Lima

The pants are fitting a little looser and surprisingly I haven’t felt any homesickness. In fact as we arrive in Lima, the last leg of this absolutely amazing trip, I‘m wishing it wasn‘t coming to an end. What can I do to extend my stay?

Lima is the capital of Peru and is a very big city. The city has a population of over 7.6 million and it’s quite evident that there’s a big gap between rich and poor. You see businesses and residences behind gated fences, some even with electric fences. Lima is also rather polluted and you can see a haze over the skyline; somewhat ruins what would have been a beautiful sunset.

The weather has been great since arriving in Peru and it continues during our stay in Lima. I must admit that I have enjoyed the smaller cities and towns more than the big cities. Lima has been infiltrated by American food chains; Starbucks, McDonald’s, Dunkin Donuts, KFC are the ones I saw plenty of. Thankfully we didn’t eat at any of them.

Peruvian cuisine is awesome!! I’ve been drinking fresh pina (pineapple) juice at every opportunity….I tried cactus fruit for the first time; both the green and purple type. These are really good, except the seeds are a little difficult to eat. Another Peruvian dish that proved to be quite tasty is Causitas del Campo; this is a great appetizer type dish. It’s made of one of the many types of potatoes found in Peru. It was served as three round mounds of mash potatoes and each had a different topping such as chicken, avocado, and diced tomatoes. Very tasty. There was another dish called Causitas del Pollo which is a variety of the other and was basically two layers of mashed potatoes with a chicken salad mixture in the middle. I want to try and recreate this one at some point.

We stayed in an area called Miraflores, which is one of the more upscale neighbourhoods. It’s situated right by the water. They are in the process of building a waterfront area/promenade with a seawall and beach access. Unfortunately it was all under construction while we were there and getting to the beach seemed too difficult. I’m sure one day it will look wonderful. We stopped at Larcomar shopping mall which is built right into the oceanfront cliffs in Miraflores. It was quite a spectacular view to the ocean from here.

Our second day was spent checking out Central Lima in the morning and early afternoon. We made our way to the central square and wanted to watch the changing of the guards at the government palace. Instead we found a book fair going on. We only had the rest of this day before flying back home on the red-eye, so after lunch we decided we would head over to Huaca Pucllana. This is an active archaeological site with ongoing excavations and is found right in the middle of the city. Thankfully the site is now preserved, but who knows how much was lost with the development that occurred in its immediate vicinity; prime real estate, I guess. This site dates back to between 200 A.D. and 700 A.D., so pre-Inca. It was used by the Wari as a ceremonial and administrative centre. It is built with clay hand-made bricks and it’s amazing to see how it has survived the test of time. It doesn’t really rain in Lima, which also helps not wash away these structures.

Once our tour was over at Huaca Pucllana, we decided to walk around Miraflores a little more before packing it in and heading to the airport. We found ourselves a café called Café Z and enjoyed some Peruvian coffee and dessert while listening to some live reggae music... covers of Bob Marley and Simon and Garfunkel in Lima. I guess it was a sign it was time to come home.