Share Lima, Peru
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There are many parts of Lima, some nicer than others to rest your head. We decided to stay in the upmarket Miraflores, ‘cos weme posh like that!
Miraflores is a beautiful part of the city with parks including the ‘park of love’ which I assume isn’t a sexual thing, at least we didn’t see anything going on.
There is a load of people paragliding over the sea front too which looks to be very popular in the area.
This all overlooks a pier at the bottom of a steep hill down to the beach front and the sea. Be warned though, go to the toilet before you head to the pier. If like me you are useless, you will need to go into one of two of the most expensive restaurants in the world and buy a tiny Cusqueña for 14 soles. This is when you can get a very large Cusqueña elsewhere for 8 soles.
Centro Historico
The historic centre of Lima is quite a drive from Miraflores so we turned up 20 minutes late for the walking tour we wanted to catch but instead found ourselves in the middle of a religious festival.
The main Plaza de Armas was absolutely packed full of “people of the Lord”.
People singing and chanting, it was more like a very very mild rock concert. Which at the end everyone started saying “La Paz” (peace) to me and shaking my hand. They can sniff out a sinner from miles away!
We walked out of town towards a bridge off the Plaza where I was told by an army official to go no further than the bridge as it would be dangerous for me. The people of South America really do either look out for you, scare the shit out of you or both at the same time.
We turned around after seeing there was actually nothing the other side of the bridge and had a walk back into the historic centre.
Santo Domingo Convent
I spotted a bell tower and asked if we could get to the top to get a view of the city, “only if you look around the convent first” was the reply. So we were forced in against our will.
Luckily though, the place was stunning. The architecture was beautiful and so were the tiled walls, the immaculate crypts, the central gardens and pretty much every other detail about the place.
And of course I got us into trouble by walking us into a private part of the convent (unwittingly of course!). The guy was nice though and offered to take us to the bell tower to get that view.
It was OK up there, to be honest the historic centre is better viewed from the ground. The architecture is much more noticeable from that level, as up high it just looked like crumbly old grey roofs.
So we made it back down to ground level and continued to walk around. 90% of the buildings are nothing to shout about, but the other 10% are beautifully carved and preserved.
A Night Out in Barrancos
Meeting people from Peru in Uruguay was cool. Meeting up with them in Lima kind of took off where we left it, very very drunk.
We started off with Ari and Cristian at a tasting brewery. We got 6 glasses of beer to try each to decide which we liked the most.
We all decided ‘number 3’ was the best so we ordered a 1.5 litre jug, each. After that we got another jug, each. So after more than 3 litres of beer we were lubricated enough to move to a club or two.
The local club we went to, I have no idea where, all I know is that they knew where it was and it was good. A really good night out is to be had in Lima, the only problem is the huge distances between places and having to take taxis, just make sure you take the secure ones!