The last time I traveled internationally with my parents was our trip to Victoria Falls and Cape Town in 2023, a wonderful trip where I got the great fortune of seeing them experience Cape Town and all its brilliance for the firs time, me being the proud parent in a way showing of my child, Cape Town (yes, I know that analogy broke down a bit). The rest of the trip (Victoria Falls, Chobe Park) was great as well, but there was a certain pleasure in seeing them fall in love with Cape Town. Despite them having been to Lima, as mentioned it was twenty years ago. This is a changed city, one I'm far more familiar with from my trips, so once again it was a lot of fun seeing them start to love Lima the way I do.
That all said, most of the day was taken up by something neither of us have done, taking a yacht tour of the Palomino Island (and other islands) that lie off the coast of Lima, the main draw being swimming with the Sea Lions. These half-day trips are very well run adn coordinated, starting with a check-in process in the port of Callao (technically it's own city where the airport is housed and the main port of Lima lies). In about twenty minutes we were on the main boat, a nice yacht taht can comfortably seat probably 20 (we were 12 with two crew), off on our leisurely boat ride out towards the islands. The main island, closest to Lima, is visible from every part of Lima's coast (including our hotel bedroom), and is deserted given no vegetation grows on it - currently it is used by the military. But after that we ride around it to its back side, where the other islands in this area lie, and the real fun begins.
The first real island of note is covered in white, covered in guano (bird shit) which the main tour guide didn't dance around. The smell wasn't awful, but notable - but the birds of all types from cormorants to gulls to a few vultures, made up for it. Wave after wave of gulls took off from the island, hugged the water and back, in coordinated routines. On that island sat also a couple Humboldt penguins, the real star bird of the tour. As always, those flightless fluffballs were amazingly cute, though on the first island all we saw was one juvenile by itself (with I hope its parents close by). The next island had a few more penguins, including groups of 4-5, hopping up and down the craggy edges of the island. Soon though, the attention turned to the sea lions.\
Loud, boisterous, smelly, the sea lions were everything and more. There are hundreds if not thousands of them on tow to three islands. A few were swimming far away from their main home island (Palomino Island - the island giving the tour its naem), bobbing their heads up above the water a few times for our pleasure. When you get closer to Palomino you see that the waterline to about 10 feet above is just filled with them and their lound noises. Gneerally more adorable than not, the biggest issue was teh smell. Well, when you get into the wetsuit, jump off the yacht and go into the water, the smell becomes less of a concern.
The real MVP of the tour was a lady back on shore who was selling waterproof phone cases for like five dollars. Yes, there was a huge risk the five or so of us that bought one and went into the water took but by God did those cases work wonderfully - not only keeping the water out (the minimum expectation) but also had light enough plastic that there was no issue touching and using the screen. It allowed for some great pictures fo the sea lions up and close. In the water, they're just adorable, inquisitive, half coming close to understand what the hell we are and half jumping, splashing, diving and rolling to impress us. I think the actual swimming with Sea Lions part of the tour lasted like fifteen minutes, but it felt like forever in a great way.
The ride back to shore was less eventful apart from a few last stray sea lions to lead us back, but soon enough we reached the shore promptly at 1:30, three hours after the tour began. On the whole, the Palomino Island tour ran like cloclwork, gave us such amazing views, a dash of penguins (not expected on this trip) and then an exprience of a lifetime to swim with sea lions. That said, I've called them sea lions, but beacuse of their constant howl, in Peru they're known as sea wolfs (Lobo del Mar), a name that at first didn't mean much, but coincedentally the name of the Ceviche spot we went to for lunch.
Cevicheria Lobo del Mar is in Miraflores, a fairly mid-size ceviche spot with normal prices and crowded lines of locals and foreigners. I found it actually on Google Maps trying to find a place to get takeout yesterday (Friday), but couldn't figure out how to use their main delivery ap (PedidosYa). The name, and its reviews, stuck and I'm glad I took us there, as for once this wasn't Lima at its most expensive, it was Lima at its local cuisine best. The line moved quick but was still indicative of the quality. We split a Ceviche Mixto where the seafood was incredible softly cooked and brilliant from squid, octopus, shrimp and sea snail (oddly, the best), and a scallop chaufa which had just amazingly cooked scallops and flavorful rice. I wish I knew what categorized Chaufa as so uniquely different than just standard Chinese fried rice - it's probably the chilies and maybe a more ginger-focused sauce combination with that and soy sauce, but it was amazing.
Following a little R&R at the hotel, we set out for the last touristy bit of the day, which is a walk down the Malecon, this time starting at the Larcomar and walking southwards towards Barranco. We started at the Larcomar, which had a nice craft fair on its road-level, and the requisite amazing pictures. Lima is notable cloudy all the time (though never really rains), but we got amazingly lucky today with n early cloudless skies - this was amazing for the boat ride, but equally meaningful now with clear sky photoes of the Pacific behind the Larcomar, or then multiple angles on the Malecon.
Once again, there had been some upgrades in two years, this time the "Puente de XXXX", a new bridge connecting the Malecon in the Miraflores area spanning over one of the crevasses that has a roadway connecting Lima proper with the beachfront highway. In past, this required about a 20 minute walkaround to get back on teh Malecon, but now that was cut to five picturesque minutes on their modern pedestrian bridge. On the other side as we head into Barranco, my parents got slack-jawed at what I had in past, which were the amazing cliff-face front apartment complexes, all modern, sleek and assuredly expensive, but super impressive nonetheless.
After a requisite pause at Dedalo (somehow avoided the urge to buy anything, but did get a nice coffee & hot chocolate, and another place my parents were impressed by), we continued down the Malecon ending the Puente del Suspiros and headed in to Barranco proper at effectively dusk, getting similarly great views of the bohemian neighborhood at its best. They left back for the hotel as I picked up a couple half-pours at Barbarian, which remains my favorite Lima craft brewery (an underrated aspect of Lima is its strong craft beer scene). I was able to get back to the hotel in time for a shower and then we headed out to the main event.
I talked about enjoying normal-priced Lima food for lunch. Well, Lima is still great when you go a few steps pricewise above that. Dinner tonight was at Maido, the restaurant just named the World's Best by the Top 50 folks after a solid decade being in the Top-10. Is it the best restaurant in the world? Probably not, but it is damn good and remains absolutely brilliant. To be perfectly honest, I think the meal I had at Maido in 2023 was better, but that's not all a knock on Maido, but a credit to them for changing every single course in that timeframe and still being truly excellent. More than me still liking it, seeing my parents love it also was agreat. This was actually their combined birthdays and mothers/fathers day gift (that was actually at first supposed to be a concert at MSG, which got cancelled). They loved Maido, I love Maido. Yes, it is expensive, but I don't think you leave feeling like you paid too much. No, you feel damn content with some amazing Nikkei food that each time I come becomes more and more Peru focused and less traditional Nikkei focused (to its credit).
After the three hour dinner, my parents were too tired to join me for my nights events, which fair enough. I headed back to Carnaval, after thiinking of a quick dalliance with another San Isidro cocktail spot that I'll save for an almost assured future trip to Lima in teh next 18-24 months. Carnaval was even more crowded than yesterday, but luckily had a spot at the bar available, and I enjoyed my 2.5 hours there trying a few different cocktails from their old classics to new ridiculous ones, to one off of their limited Christmas menu served in lovely santa/snowmen cups. Ending a night at Lima with a night at Carnaval is never a mistake. Truly, nothing today was, about as good as our one full day of tourism in Lima could have gone.
