I lived in new york. I live in Lima Peru now... (though i travel to panama a lot because of work).
I like that people is more laid back, happier, less stressed out. In nyc i felt like the day went by super fast and you just wanted to lay in your couch after work. Its not like that over here. I got a lot of friends from childhood and we meet up a lot. Since its a tiny city the comute is easy and fast, everything is nearby. I got my dad and family here as well. It’s fuckin CHEAP compared to nyc. Food is amazing and cheap, rent is cheap....hookers are fuckin cheap too...I am independent here, run my own little business. I was an employee in ny.
All that being said...traffic here sucks ass, makes nyc traffic look like heaven. Interest rates for real estate, vehicles and credit cards are a fuckin robbery. High end tech and fine clothing are way more expensive.
Back in ny i used to leave my house door and car unlocked and nothing happened. You would get robbed here. I made more money in usa( spent more as well) ...managed to buy a house and i could have gone to any dealership and get a beamer if i wanted to. That is much harder to do here.
Its up to whats more important for you....
I could live in Lima, I like it there a lot for a lot of the reasons you mentioned.
But I do prefer it here, I don’t live in a big city. I live in the outskirts on the lake. (I commuter an hour each day into Houston before I retired when I was not in an overseas post)
As far as Peru as a whole goes, I haven’t been to a lot of it but I e been to Lima numerous times and stayed a month at a time. I like Iquitos better, and have stayed there a bit too.
One of my favorite restaurants I’ve ever eaten at is in Lima, I can’t remeber the name but it was in the port district.
Pull up to the gate and tell the guard you are there to eat(I always went with co workers in their car) the outside was walled, with broken glass bottles(you know how they do) and the gate was a big wooden two door with a pop open walk through.
You park and walk down this narrow cooridoor and it opens up to a marble floored dining room and all the waiters are in perfectly starched uniforms. There is a big ass glass counter with the fresh fish of the days selection in it. You walk around and pick the stuff you want and tell them how to cook it, or you can pick from the handwritten on chalk board daily menu.
Place is amazing. You might know where I’m talking about.
All the cevechi shops everywhere is awesome also, Black cevichi is something I came to love working in Peru.
The mall cut out into the cliff with the restaurants hanging out over the cliff is really cool too.
Man you just brought up some awesome memories from working in Peru. I could go on and on about the stuff I liked about it there.
But to live, I do prefer the area I live now better, but I’m on a lake in a rural area(that grows too much every year) Forbes listed it as the best place to move in the US a number of years ago, so it’s not New York City.
Given the choice between New York and Lima. I’d pick Lima also