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At a time when it's possible to travel halfway around the world and find a Chicago-style pizza, it's rare to hit upon a place where the food is worth the flight. And it may seem all the more surprising to discover that place is Lima—formerly known as a jumping-off point for adventure seekers. "Lima used to only be regarded as a transit hub," notes Giovanna Maggiolo, a pastry chef who, in October 2008, opened Xocolatl, a gallery-like artisanal chocolate shop selling candies and cakes stuffed with Amazonian fruits (xocolatl.pe, bonbons 90¢). "Travelers would come, spend a night, and then go off to Machu Picchu. Now they stay—and they're here to eat." Lima's first celebrity chef, Gastón Acurio, came onto the scene 15 years ago. Acurio, who made his name putting new spins on traditional Peruvian cooking at his institution Astrid y Gastón, is best known for his inventive flavor combinations. For example, he adds pickled daikon to seared cuy—better known as guinea pig (astridygaston.com, entrées from $10). But even fixtures like Acurio are finding new inspiration. His latest venture, the year-old Panchita, turns out refined interpretations of street foods like anticuchos, or beef-heart skewers, and crisp suckling pig with pan-fried rice and beans (Av. 2 de Mayo 298, 011-51/1-242-5957, entrées from $7). While Acurio is redefining Peruvian staples in modern ways, others are creating surreal but delicious one-of-a-kind concoctions. At Malabar, a warmly lit space in the financial center of San Isidro with edgy, contemporary nude paintings and photographs of buildings in decay, chef Pedro Miguel Schiaffino incorporates ingredients from the Peruvian Amazon (river snails, gooseberries) into his seasonal dishes; standouts include the seared mackerel with chilled alpaca ham and cucumber in a vermouth vinaigrette, as well as the baby goat braised in artisanal corn beer and served with yucca pastry (malabar.com.pe; entrées from $12). And in the Barranco neighborhood to the south, in a renovated early 20th-century mansion decorated with antique barber chairs, mismatched tables, and multimedia collages, hip Limeños gather at the year-old Ayahuasca Bar for coca-leaf sours and cocktails made with purple corn and Peruvian pisco, a distilled grape brandy (ayahuascabar.com, cocktails from $6). Smart hoteliers are also seizing the opportunity to attract the new foodie crowd: In October 2008, the Duo Hotel Boutique, a contemporary 20-room inn, opened on a quiet side street in San Isidro and hired up-and-comer Javier Paredes to create the cafe's Peruvian-Mediterranean menu (duohotelperu.com, from $120). Specialties include a chicken salad drizzled with a sauce made from aguaymanto, a berry native to the Andes—available here, and here alone. KEYS TO THE CITY You've Landed! Taxi from Jorge Chávez International Airport (LIM) to Miraflores: about $19 (30 minutes) Lingo to Learn Novoandina (no•vo•an•dee•nah): the term for New Peruvian cuisine Best Low-Cost Carrier Spirit Airlines, for service from Fort Lauderdale Expect to Pay A high-end meal in Lima, with three to four courses and wine or coffee, usually runs about $40 to $50 per person. Next! Old-world Revival in Quito >>

As the fourth-largest city in the world, São Paulo has rightly earned its reputation as a plate-glass jungle. Skyscrapers are the default choice for the city's architects, and the capital's economic expansion is evident in the ever-present array of steel girders and platforms. But at ground level, there's another story unfolding: São Paulo's population of designers and artists are creating their own distinctly Brazilian landscape, one that's being built by hand with bright colors and organic shapes, and that's increasingly being heralded by the international design scene. "Brazilian designers are starting to compete globally," says Zöe Melo, a Brazilian product developer whose Touch showroom in Los Angeles sells straight-from-São Paulo ceramics and interiors line Estudio Manus, created by Caio de Medeiros and Daniela Scorza. The duo's porcelain cup with ear-shaped handles was selected to be part of the prestigious MoMA Store's Destination Brazil showcase last year, which featured works by 45 Brazilian artists in its New York City shop. De Medeiros and Scorza set up their workshop in the Vila Madalena district, where many other new boutiques are also clustered (Rua Girassol 310, 011-55/11-3032-0679, ear mug $50). No neighborhood tour would be complete without a stop at 62 Graus, an airy space that carries Japanese-Brazilian artist Rachel Hoshino's designs. Drawing on her Japanese background—a common source of inspiration in São Paulo, home to the largest Japanese population outside of Japan—Hoshino applies East Asian brush- and manga-style illustrations to porcelain teapots and paper envelopes (sessentaedoisgraus.com.br, teapot $69). Four blocks away, Calu Fontes turns her attention closer to home, hand-painting motifs of spirits, gods, and saints from the Afro-Brazilian religion of Candomblé, popular in the Bahia region of Brazil (where her family is from), onto tiles, plates, and vases (calufontes.com, tile $20). And Cynthia Gyuru, the designer behind whimsical housewares and accessories line Olá, pays tribute to the spirit of her country through the liberal use of vibrant florals and tropical birds, and an approachable, handmade aesthetic (olaloja.com.br, decorative clipboard $23). "To mix things—people, materials, cultures—is very Brazilian," says shop owner Tatiana Ammar. She should know: Her hybrid boutique-café, Reciclamundo, deals in painted-glass lanterns, local women's fashion lines, resin jewelry, and banana cake, among other things (Rua Harmonia 303, 011-55/11-3032-9856, banana cake slice $5). A similar eclecticism is on display in the 121-room Pergamon Hotel in the city center, about two miles away (pergamon.com.br, from $130). Its library is stocked with Brazilian art books, and in the lobby, a tall, tilting, ladderlike wood sculpture by artist Marcelo Silveira stands out against a collection of low, glass-topped tables and sleek banquettes—just one more example of a graceful meeting of the natural and the manufactured. KEYS TO THE CITY You've Landed! Taxi from Guarulhos International Airport (GRU) to the city center: about $42 (40 minutes) Lingo to Learn Sampa (sahm•pah): A common nickname for the city Newest Direct Route From Los Angeles, on Delta (June 30, 2009) Next! Food in Lima >>

You can hardly throw a maté cup in Buenos Aires without hitting a tango salon. But with prices for the fanciest dinner-and-dancing shows hitting $180 per person, you're more than likely to find yourself over-paying for a made-for-tourists cliché. For a truer slice of Argentine life, look to one of the city's peñas—late-night parties where folk music and comfort food take center stage. Peñas evolved out of the century-long tradition in which guitar-playing gauchos spent their evenings strumming songs about the pampas until sunrise. Over the past five years, as more and more people from the campo—the Argentine countryside—have made their way to the city, the old-school scene has reemerged. "I can come to a peña alone and always find someone to talk to," says Daniela Giorla, a 30-year-old Buenos Aires native who became a regular fixture at peñas after her first experience 18 months ago. "There are no bad vibes." When Esteban "El Colorado" López founded La Peña del Colorado in 1995, his goal was to draw in people like Giorla. "There were two or three peñas in the city at that time, but everyone thought they were for old people," he says. Now his spot, a Wild West–style place decorated with colorful signs, fills to capacity seven nights a week for 10 p.m. shows (delcolorado.com.ar, entry from $5). After the stage shows end around midnight, the second part of the evening begins: Members of the crowd borrow some of the 11 guitars López keeps on hand and start making the music themselves. Peñas aren't just community jam sessions; they also offer a window onto the provinces. At Los Cardones, run by a brother-and-sister team from Salta (to the north), a wall-size photo of their hometown's cathedral hangs in the high-ceilinged space where Argentine folk-music stars like Los Nocheros perform and Salta-style beef and potato empanadas are served (cardones.com.ar, entry from $4). And at the Los Cumpas peña , held monthly in an old baroque theater, up to 1,000 people dance to cheerful, Andean carnavalito and huayno and Spanish-descended chacarera and samba songs, and refuel with spicy, Jujuy-style tamales (loscumpas.com.ar, entry from $5). The recently renovated Miravida Soho, in the Palermo neighborhood, is a well-located base for those looking to explore the city's peña scene (miravidasoho.com, from $120). Six rooms with ebony floors and cast-iron balconies are spread throughout a 1930s mansion. And on the ground floor, an intimate wine bar serves as an ideal meeting spot for guests to gear up for the night's real action. KEYS TO THE CITY You've Landed Taxi from Ezeiza International Airport (EZE) to Palermo: about $27 (30 to 45 minutes) Lingo to Learn Guitarreada (gi•tar•ray•ah•dah): The sing-along portion of a peña Booking Tip Go native: Our recent search for nonstop flights showed the best fares on national carrier Aerolineas Argentinas ($952 round trip from Miami)—$500 less than the cheapest fare from an American carrier. Next! Design in São Paulo >>

All too often, historic capitals feel like musty museums: The spirit that once energized them is nowhere to be found. But thanks to a collective effort by entrepreneurial locals and ambitious government-sponsored initiatives, Quito's nearly 500-year-old center—100 square blocks of whitewashed buildings and wrought-iron balconies—is getting its second wind. In fact, the UNESCO World Heritage Site hasn't been this vital since its 1950s heyday, when La Ronda, a 17th-century pedestrian way (officially called Calle Morales), served as home base for the city's vibrant community of artists and intellectuals. When 24-year-old Pablo Arregui was searching for a place to relocate his high-end ceramics, sculpture, and jewelry shop, Mucahua, from the city's suburbs last year, La Ronda perfectly fit the bill (Calle Morales 692). "We chose this location because we wanted to have a real relationship with the street," Arregui explains. Along with several other neighboring boutiques, Mucahua stays open until midnight on weekend evenings to welcome gallerygoers strolling through the area and sipping canelazos (a hot drink made with aguardiente, cinnamon, sugar, and lemon juice). "La Ronda is back on the cultural map," he says. That was hardly the case a few years ago. Increasingly seedy elements had taken over, and in 2006 and 2007, the government funded a complete restoration of La Ronda's cobblestoned roadbed and installed dozens of new streetlights. The sweeping changes to Old Town paved the way for hotel development and small-business owners. One of the many new properties that have reclaimed grand, centuries-old buildings, the 25-room Hotel Plaza Sucre opened last May in a 19th-century structure two blocks from Plaza Grande, the district's main square (hotelplazasucre.com, from $133). Its original colonnaded atrium has been restored, and paired with a punchy mix of contemporary Ecuadoran paintings and pre-Columbian carvings. Visitors find a similar juxtaposition of old and new in the 2-year-old Centre for Contemporary Art, which showcases hypermodern graphic murals alongside the 100-year-old curves and pristine wood floors of what was once the city's military hospital (corner of Luis Dávila and Venezuela, revolucionquito.com). A few blocks uphill from the museum is the 2-year-old Ecuadoran-fusion restaurant El Ventanal, whose name translates to "picture window" (elventanal.ec, entrées from $5). The glass walls of the dining room look out on sweeping views of the city, from the iconic Virgin statue on Panecillo hill to Old Town itself. Like fellow shop owner Arregui, third-generation hatmaker Luis López takes an active role in the neighborhood. López has a workshop in the back of his store, Loba Humacatama, where he can be spotted most days constructing his signature pieces—dramatic women's hats with brims as broad as five feet—on antique hat forms inherited from his milliner grandfather (Calle Morales Oe1-130, hats from $20). As with much of what's happening in Old Town these days, the hats are a fitting blend of time-tested craftsmanship and bold, modern flourishes. KEYS TO THE CITY You've Landed! Taxi from Mariscal Sucre International Airport (UIO) to Old Town: $8 to $9 (20 to 40 minutes) Local Trivia Hatmaker López does brisk sales of sombreros de paja toquilla—better known as Panama hats—which actually originated in Ecuador. Transportation News Coming soon: A new international airport with four times the capacity of Mariscal Sucre is set to open in mid-2011. Next! Nightlife in Buenos Aires >>