Post Punk Kitchen Forum

My fiance and I are going to Perú in a few weeks and I'm beginning to get a bit nervous about vegan options. I've been to Costa Rica (completly different, I know) and had no problem. I'm excited for fresh fruit and vegetables. Some say to avoid them just as they did with Costa Rica but I had no problems.

Does anyone have experience eating in Peru that they could share?

I went a couple of years ago and didn't have any problem eating vegan! Where are you going in Peru? I was in Lima briefly, Cusco, hiked the Inca Trail, and did a mountain bike tour into the Amazon Jungle. My two travel mates were both omni, so I compromised a few times and went to places they wanted to eat and it was never a problem. I think every place we went to had pizza and they were great about just leaving the cheese off. They also compromised for me and we went to some great veggie places (especially in Cusco). The Inca Trail (4 days hiking/camping) and the Amazon Jungle (2 days) actually had the best food of the whole trip. I let the companies that we did the tours with know ahead of time and they prepared vegan food for me at every single meal (and it was all amazing!) Lima was my least favorite part of the trip, but that was because it was just a really huge, overwhelming city (and I've lived in NYC for 8 years, so I'm used to cities...) and I'd rather be somewhere pretty (and it is not really a pretty city, for the most part.)

I wrote a blog post about it and it has the food parts toward the end: http://my-zoetrope.blogspot.com/2010/05/peru.html

There are a lot of Israeli restaurants in Cusco which are pretty good for veg stuff.

This might be too little, too late, but have you checked happycow.net? I remember seeing several vegan-friendly places listed there.

Hi there!

So I'm thinking of perhaps doing a trip on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in 2013. I'm researching different companies. Zoetroppe thanks for linking to your post! Does anyone else have any experience? I'm looking for recommendations for good guide companies, especially ones that will accommodate vegans.

When I was travelling around South America I found many of the restaurants featured on Happy Cow had appeared to have closed down. Not good when you've walked halfway across a city to get there! /;

I only spent a week or so in Peru, but I remember being pleased with the vegan selection there (although to be fair I'd just spent six months in Argentina, a place you reallly don't want to go to if you're vegan; even they soy milk's not vegan). I didn't do the Inca Trail but my vegetarian friend did and said it was fine. The places I visited were pretty tourist (and therefore vegetarian) friendly... The only time I had a problem was when I went on a tour of the Colca Canyon and in the evening the tour group stopped at this restaurant and I had to spend 15 minutes discussing my limited options with the waitress who didn't know what veganism was while everyone else tucked into llama and guinea pig. /;