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Eleanor Griffis, ACAP Magazine's columnist and author of the "can't live without" Lima Survival Kit tells us how it all began. She is also the publisher of the Peruvian Times.com

We were sitting round the editorial table at the Canadian chamber of commerce. There were four or five of us, including ACAP members and Jim Rudolph, when Adam McInery, the chamber manager, said some members had commented on the lack of information available to foreigners on where to go, what was safe, and what to do in Lima.

I think what Adam had in mind was occasional information for their members, but my imagination began to run a little wild about the unlimited potential to provide facts and contacts on just about anything anyone would ever want to know about the city.

When you've lived in a town all your life, you build a network of contacts that can pretty much provide or at least point you towards all the goods and services you will probably ever need. And that 'support group' is just not available when you are new in town. Moving home is recognized as one of the most stressful activities we can face, and it increases exponentially when you move into a different culture and language.

Despite the many obvious difficulties and contrasts, Lima is a great city. To paraphrase Dr. Seuss, there is so much going on, so many things to do and see.

At the time, in 2005, the only information in English was for travelers, which was useful but wasn't going to get you to the dry cleaner's or the doctor. The American Society of Peru had last published their excellent Living in Lima in 1992, a guidebook that became the Canadian Cooperant Centre's Lima Guide, last published in 1997. The basics were still applicable but so much had changed since then –more imported goods, whole telephone exchanges had changed, security issues were entirely different.

And it was frustrating to see how much information available on the Internet was inaccurate, either because it was plain wrong or because it was years old and had been copied and pasted by hundreds of websites from who knows what source.

In fact, one didn't even have to go to the Internet to be misinformed. I remember reading a welcome sheet given to new teachers at one of Lima's foreign schools, in which the Conquest was basically described as a walkover, an event uncontested by the native population. No mention that Peru was at the end of a five-year civil war between Inca princes, that the population was already decimated by epidemics such as smallpox, first brought by Columbus 40 years earlier, and that many natives might have seen the Spanish as their deliverers, potential allies to overthrow the Incas who had conquered them not so long ago.

It's true, of course, that historical data is not much use if you're looking for a dentist or a golf course. But knowing something about a country always helps put things into perspective.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I began to compile information on anything that a newcomer might need. Calling friends, taking long drives to check up on all the sources in a certain area of Lima, double-checking information on the phone and generally keeping an eye out for changes, new discoveries. Friends would get enthusiastic and pull out their notebooks or binders of business cards, to recommend their favorite tailor or silversmith, or the lady who bakes the best alfajores in all of Lima, and the name of their unfailingly reliable family doctor or dentist.

It became a passion, not only because it was evolving into an encyclopedia for newcomers but because it was a great way to recommend all the people and products that a newcomer would never discover unless they were given inside information. In fact, it was ideal information even for people who had lived in Lima most of their lives.

One of the interesting aspects of the information I was collecting, was the different choices of bakeries or physicians or seamstresses that were recommended by friends in the different foreign communities. Friends in the French or Swiss or German communities had their favorites, Americans and British friends shared some of those but also had some entirely different ones, while Peruvians had their own trove of tips. And, of course, the Chinese and Japanese had other suggestions.

It took two years to sift through and edit all the information, and half way through the project many of the telephone exchanges were changed again. By the time we were ready to go to the printers, I had to cut down the information dramatically. We still had 500 pages of information and that didn't even include the children's section.

Surviving in Lima with Kids, which we had to publish as a separate supplement because it otherwise wouldn't fit in the binder, was produced by Patricia Mauffette, a young Canadian whose enthusiasm for Lima was infectious and a boon to us. With two young boys, she had explored parks and entertainment areas, compared notes with other mothers, traveled outside Lima, and generally been there and done that. She, with her husband who was working with the Canadian cooperant program, had taken a serious interest in their new town. And the results were great –she knew more than most Limeños did!

That first edition of the Lima Survival Kit is sold out, we're now about to publish the new edition, and we are also planning a digital version for people who prefer reading a screen.

One of the main points we have wanted to convey through the Lima Survival Kit is that Lima can be very enjoyable and we provide the tools for newcomers to get as much out of it as possible.