I've been to Lima three times prior, in 2016, 2022 and 2023. I love the place, as I've written about a few times, more than just a tourist destination, but just a place to get lost in. My parents have been here once previously, but it was in 2005, on a trip with their friends - without my sister and I. Because of this, they had seen Lima, but really hadn't - for two reasons. First of which, not really sure what Lima itself was in 2005, and also they were there as very tourist-focused tourists, staying nearer to the old town and far away from Miraflores and Barranco and the places that make Lima sing these days. Suffice it to say, as we woke up in the AC Hotel in Miraflores, with a view of the Larcomar, the Malecon and the foggy Pacific (as always in teh morning), they realized this would be a new Lima.
As they felt that the 20 year gap made the places they did see the first time around places that they really didn't see all that much, my parents spent that first day mostly in the historic district, touring the Plaza de Armas and various churches, monastaries, cloisters and government buildings surrounding it. I was even able to get them to visit the Larco Museum, one of my favorites. All of this occured when I was working, my last real working day of the trip.
The plan was for me to wrap up work around 3:30 (ended up being 3:40) and meet them at some point on the Malecon north of the Larcomar Mall (where the hotel was), and walk back towards it. The Malecon is one of those things that really just defines modern Lima. In the end, that plan worked out perfectly, as they took longer at the Larco Museum than I expected (enjoying it fully) and we met at Red Cerveceria for a quick half-pint, and then walked back on the Malecon about 1.5 miles from the edge of Miraflores and San Isidro towards the Larcomar.
The Malecon, as mentioned, just well defines modern Lima - taking a natural advantage, these beautiful cliffs that separate the city from teh beach, and turn it into something amazing - a glorious mini-park every few hundred meters, some more sculpture heavy, some more flower heavy, one area with clay tennis courts, others with little cafes and crepe shops (random). All of it is excellent, with the glorious Pacific just staring you in the face on the other side, and few visuals of paragliders above and surfers below. I've walked even more of the Malecon than this, but I too found the experience fun trying to ID what new they had built, primarily upgrading the concrete paths in many parts of the Malecon, and adding even more flowers and greenery. As you approach the Larcomar at the end, it becomes even sad that we leave this untouched parkland for a fairly touched / commercialized mall - even one that is beautifully carved three levels down into the cliff face. As always, the Malecon hit the spot, and greatly impressed my parents.
What impressed my parents even more (and me as well) was our dinner at Merito, the one super high rated Lima tasting menu spot I hadn't been to before. Nestled in Barranco, a block away from Central (talk about a crazy two-block area), Merito is Central in style, featuring Andean ingredients and brilliance but doing so with I would say more sour / citrus forward dishes that match the head chef's background from Venezuela (the head chef was at Central for years). Merito worked perfectly, an amazing first impression for them (and me, in this case) to Lima gastronomy.
After a quick walk through Barranco to give them some experience of the vibrancy - from busy streets, to old houses turned bars/clubs/lounges, to a lovely nativity scene and tree in Barranco's main square, the bohemian area of Lima was out in full force. We left then to Carnaval, my favorite cocktail spot in Lima - and I still think fair to say Lima's favorite. Carnaval does a lot of things similar to Cause Effect, one of my favorite cocktail spots in the world, and a spot I know my Dad enjoyed. Figuring so, I assumed he would enjoy Carnaval, with the zaniness of the drink preparations combined with teh great drinks themselves. They did enjoy it, until they got tired and retired back to the hotel for the night, leaving me to get a couple more at Carnaval, and then head to Miraflores to Bizarro.
If any place didn't hit the higehst of marks on the first night, it was Bizarro, which had its one room playing techno and the other playing reggaeton - the techno room not as good this time as it was in 2023. It wasn't bad - it was actually really well sized, crowded adn the drinks were cheap and flowing, but for all of Lima's greatness, EDM clubs may be outside its strengths still. I didn't get the perfect cherry on top with how the night ended, but god damn the sundae itself was great.
Day 11 - The Old and the New
There is one sight in Lima that eluded me to date - the Huaca Pucllana ruins in the heart of the city. Why I haven't been able to do it before is a bit of a mystery, only made greater so by how easy it was to go this time. I think on my 2023 trip I went there one day and was told it was sold out and I should've bought tickets online. Fair enough, I guess. Except I remembered that and then found it impossible to actually buy tickets online in advance prior to this trip. That little bit of uncertainty was not ebbed by it being really hard to find anything certain online. Luckily, though, in the end, it seems you just walk up and buy a ticket for the next available tour, which they run an English one once an hour, and Spanish twice an hour.
In the end, we waited about 10 minutes for the tour of about 30 of us to begin. The Huaca Pucllana is a fairly large temple complex dating back to the time of the Lima people of the 500s or so, a good millenium before the Inca. It takes up about a 5x3 city block of what at first seem like randomly strewn aroudn walls, stones and open areas. Apparently, when the Incas showed up there were dozens of these types of temples that were strewn around Lima, some in complete ruin that were largely further destroyed, and some, like the Huaca Pucllana, that were abandoned as previous dynasties were chased away. It's nice that this complex dated to a time well before the Inca, and even the little areas where they have some figurines molding clay tiles, working on textiles, working on the farm, etc., were all from the Inca, Huasca or other peoples prior to the Inca.
The tour of the Huaca Pucllana took about an hour, it was well paced going around the various areas, with nice tours of Andean flora and fauna (in more detail than normal - got to see what a Huacatay plant actually looked like after eating it a bunch), climbing up to the various pedestals of the temple, getting a sense of Lima around you. Hard to believe I hadn't done this before, but also glad I did. Given so much of the sites in Lima, or in Peru in general, or from the time of the Incas or later, it was nice to go to a site like this that memorialized and celebrated the pre-Inca people that roamed these lands for a millenium.
From there, we took a walk from the Huaca Pucllana with the end destination of the two parks in the middle of Miraflores, the Parque 7 de Junio, and adjoining Parque Kennedy. Before those, we went throuhg a large street that housed mega-complexes of souvenir and handicraft stalls. Most of theme were fairly normal street-fare level souvenis, similar to the La Mariscal market in Quito, or many others. But deep inside some of these complexes you get some interesting stuff, like for me at least a store selling wooden home goods (serving dishes, spoons, etc.), some stone-ware shops, some art shops. Having been to Lima muleiple times in past, and having picked up random wares, I wasn't planning on getting anything, but from a little stone llama that can fit in our crib, to a couple butter-knives from the woodworking store, you always find a few useful things if you know where to look.
Lunch was a ten minute walk from Parque Kennedy, at Xoma, an up and coming restaurant in Lima's ever growing fine dining scene. They offer a tasting menu for dinner, along with a-la-carte for both dinner and lunch. Given no one was in the mood for another tasting menu, we sampled three dishes at this fine establishment. The best was probably their take on cabrito (baby goat) which was so perfectly cooked smothered in a mixture of orange and green sauces - well that or their play on Chinese duck tacos, with an amazing duck leg confit, more great sauces and little masa crepes. The place was fantastic, and if I do make it back to Lima in the coming years, will definitely check them out. The place also looked quite magical and thoughtful - as you would expect from Lima. This was effectively the last thing we did in Lima, before heading abck to the hotel, checking out, and making our last goodbyes on teh drive out to the airport.
We were met with the departure end of Lima's new terminal, which was quite nice but takes also the modern trend of having no shopping or restaurants in the gate area, only all in one large common area upfront. Not that I wanted anything before our quick flight to Arequipa, but it still feels a bit hollow. The flight however, did not feel that way, as I snagged a window seat which was great as most of it was over various levels of Andes valleys and peaks. Arequipa is situated just to the West of the largest / highest parts of the Andes (as is Lima, further West) so it wasn't a bunch of snow capped peaks, but more just brilliant contours.
We landed at Arequipa as the sun was setting, which was perfect timing to see the purples and reds and oranges of the sunset shine on the two large mountains that look over Peru's second largest city, in Mt. Chachani and Misti. As it was Sunday night, it was a bit of a quiet drive from teh airport to our really nice AirBNB in the Yarahuana neighborhood (just west of the historic city area), and after a quick check-in and unpack, we were on an uber into the old city to grab dinner and try to sleep as early as possible as our tour starts with a 3:10am pickup the next day.
There was enough time to enjoy a really nice dinner though at a really nice spot - Victoria Museum Picanteria, a block north of the main square. Picanterias are the names of the eateries in Arequipa, but Victoria takes it to an upmarket level. They offer 4/5 course set menus, but its just a selection of their classics, of which there are a lot. They split their menu by time period, from prehistoric recipes, which are mostly grilling meats or fish on a slab of rock along with tubers with just the most insane charcoal flavor - for this we got Alpaca, which istself isn't the greatest cut of meat but with that smokey flavor it worked. As did our other dishes of a graet langoustine (river shrimp being a delicacy product of Arequipa) and a fillet of beef cooked perfectly and served over this strange but awesome aji amarillo based rice, corn and potato mixture that looked kind of nothing but tasted amazing. Even the drinks were excellent - all being inventive creations of local flavors. This is the type of place I wish we tried a bit more, but if anything was a great introduction to Arequipa, along with a reminder that the great food of Peru doesn't end in Lima.
