Lima, Peru by Mel

Ola from Lima!
Lima is the capital of Peru. We arrived there on the 5th of November after 24 hours in a bus. We did buy the most expansive tickets, so the bus was pretty comfortable and it didn’t seem as long as we thought it would. We slept pretty well and arrived relatively rested.
We stayed 4 full days in Lima and did a fair bit. I won’t do a day by day recap, but I will tell you about the things we visited.
The city has different districts. We stayed in the historical centre, which is very nice. It is organised around the main place with the cathedral and the palace of the republic of Peru. The best time to see this place is around sunset. With the lights and the colours of the sky, it is magnificent. A lot of the buildings around the place has massive wooden carved balcony, which make them impressive. There are 2 others districts were tourists usually stay: Miraflores and Barranco. Those are lovely areas where you can see there is more money. But if you only see those districts, you miss a lot of Lima. If you visit Lima, make sure to move around the city. We were told again, to be careful in Lima as there is crime, but we didn’t have any issues whatsoever. We walked from the historical centre all the way to Miraflores and it was absolutely fine.
Now to the places we visited:
First thing first, being in the capital, we had to find a Pandora shop for Emma. She got her charm for Peru. Surprisingly, in Ecuador and Peru, Pandora is pretty expansive! More than in Australia!
We did the Pucllana site, which is sometime called the Pyramid of Lima. We found out that it is not a pyramid: it is a long construction made of bricks which was used for cultural and religious events. They called it a pyramid, as when it was discovered, on the side it looked like a pyramid. The construction started around 500AD by the Lima people (a pre-Inca civilisation). The construction used a technique of laying bricks made of clay, sand and shells vertically with a small space between each, which was more resistant to earthquake. During the 8th century, a new civilisation, called the Wari people used the site as burial place. You can see holes where bodies were buried with object and sometimes, human sacrifice (often babies!), to honour the dead. The 11th century was the time of the Ychsma culture, who instead of doing human sacrifice, buried statues of people with their dead (a bit nicer if you ask me!). When the Inca arrived, they made the Ychsma people buried the whole place and it was only rediscovered centuries later. It was a great visit. We had to do it with a guide and he had a lot of information to give us. This is one of the oldest ruins in Peru and really worth a visit. They also have a few llamas, alpacas and guinea pigs. Emma got to pat a llama.
A few days before arriving in Lima, we watched a documentary about food in Lima. They talked about a restaurant called Al Toke Pez, so we went there for lunch and the documentary didn’t lie! The food was delicious and at a reasonable price. The kids loved the fact that we saw the place on tv and then went there!!
We also tried picarones: those are donuts type sugary things made with wheat flour and sweet potatoes covered with syrup. It is delicious!!! The only issue is we ate some at a park, and there were bees all over it in a few seconds! We had to eat them fast!!!
We visited the Saint Dominic Priory of Lima, which was built during the 16th century. The building in itself is beautiful with arches around the cloister, a beautiful library and different chapel dedicated to the 3 Peruvian saint: Saint Rose of Lima, Saint John Macias and Saint Martin de Porres. As I said before, I am not religious, but I always love visiting places of prayer and trying to understand the history of religion.
Another thing I liked in Lima (and other places) are the murals. There are a lot around Lima, well especially in Barranco. We walked around that district to try to spot as many as we could.
There is also a lot of Volkswagen beetle in Peru! Some are really well maintained, some less! But I love those cars, so it is always fun to see them around the city.
We walked as well in the ‘cat park’. A while back, there were to many rats in Lima, so cats were brought in to chase them. It worked very well, and since people bring food and built shelter for the cats in that park, and they are everywhere! If you like cat, this is the place to be!
Another park was near the historical centre and has goats, llama, alpaca, rabbits, guinea pigs and some birds. Emma had a ball feeding the goats. She could have stay there all day!!!
We visited the modern art museum. We saw some photographs, paintings, and installation from Peruvian artists from the 20th and 21st century. It was very interesting to see modern views on their history and culture. The museum is not massive, but it has 3 big rooms and is worth a visit.
We spent a bit of time on the beach, as Lima is a costal city. The kids always loved that. We usually do that on a whim, so we have no towels or changes of clothes… which mean the kids usually walk the rest of the day, with sandy and wet clothes. Ha well! They don’t mind apparently!
We spend one evening in a park in the centre of Lima with fountains, light and music show. It was awesome. It was magical, truly a very nice evening. There was also a flower competition: centre piece, fairy garden type presentation, hats, dresses and bags with flowers… It was great to see so much creativity.
The last thing I will talk about it the Opera we saw. The name of the story is Ollantay. It is a classic impossible love story. A brave Inca soldier from a poor family fall in love with the daughter of the king and she loves him back, but obviously the king doesn’t want this union. It was originally written in Quecha language (form central Peru), and the most widely accepted theory is that the story is of Incan origin and was preserved through oral tradition until it was adapted for theatrical presentation in colonial times. But they are not 100% sure! We read about the story before the Opera, to make sure we would understand some of it (as it was sung in Spanish obviously) and the original story has a happy ending. But in the version we saw, the story has a tragic end and the 2 lovers poisoned themselves as they are not allowed to be together (very Romeo and Juliet!). The opera was good, but all the songs were on the same rhythm with a lot of drama. I could have done with a few songs a bit more upbeat! But it was nice to see a classical Peruvian story, with Inca costumes and dances.
I think I covered most of the things we did in Lima. It was not my favourite city, but there are still a lot of great things to do there. Some of the things we did or visit, we truly very much enjoyed.
On the 9th of November, we took yet another night bus to go to Arequipa.
I’ll see you there!
MelRead more