Lima is a beautiful city on the coast of the Pacific Ocean and we didn’t even scratch the surface of all the things there are to see and do. My flight landed late at night and I got a taxi from the airport to the hotel. We stayed at the Casa Andina Premium in the district of Miraflores. Taxis and hotels (and pretty much everything else – except maybe the covid tests) are cheap by US standards. Our original reservation was made through travelocity and the rate was $130/night for a very nice room with two double beds. The only reason I’m telling you the price, which will surely change over time, is because I went to the desk the next morning to reserve the room for another night and the hotel clerk said, “Yes, we have an available room, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to match travelocity prices.” She then said the rate would be $110/night. Ok, twist our arms. (And the moral: book with them directly.)
To back up a little, getting a taxi is very easy too. As you exit the airport, there are several desks for taxi services. They speak English and you tell them where you want to go and pay the fare (for us, it was only $15 for a 20 minute ride.) The clerk will walk you out of the airport to your driver. Our drivers spoke very poor English but it was never a problem. And everything is such a bargain, it makes it easy to tip generously.
We spent the first full day of our trip in Lima. Part of the day was spent firming up tour plans for the next several days and then we walked around Miraflores for the rest of the day. We really wanted to see the beach, so we walked to the cliffs. There are really pretty public areas all along the cliffs and they provide great viewing points to look all along the sea. There was also an outdoor mall built into the cliffs that was interesting to see.
We walked along the path and found ourselves at a really cute little outdoor crepe stand, Beso Frances, so we had crepes for lunch. I only remember that it was delicious and we ate at a little table at the edge of the cliff, looking out over the beach. It was perfect!
After lunch, we found a path to get us down the cliff and to a walkway that would cross over the highway. And then we were on the beach. It’s not a beautiful sandy beach where you would spread out your towel and tan – as you can see in the picture below, it’s a rocky beach. There were a lot of surfers (brrr) – apparently this is a great place for surfers to gather. We sat down and watched them for awhile and had a good time.
After walking along the pier and more paths we went back up the cliff to Miraflores. And look who we ran into! I love Paddington Bear, so it was fun to run into this statue gifted to Lima from the mayor of London. As you may remember, Paddington had traveled to London from “darkest Peru”.
We spent time wandering around Miraflores where we saw a lot of murals on buildings.
We ended up in Parque Kennedy (named for John F. Kennedy), the “unofficial Central Park of Lima”. It’s not even close in size to Central Park, but it’s a beautiful little park full of gorgeous flowers (a perk of being in a tropical area) and many resident cats, which were fun to see. One night (at the end of the trip) we took a few leftovers from dinner and fed the cats. Don’t worry though, they have someone who puts lots of cat food out for them, so they are well fed.
So, our first full day and part of the last day were spent in Lima, wandering around Miraflores. It was fun just to wander around and people watch and see the differences and similarities to our US cities. I didn’t take a lot of pictures, but here are just a few more random shots —
(We tired Ceviche — when in Peru you must! I wouldn’t eat it all the time, but it was refreshing and I liked it.)
Football is everything! Peru was playing Argentina the night we were there and it was on tvs in all the restaurants. People just stopped in the middle of the sidewalks to watch the game.
And here we have Peruvian parenting goals LOL!
Next up … Machu Picchu!