nowhere. So as soon as he spotted us he came over to our table to with an enormous smile and an appetite for chit chat.
The usual questions followed - how are you, how did you find us, where are you from? To which he got a rather unusual answer - Cyprus. This was in fact a conversation that was to be repeated almost daily on our travels and with few exceptions, it tends to include an enthusiastic 'I've never met anyone from Cyprus before', and also usually a rather perplexed 'Where is Cyprus???!?' if not 'What is Cyprus?'.
In this instance such was Señor César's enthusiasm that he proceeded to sit with us, take off his belt buckle (no worries - only to show us that it bore his signature, as he designed it himself, having lived in Switzerland as a bespoke designer of ladies' skiing accessories on the slopes of St. Moritz), and graciously propose a toast to the first Cypriots in his restaurant. This was followed by a stern warning for all wannabe pisco connoisseurs: 'You shouldn't down a shot of pisco; you should kiss it slowly!' - Señor César.
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