Guilty Pleasures in Lima

Originally, the plan was to skip Lima if at all possible.  Magge had not been impressed with the city on her previous visit to Peru, and the travel descriptions are not too riveting.  However, we realized that the distance we wanted to cover was too great without breaking it up somewhere, so we decided to concede a few days there.  I booked a hostel in Miraflores, which is a quiet, upscale district outside of central Lima.  From my previous experiences in South America, "upscale" often means that the stray dogs have all four of their legs and it's safe to walk around until 10pm, instead of just until sunset, so my expectations for Miraflores were not all that high.  By the time we left, though, I was wishing we had stayed a little longer.

Miraflores was easily the cleanest, safest and most modern area we have been to so far on our trip.  There are nicely manicured parks everywhere, and the cars occasionally give pedestrians the right of way.  The best feature of the district is that it sits on cliffs facing the ocean, and the city planners have done a great job lining nearly the entire clifftop with greenery.  The cliffs in this area are very popular with paragliders, as the spot is supposed to be one of the best places to paraglide on the continent.  I wanted to give it a shot, despite Magge's looks of concern, but we arrived too late in the day and they told me to come back the next morning, which didn't happen because we slept in.

Parks in Miraflores

The first night in Lima, we walked along the cliffs to the nicest mall I've ever seen.  It was built right into the rock wall with views of the ocean from nearly every vantage point.  I have pictures of the mall on another camera and I'll try to remember to post them later.  The stores are mostly upscale and sell goods that only a tiny fraction of Peruvians can afford.  We ate dinner at Chili's and saw the movie Avatar in a very nice movie theater.  If it weren't for the ubiquitous Spanish, it could have easily passed for a night on the California coast.  Actually, even with the Spanish, it could have passed for a night in California.

Our run through American comforts continued the next day with a lunch at Papa John's.  Magge's actually had pizza a number of times so far on this trip (I've counted at least seven times), as it is her go-to meal when she tires of local food, but it was good to eat some that used pizza dough instead of normal bread, as is often the case.  That night, we met up with a fraternity brother of mine that works in Lima for the Associated Press, and had dinner and drinks.  Seeing our first familiar face so far on the trip was welcome, as were our first Pisco sours and some good (read: not Peruvian) wine.

We finally paid a visit to central Lima (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) our last day, but only stayed long enough to see the Plaza de Armas and have lunch before heading to Barranco, another upscale district on the cliffs, just south of Miraflores.  The area gets its name for a ravine that divides the cliffs, which is full of bars and restaurants and has a lively feel.  The nightlife attracts the tourists, which in turn attracts various "tourist hunters", who always seem to have family living in whatever country you say you're from (which this time was France - I was hoping that would shake him, but it didn't).  We ate dinner on a deck that overlooked the ravine and the ocean and had a great view of the sunset.

Magge posing in a Barranco park

The birthrate in Barranco will jump 9 months from the date these pictures were taken

Our time in Lima wasn't exactly characterized by typical South American experiences, since we often took advantage of the Western comforts Lima provides.  However, we've already had our share of cities that provide nearly no comforts, and we're sure to have more, so we still found it a worthwhile visit.

 Lima's Cathedral