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Published: November 11th 2013
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I slept pretty well last night and enjoyed a very nice breakfast on the 11th floor rooftop where the swimming pool, spa and exercise room is. I had a travel mate take a couple of pictures of me overlooking the Pacific and the city. The hotel is in a very nice location. I love the shower - it reminds me of a tropical rain forest, not that I’ve ever been in a tropical rain forest but if a rain shower isn’t like my hotel shower, it should be.
We took the bus to a private museum, as opposed to a government operated museum. The collection of antiquities was very impressive. The value of the collection must be immense! The material was from the Andes mountain areas and went back thousands of years before Christ and had displays of ceramics, precious metals and textiles. My Alpaca group guide, Miguel, did an excellent job of outlining the displays and making the one hour visit meaningful. There were pretty gardens and attractive displays, but one gallery featured erotic ceramics from early times. Sorry adults, there are no pictures, this is a family friendly blog. You’ll have to visit (or look up Museo Largo
on the web) to see that sexual activity wasn’t a recent development.
After the museum, we had a walking tour through the Barranco district of Lima. This was identified in our promotion as a Bohemian district, and I can see why. Some older private homes are being restored as boutique hotels and they will be beautiful. Neighborhood here in Lima (as in most other places) are groupings of similar socio-economic classes. The neighborhoods I was in were mostly middle-upper and the main difference between the Miraflores and Barranco districts is that the Miraflores area is more modern and the Barranco is more historical. Both are enjoyable.
Lunch was fantastic at the Cala Restaurant overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The appetizer course was four different seviches; I tried and liked them all. For those that didn’t want seviche, fried calamari was offered; I tried that also. It too was excellent. The main course I selected was a restaurant specialty of mixed seafood with rice, like a paella. Very good! Deserts were from a selection of five - I went with the one I never heard of and was glad I did. There were some diced mixed fruits, sorbet and other
sweet, tasty and decorative morsels. While we were eating we could see many surfers enjoying the waves. They were wearing wet suits because of the Humboldt current coming up from Antarctica keeping the water along the Lima coast cool. It didn’t stop the surfers though. Of course, it was a Sunday and many families were also at the beach and some were in the water, but a wet suit concession might be lucrative. The Humboldt current is also blamed for the generally cloudy weather we’ve had the last two days, but the guides told us that summer (beginning December 21 here) will bring generally sunny skies.
There is a multi level mall nearby, built into the steep hillside from the beach to the plateau that Miraflores is on. There are many shops and restaurants including some franchises popular in the US (Tony Roma’s, TGI Friday, Chili’s, and many of the popular fast food names. The place was crowded with people coming to see the sunset (the sun came out about 2:00 pm). I stopped in a church on the way back to the hotel since a mass was starting and I hadn’t made church this morning.
Tomorrow is
an exciting and challenging day. Suitcases packed and in the hall at 5:00 am, breakfast at 5:15, bus leaves for the Lima airport at 6:00 for a flight to Cusco and then bus to the Sacred Valley. ILYS
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Elly
non-member comment
Great detail
Hi Chuck, Look forward to your postings. Just somewhere else to add to my list. Everything looks beautiful and your descriptions tell it all. Continued safe travels.