Day 16: Lima

We got up at 5:30am this morning and got a car to the airport in Buenos Aires for our 8:45am flight to Lima. Unfortunately, everything we've heard about the city of Lima indicates that it's not particularly wise to do to much exploring, particularly after dark and/or in a taxi... Which doesn't leave much room for adventure but we were ok with that since we were exhausted anyway.

We landed around 11:30am Peru time (an hour behind NY and 2 hours behind Argentina) and had the hotel arrange a car to pick us up, given the reputation of taxis. The ride to the hotel became interesting when we got on the relatively new highway that goes along the water, and we got our first view of the Pacific Ocean on this trip.




We are staying in a Radisson, which is very nice (both Radisson and Marriott properties seem to be nicer in South America than they usually are in the US), and has a rooftop pool and bar area - to which I immediately dragged Frank the second we checked in for some much needed sun. It's 82 degrees here today, which is uncharacteristic for this time of year apparently, since it's fall and heading toward their winter.

Here was my view from the deck chair on the roof.




After lunch and a much needed rest (during which I got just a mite too much sun), we decided to explore a little while we still had daylight on our side and set off to investigate the surrounding area of Miraflores, a middle-class suburb of Lima with lots of restaurants and shopping. We received a map and instructions regarding the very limited area ok to walk in from our trusty hotel head porter and headed out. Most of what we saw was not particularly beautiful but here are some of the highlights.

We found a nicely landscaped park (named after JFK) with a beautiful old church on one side of it.






We walked to the end of the Malecon (the name of a boulevard) and found a shopping area with restaurants and bars built into the side of the cliff overlooking the water.




Our favorite part was walking along the coast because you're high up on the hill with fabulous views of the Pacific. There was a pathway along a section of the coast that was gorgeous.





We came back to the hotel and just ordered room service for dinner since safety doesn't seem to allow for much after dark exploration and we have to wake up at 3:15am (!!) to get to the airport for our flight to Cusco.

We'll be sad to leave the beautiful weather (it's cloudy and in the 60s in Cusco) but we're excited to be getting closer to seeing Machu Pichu!

ILM