Lima - capital of Peru

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After one last night in Ecuador at the port city of Guayaquil we boarded the bus that would take us to Lima, Peru’s capital city. The trip was estimated to be 26 hours and we thought we were prepared with a reputable bus company (Cruz del Sur), meals and movies on board as well as reclining seats. All was well and good until the journey ended up being 30 hours!!! (Sadly, this has become pretty standard from our later experiences in Latin America).
We’d heard mixed reports of Lima but were keen to be in a new country and explore its culture, history and people. We opted to stay in the beachside suburbs of Barranco, with plenty of restaurants and bars but still a little off the tourist trail. Our fantastic host Chris at Barranco Backpackers gave us advice on getting around the country and was very helpful with any questions.
First stop was the Museum of the Nation, which was reported to house a vast collection of pre-Colombian artefacts from the various indigenous communities including a top quality Inca collection. However, upon arriving we were met with construction and confusion – no ancient history at all. Instead, there was an excellent photographic exhibit on the ‘internal armed conflict’ of the 1980s-90s which saw brutal attacks of indigenous people and city bombings by the Shining Path (Communist party). It was a very interesting and moving exhibit that taught us a lot about the modern history of Peru.
We were still a little disappointed in not being able to see their ancient history as well so to lift our spirits we decided on an early dinner then a visit to a swanky pisco join, Huaringas Bar – we were not dressed appropriately in our traveller’s clothes but still had a nice evening sampling the house specialty variations of the national drink Pisco Sour (fermented wine spirit pisco, mixed with lime juice, sugar and egg white).
The following morning we relaxed at Barranco’s beach (well, Courtney relaxed while Paul went for a run) then a quick dip in the very chilly waters. Another local specialty of Peru is ceviche (raw fish with lime, onion, corn, lettuce and often chilli) so we tried to get our hands on this delicious dish as often as possible. A lovely waiter in the trendy Miraflores area served us a fantastic feast including flowers for Courtney and feliz navidad wishes on our departure.
Our next destination was another museum that was touted to host the pre-Colombian exhibits while the Museum of the Nation was under reconstruction. However, all our tourism information listed to opening hours as different times to those actually practiced by the museum – another Latin American speciality. We weren’t the only ones caught out by this with another taxi of tourists arriving at the doors just after we did. A little deflated we decided to head to Plaza de Armas and meander our way through the streets to get a bit more of a feel for the city. We saw several plazas, cathedrals (including a wedding that Courtney wanted to crash), landscaped parks and then found the park of magic fountains with several types of fountains keeping the public entertained as well a laser light show with national dancing, symbols and monuments displayed in the water mist.We left Lima a little underwhelmed; though there may be plenty of things to do, it was hard work to find anything tourist friendly, and even with local tip-offs the layout and horrible transportation system made it difficult to reach the recommended spots. In saying that, Peru and especially Lima are still struggling to recover from the internal conflict during the 90’s. Lima was fundamentally changed as millions of displaced people fled rural Peru to Lima (population now 7 million!), and it’s clear the city is still grappling to cope with its rapid growth, let alone the added burden of tourism. Overall, Lima was an interesting place to have a couple of nights to break up the large travel time between other travellers’ destinations but it still has a way to go before we’d list it as a standout city in South America.

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