I have fond memories of reading Paddington Bear as a kid. But I guess I didn’t actually remember much of the story.
In Lima, I was surprised to see Paddington Bear in Peru… until a friend reminded me that Paddington Bear came from Peru.
From Wikipedia:
This gentle bear was found at Paddington railway station in London. … He has arrived as a stowaway coming from “Darkest Peru“, sent by his Aunt Lucy (his only known relative, aside from an unnamed uncle who gave Paddington his hat), who has gone to live in the Home for Retired Bears in Lima. He claims, “I came all the way in a lifeboat, and ate marmalade. Bears like marmalade.”
He tells them that no one can understand his Peruvian name, so the Browns decide to call him Paddington after the railway station in which he was found. Bond originally wanted Paddington to have “travelled all the way from darkest Africa”, but his agent advised him that there were no bears in darkest Africa, and thus it was amended to darkest Peru, home of the spectacled bear.
Paddington Bear in a shop window