Lima Day 1

We started our first day in Lima with a self guided walking tour of the historic center. Our walk began at the Plaza San Martín which of course has a large statue in the middle (but not of Simon Bolivar!). That being said, Mr. Bolivar made his appearance in the next stop at the Gran Hotel Bolívar, the first upscale hotel in Lima that has seen the likes of celebrities like Mick Jagger stay there. We continued up the shopping street, Jirón de la Unión, and stopped outside the Iglesia de la Merced. It was closed so we couldn't go in, but the outside was very nice if not smaller than we have been getting used to.

Our next stop was the large Plaza de Armas (Plaza Mayor). There was an event on (World Cup Qualifiers Peru v Brazil) so the plaza was closed to the public until the evening when the game was shown in the big screen. During the day, we walked around the outside admiring the square and the beautiful buildings around it including some elaborate wooden balconies. The Catedral de Lima was open so we went in and really enjoyed exploring the huge, beautiful building. The remains of Pizarro are one of the attractions here as well as several crypts housing an assortment of skeletons, including some in traditional funerary dress. The cathedral also had a lot of pretty ornate altars along the sides of the main aisle and altar area.

We walked up to the Iglesia de la San Francisco for a quick visit because a mass was taking place and then popped in to pay for tickets at Museo Convento San Franscico y Catacumbas before stopping at Parque de la Muralla while we waited for an English tour at the convent. At Parque de Muralla you can see old remains of the original city walls as well as the remains of old houses that were next to and a part of the wall. It was pretty cool! Sometimes you can't help but wonder what our modern cities are built on and what you might find if you dig far enough.

We headed back to Museo Convento San Franscico y Catacumbas for our tour. Our guide was under the weather, as he frequently reminded us, but we were still blown away by the extraordinary building. It felt like it just kept going! We really didn't expect that when we decided to go in on a whim. The building was covered in hand painted tiles and mosaics as well as the Franciscan paintings all over the place. There was also a lot of cedar wood decorations throughout the building, most notably the cedar wood dome. It really is a shame we couldn't take pictures because I think it was one of our favorite buildings of the whole day. There was also a lot of gold and red decorations throughout too. The main courtyard was covered in exotic plants and the hallways had special altar pieces in each corner honoring Francis of Assisi. It really was a spectacular building. We went down into the crypts which also just seemed to go on forever and had an insane amount of bones on display neatly organized by curators. I wonder if they enjoy that job 🧐.

After our amazing visit to the convent, we stopped at a wildly popular churro place called Churros San Francisco. We got 3 churros: one filled with chocolate, one filled with dulce de leche, and one filled with a marzipan like paste. They were delicious, and very hot! Allan burned his tongue a couple times on the fillings.

We tried to get a drink at the Museo del Pisco before they closed, but it just wasn't meant to be. Instead, we watched some of the World Cup match in the plaza, which had now fully opened to the public, and got some cheap pizza and Inka Kola at Pizza Palace before a quick 40 minute walk to Circuito Mágico del Agua.

The Magic Circuit of Water was really fun and very cool. The fantasia fountain played music and told a story on the fountains of water, and at the end just had colorful water sequences. The first fountain with it's Fleur de lis pattern was also pretty. I also really liked the river pattern towards the end of the circuit. It was definitely worth the fast walk to see all the pretty fountains, lights, and patterns.

Allan planned to walk to the cliffs of Miraflores, and not wanting to miss out, I went too despite being exhausted by this point. We got out of the Uber and made for the Paddington Bear Statue on the cliff walk. He was very cute in his Union Jack coat. We continued to walk along the walk to Parque de Amor where there were some beautiful mosaics on the benches with love themes and a big statue in the middle of the park of two people sharing a kiss. It felt like a fitting end to our day after spending the last two apart.Les mer