Day 12: Lima Historic Center and Magic Fountains

I met my tour guide at Haku tours main office. Rosela welcomed me and introduced me to another family visiting from Mexico. She started explaining how big of a city Lima is and how it can take almost two hours to commute home from her job via public transport.

Lima is a culinary capital because of its influence of Asian cultures, such as the Japanese, Nikkei cuisine, and the Chinese, chifa restaurants. Rosela mentioned Maido won a top award during 2025 and little did I know that the family I was touring with and I both had reservations at 2pm!!! What a coincidence!

After a 30 minute drive from Miraflores to the historic center, we arrived in front of the Gran Hotel Bolivar, across the street is La Plaza de San Martín. Both are leaders who fought for Peruvian independence, which is celebrated on July 28th and July 29th. All of the public plazas and homes are decorated with Peruvian flags and colors to celebrate. As we entered the Hotel Bolivar, we were welcomed by a beautiful arrangement of flowers. The flowers’ colors are changed depending on the holiday or celebration. We saw an old Model T Ford car and the original elevators.

Across was the Plaza, the statue of the women was holding a llama on top of her head because llama in Spanish can mean the animal or the flame, like a torch. Because we are in Peru, the artist assumed a llama, the animal. As we walked through the “girón” or alley between plazas we saw different types of architecture such as art noveau and neo-Gothic which showcased how wealthy the people were of the 19th century at the time. Many homes had carriage doors and knockers high up for the horseback riders.

Before lunch, I did some shopping at Larcomar at Sol Alpaca for high-quality baby alpaca sweaters and ponchos. For lunch, I went to Maido and partook in the tasting menu. The presentation was very creative and memorable.

I quickly dropped off my purchase at the hotel and ran to the tourist center to wait for my evening tour of the Magic Fountains. My tour guide Mateo was a native Peruvian and I was joined by a family of four from Brazil. I enjoyed how Mateo told us the symbolism behind the fountains. He was more than happy to take pictures of me also. The evening show was super cool with lights, projections, and sounds. The whole family got to see it because David WhatsApp called me while I was watching the show. The traffic back to Miraflores was horrid. It took us almost an hour to get back. 😱 Mateo offered me a complimentary pisco sour at Las Terrazas rooftop bar. For a late night treat, I tried Picarones Mary at Parque Kennedy.Read more