Lima

We land in grey Lima around 5pm that night. It is called "grey Lima" cause in winter the cloud does not go away and true to that for my 2 days in Lima it remained cloudy (but it does not rain in Lima, it just drizzles cause it is built on a desert). It takes us almost an hour with a crazy taxi driver (driving in Lima is crazy, reminds me of drivers in South East Asia) to get to the hostel. We have dinner at Punto Azul, a recommendation from the hostel and the book I am reading with delicious Ceviche, Octopus and some local cuisine. I am on a restrictive diet for a few days so I sip my non-alcoholic Chica (a maize based drink that's popular) whilst the girls dive into their pisco sours. I am very jetlagged at this point, I am afterall 16 hours ahead of my home time. 

Sun 06th Oct

First day of the trip! I should be bursting with excitement but I am groggy from lack of sleep with jetlag but we take off to explore Miraflores - the poshier side of Lima, also where our hostel was located. The coastline around Miraflores is dominated by clifftops overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Parks line up the including the "parque de lamor", with the emblematic Beso statue. It is Sunday so the area is full of locals, including locals and tourists kissing in front of the statue for photos. 

Parque de lamor

Miraflores clifftops

Ceviche

Beautiful Miraflores 

We sign up for a free walking tour of MiraFlores in the evening, which is a 3 hour walk highlighting the architecture of Lima, the gastronomical significance,g the artistic vibe  around and general culture. 

Lima 

After dinner, we grab a taxi to the Fontana musicale - a park with musical fountains and fountain displays.

Fontana musical

Mon 07th Oct

Off a recommendation, we sign up to do the Barranco free walking tour. I hadn't read too much about Barranco but I ended up liking it more than Miraflores. It has an artistic, bohemian artistic type vibe to it. Streets are lined up with incredible street art (see the photos of street art in Lima below), dominated by Jade Rivera - a Limeno artist painting around the world now. Barranco is also th place for gastronomy in Lima. Peruvian food is rated very highly and some of the best restaurants in the world are in the area.

Street art focused on feminism

Love bridge in Barranco 

After lunch, we stroll around Barranco some more before heading to go to Huaccha Pucllana - the ancient pyramids dating to AD400 from the Lima civilizations, with evidence of other civilizations who subsequently conquered the Limas. I knew about the Inca history a little bit but this opened my eyes to all the other civilizations pre Inca.  This glimpse of history makes me want to learn more about the civilisations of Peru and I spent the next few days reading about the history (absolutely fascinating and well worth learning about).

Huaccha Pucclana

In the evening, we head to Inca plaza for some eye shopping and I end up buying. Day 2 and started buying already!

The 2 days we spent in Lima were very full on with me doing more than 20000 steps per day. I didn't feel rushed but still packed in a lot. However I did not visit the downtown part of the city, so that will be for when we get back to Lima. 

Street art in Lima

One of the things that caught my eye in Lima is the street art. These are some of my favourites.