Live market · Yodl Peru · field guide
Paying in Peru
Lima eats ceviche at lunch, rides the Metropolitano down the expressway, and pays with a QR code at the register. These guides are about landing, moving, eating and working here, and about paying for all of it without feeding a card terminal or an airport ATM. Yape and Plin are national, so the app works at their QRs across Peru; Lima is the city we know best, and the one these pages cover.
01 · Arrive
The new terminal, the old roads
Jorge Chávez moved into a brand-new terminal in June 2025, on the far side of the runway from the old one, and the roads to it are still the temporary kind: prefabricated bridges over the Rímac and a single access road. Plan on 45 to 75 minutes to the coastal districts and don't schedule anything tight. Choose the ride while you're still on the plane. The official taxi counters sit in the arrivals hall between Exits 1 and 2, the ride apps meet you in a marked lot across the road from the doors, and the Airport Express bus (counter between Exits 2 and 3) runs by day to Miraflores. Buy an eSIM before you fly, because the carrier stores now run a fingerprint check and tourists report being turned away. And take a ride from nobody who isn't behind a counter or in your app.
02 · Get around
One strip, on foot; one bus, to the center
The Lima you'll live in is a strip of clifftop districts, Miraflores, Barranco and San Isidro, and within it you walk, with the malecón parks as the spine. The Metropolitano is the fast bus down the sunken expressway to the center. Buy a Lima Pass card from the station window (the turnstile takes nothing else), ride route C while you're new, and keep off it at rush hour with luggage. There is no metro for you yet: Line 1 runs the eastern districts and Line 2 has a handful of stations far from the coast. Everything else is a ride app, Uber, Cabify, DiDi or inDrive, door to door. Street taxis have no meters and the standing advice is to skip them, especially at night. Combis are for once you know one route.
03 · Money & paying
Two wallets, one QR, and the wall at sign-up
Cards work in Miraflores, San Isidro and Barranco at the restaurant, the mall and the hotel; smaller places prefer cash or set a minimum, some add a surcharge, and the terminal may offer to charge you in dollars (say soles). Cash covers the market, the huarique, the taxi and the anticucho cart. The counter, meanwhile, runs on Yape and Plin: two wallets, one QR since 2023, and how most of Lima pays for lunch. Both are built around a DNI and a Peruvian bank account, which is the wall a visitor hits at sign-up. There is no rate to chase. The sol floats, there is one market rate, and the cambistas in maroon vests on the Miraflores corners are quoting it, not beating it.
The app we use here is Yodl. You hold stablecoins (USDC/USDT) in it, scan the Yape or Plin QR the counter already shows, check the soles amount, and a licensed local partner pays the merchant in soles. There is no Peruvian bank account in that sequence and no local wallet sign-up. Vendors here like to see the payment land on their own phone before they hand over the bag, so give them the moment; it takes seconds. Coverage is growing, so check what's live in the app before you lean on it.
A $50 lunch, two ways
Sample · verify04 · Eat & drink
Ceviche is a lunch dish
Lunch is the meal, and ceviche is a lunch dish: the serious cevicherías serve from around noon until mid-afternoon and then close, so go before noon or after two. The menú del día chalkboard, soup, a plate and a drink, is how the city eats on a weekday, and the huarique, the small family room with a short menu, is where it eats best, usually for cash. Chifa is everywhere; nikkei runs from a Miraflores counter (Al Toke Pez, cash only, a wait on weekends) to Maido, which you book from home. Mercado No. 1 de Surquillo, ten minutes from Parque Kennedy, is the market lunch, cash. Barranco's Grau and San Martín corner is where dinner happens, Av. La Mar is the serious-food avenue, and Larcomar is the view with the markup.
05 · Work
New York's clock, the Pacific's fog
Peru sits on UTC-5 all year with no daylight saving, so it shares New York's clock in the northern winter and runs an hour behind it in summer: the easiest fit in the hemisphere for US hours, a morning-only overlap for Europe. The connection that matters is fiber at home; the coastal districts are wired, so rent a place with its own line and ask for a speed test before you sign. Cafés cover a few solo hours (Neira in Miraflores, La Bodega Verde's garden in Barranco, Puku Puku's flagship in San Isidro), and a desk covers the calls: Comunal is the local chain, WeWork sits in San Isidro and on Larco, and WORX covers Miraflores. The old Selina cowork rebranded, so check before you walk there. From June to October the sky is gray all day, and the work doesn't care.
06 · Neighborhoods
Miraflores first, Barranco if you can
Miraflores is the first month: Parque Kennedy, the malecón, the densest coffee and coworking, the most visible police, and the most tourists. Barranco, the small bohemian district just south, is where nomads actually want to be, murals and mansions and a bar on every corner, with a ride app home after midnight. San Isidro is the quiet, expensive corporate version, built around the El Olivar olive grove. Surquillo, inland across the expressway, is the honest budget move, with the two markets and rents noticeably lower, if you pick the block. Magdalena is the coast at a discount; Jesús María and Pueblo Libre are the inland, local second month. The historic center is for a day trip rather than a base. Book short, because the gray winter changes people's minds.
The directory
Places we actually go
- Pick$
Al Toke Pez
A nikkei cevichería that is all counter, a dozen seats in Miraflores a few blocks off Parque Kennedy, serving ceviche mixto and crisp calamari. It moved here from its old Surquillo room in 2025 and runs from late morning into the afternoon, cash only, with a wait on weekends.
Eat · Miraflores
- Pick$$
La Bodega Verde
The garden of a historic house in Barranco, with outlets and gluten-free options; it's the district's default for a long working session.
Coffee · Barranco
- Pick$$$
Lady Bee
A cocktail bar on The World's 50 Best Bars list for 2025, now in Barranco after a move from Miraflores. Older guides still carry the old address, so check the map link before you set out.
Drink · Barranco
Curated and opinionated — the list grows as we go, and gets fixed the moment a reader tells us it changed.
Every guide, one place
The Peru guides
Start here · Anchor
How to pay in Peru as a foreigner
Most of Lima pays for lunch by scanning one QR at the register, with Yape or Plin. Pay that same code from stablecoins (USDC/USDT) in Yodl, without a Peruvian bank account or a local wallet, and skip the quiet card fees.
Peru, answered
The short version. Everything else is in the guides above.
Can I just use my card everywhere?
In Miraflores, San Isidro and Barranco, at the restaurant, the mall and the hotel, yes. Smaller places prefer cash or set a minimum, some add a surcharge for cards, and both terminals and ATMs will offer to charge you in dollars at their own conversion (say soles). The market, the huarique, the taxi and the anticucho cart are cash. Keep small bills on you either way.
Is Uber in Lima?
Uber, Cabify, DiDi and inDrive all run, and they're authorized to pick up at the airport from a marked lot. inDrive lets you propose the fare, which is a bad idea until you know local prices. Street taxis have no meters; the fare is agreed before you get in, and the standing advice for visitors is to skip the street hail, especially at night. Match the plate, sit in the back, bags on the floor.
Do I need Yape or Plin?
Not to pay here. Both are built around a DNI and a Peruvian bank account, which is the wall most visitors hit at sign-up; Yape's passport route exists but wants a BCP debit card. The QR at the register is the same code either wallet reads, and you can pay it from stablecoins through Yodl: a licensed local partner pays the merchant in soles. Keep cash for the market and the taxi.
How safe is Lima for a visitor?
Lima has been under rolling states of emergency since 2025, aimed at extortion gangs and the districts where that violence concentrates, covering the whole city on paper but not at Miraflores, Barranco or San Isidro, where the day-to-day is street sense: phone away at the curb (motorcycle snatching is the crime to plan around), a ride app rather than a street taxi after dark, bag on your lap on the bus. Barranco's quieter streets want a ride home late. The nomad sites rate the city poorly for women and LGBTQ+ travelers on their own; plan the evenings with that in mind.
Pay like a local in Peru.
Hold stablecoins and let the QR on the counter do the rest. Traveler, expat or nomad, it's the same app.