Has anyone here been to Peru? If so, I'm wondering what the food is like and how vegan friendly it may or may not be. I'll be all over Peru traveling. Any advice?

I know there are a lot of plantain dishes. I don't know about any specific ones being vegetarian. One of TNS's sprouts could probably help you out here, though.

Thanks Froggy.



Yeah, my oldest daughter went to Peru last year. She's lacto-ovo, and was with a group doing medical work and they were all able to get vegetarian meals though I'm not sure how far ahead they had to schedule their requests.



Lima has a bunch of vegetarian restaurants. Unfortunately I don't have the guide book in front of me. Some are Indian and Chinese. Maybe a Google search or something?



Cusco has several as well. My daughter's group went to two of them, I don't have addresses either, but found the website for one of them: Moni Cafe. It had traditional Peru food rather than "salads and sprouts" according to my daughter.



This is theirwebsite, sounds very nice. Wow.



There are also lots of familiar chain restaurants in the large cities; Chilis, Pizza Hut, Applebees, Taco-(something?), Denneys, McDonalds where you can get something moderately vegetarian just as easily as you can here. While you may hate McDonalds or whatever, at least you know they serve salads or shakes or something familier if there's nothing else handy.



In the smaller towns, you'll need a reliable translator or a good grasp of the language to get the message across, but once they understand, people are usually very accomadating. As Froggy mentioned, Fried Plantains are very common - like a starchy potato for breakfast and even dinner too. One good thing, they usually use corn or other vegetable oils for frying as animal products are expensive and they tend to use them only on more fancy occassions/recipes.



There is one place I can recommend specifically because my daughter kept the menu: It's an all vegetarian place called Comedor Vegetariano Delta located at Lake Titicaca (which is one place you absolutely MUST go!!) Don't have a website or anything but there's not much else around there. They have (well, had) a Quinoa Soup that my daughter STILL raves about.



And I just looked; Happy Cow has a whole page devoted to Peru's Vegetarian restaurants. That should help too.



Have FUN!!!

I was in Peru last year visiting Cuzco and Lima. We didn't have any problem finding restaurants with vegetarian offerings. I'm not sure how easy it is to find vegan dishes though. Govinda in Cuzco (just a couple of blocks off the main square) was really enjoyable.



When in Lima we had a wonderful potato dish in the Museo Larco cafe. The cafe was more like a very nice restaurant and was the best museum cafe I've ever been to.



We went on a trek with PMExplorers who provided us the a guide, a cook and two horsemen. We had some very nice vegetarian meals on that trip as well. They were ovo-lacto meals, but they may be able to provide vegan meals, I'm not sure.

Thanks for the ideas. I did see the Happy Cow list for Peru. It looks promising. I think I'd rather skip a meal or two than eat mcdonalds. Not that mcdonalds is so terrible, but I have avoided it for over ten years now and ten years is about as long as I've done anything!



While I eat at restaurants occasionally while traveling, I certainly try to not do so everyday. I hope that grocery stores are as vegetarian friendly as the restaurants seem to be. And I'm not going with any sort of group. I'm volunteering for awhile, but I set that up by contacting the organization in Peru directly. Can't be paying a whole bunch of money to a middle man organization if I want to make use of those Happy Cow listings!

You may be surprised at how inexpensive things can be in Peru when you get away from the tourist centers, especially if you have a local person helping you out.



A friend who went to Peru in May stayed at their guide's parent's bed and breakfast in Cuzco. Before they left their guide said they could have stayed for an entire month for $165. The rate might have gone up since the dollar has tanked since May, but you still might be able to get a great deal. I'd contact the organization in Peru that you're working with to see what suggestions they have for you.