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Published: October 11th 2012
Monasterio de San Francisco
...complete with foreigner...September 22nd, 2012
Holy moly, after many years of dreaming about visiting Peru the time had finally come and here I was sitting on the tarmac at Jorge Chavez Int'l Airport and realizing: "I'm in Peru!". This had been a top 3 destination of mine for many, many years and I was excited to finally be here with a laundry list of adventures awaiting me....
I was on my own this time (as the Lovely K had already been to Peru) and had opted for a G Adventures tour in order to pack in as much as possible in the two weeks I had to spend...with only one previous tour under my belt I was certainly curious as to how it was going to unfold, who I was going to meet etc., but over the course of the following two weeks I was to see and do some absolutely amazing things and meet some fantastic people, couldn't have worked out better...
More of that to come though...it was now around 3am when I arrived at the hotel in Lima, so not much happening right away as it was check in and crash. I met the first of
Plaza Armas/Mayor
...as seen from the steps of the Catedral.... my gang that night, a Swiss dude named Dominik with whom I shared my first two night's accommodation...nice guy...
Next morning after sleeping in we had some breaky and Dominik mentioned he was going to head up to the Plaza de Armas/Mayor and do some sightseeing there, decided to join him (was going to leave that until my last day but figured I might as well do it then in case things changed at the end) so we jumped in a taxi and were on our way...
Plaza Mayor was cool, although some of it was blocked off as there seemed to be some ceremony waiting to happen at the Palacio de Gobierno, but it was still nice just strolling around and taking it all in... The surrounding yellow buildings evoked a Spanish influence that made the square both impressive and quaint all at the same time...
Wandered down to Plaza San Martin to check that out; not much to report...nice little park with a statue of José de San Martin on horseback, but that's about it...stopped for a bite to eat and my first Cusqueña beer (and not my last...haha....) before heading back to Plaza Mayor.
Skulls
...display case in the tombs/catacombs of the Catedral... Decided to check out La Catedral de Lima; beautiful church with fantastic statues, paintings and displays, a crypt (?) complete with tombs and display case full of skulls, and finally the remains of conqueror Francisco Pizzaro...
Walked around some more, making our way down to the river and passing the impressive looking Monasterio de San Francisco on our way...views of a hill in the distance with homes creeping up its side were really cool...not much to report along the waterfront, there was a park with a small amusement park filled with local children and a restaurant but that was about it...
It was back in a cab and off to Parque Central in the Miraflores district (our hotel was in Miraflores)...after a quick stroll around the tiny park we sat ourselves down for a snack at one of the outdoor cafes, this time ceviche! Mmmmm....love ceviche, and according to LP Lima is the place to get it...very good, and of course another Cusqueña to wash it all down...aaaahhhhhh....hung out for a bit and then made our way back on foot to the Malecon...
Took a quick look at this crazy shopping/restaurant/entertainment area called Larcomar (actually pretty cool;
Hillside
....loved the homes creeping up the side of the hill.... you can't see it from the street, it steps down and makes its way halfway down the cliffs to the ocean, some great perches in the restaurants overlooking the sea...) before heading back to the hotel in anticipation of meeting the rest of the gang and our tour leader.
The group was to be ten, and comprised of 3 Kiwis, 2 Australians, 1 Swiss, 1 Brit and 3 of us Canucks...turned out to be a great gang of people, everyone was really nice and we all got along well over the course of the tour, not always an easy feat! Met our guide Ruben for the first time as well, fantastic guy...
That pretty much summed up the one day in Lima...had another afternoon at the end in which I revisited Parque Central and the ceviche before exploring some more of the Malecon...final dinner with the group and then it was back to the Great White North...with of course a multitude of adventures in between, more posts to follow....
Nothing spectacular about Lima itself; it's a city...that being said I did enjoy wandering around Plaza Mayor, San Francisco and the Miraflores district, they all had a nice
"laid back" vibe to them, even considering the traffic...enjoy!
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cabochick
Andrea
Cool, glad you got there finally! I loved Peru so much. Cheers Canuck!