In which Mau hits a homerun
I’ve used Airbnb extensively since 2015 for lodging, in locations close to home that I know well and further afield in Edinburgh, Prague, Paris, and more. Only once before, however, have I ever booked an Airbnb “event” (a day-long cruise along the cost of Martinique). It was a success; and, based on that success, I thought that finding the “right” experience(s) in Lima might serve as a useful introduction to the city.
I picked A magical walking tour on the bohemian side of Lima, hosted by an artist (actor and author) named Mau, reasoning that someone with that kind of interest and background would be able to tell me more about what I wanted to know about the city than the usual sort of tour guide with a memorized spiel. It didn’t hurt that her description of the event reinforced that idea, or that she had an astronomical 4.98 rating.
Nonetheless, I was unprepared for the joy, the passion, the incisive take on history, or indeed the love with which she presented her home district of Barranco. There were only two other visitors in the tour group, a delightful young couple I’ll write more about shortly. The tour was scheduled to take about three hours, but we kept peppering Mau with questions and observations, and we were all having such a good time that three hours had turned into four before we knew it. 1 1 The work of Jade Rivera, quite rightly, figured prominently in the second half of our tour.
My only regret is that I was living in the moment so much that I neglected to take more than three photos. I hope that Cameron or Karen would like to go on this tour so that I have a good excuse to do it once again.