1st day / Sightseeing and fine dining in Lima

After a 12 hours flight arrived in the summer (29 °C) in Lima and took a taxi to our hostel in Miraflores to have a short sleep before starting to explore the city. 

Miraflores is considered as one of the few safe neighbourhouds in the 10 million metropol. Lima being anyway the 3rd most popolous city on the American continent after Mexico City and Sao Paolo.

Temperatures rarely fall below 14°C or rise above 29°C throughout the entire year. Two distinct seasons can be identified: summer, from December through April; and winter from June through October. May and November are generally transition months, with the warm-to-cool weather transition being more dramatic.

 

We started our tour in the Historic Centre of Lima, which is made up of the districts of Lima and Rímac, and was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1988. The main attraction in the Historic Center is the Plaza Mayor, where the city was founded by the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro on January 18, 1535, as Ciudad de los Reyes.

The square is surrounded with historic buildings like

the Archbishop's Palace of Lima

Governement Palace of Lima

Cathedral of Lima 

  Municipal Palace of Lima

The plaza and its surrounding is heavily guarded, which indicates that sometimes incidents happen.

After leaving behind the compulsory tourist sights, walked in the direction of more lively and authentic places like tha market and its neighbouring streets, where the real life happens. Look at this street stall selling pineapples. Is there something strange? Look at the boy sleeping in the cart of his mother.

Look at here a photo taken in Market, where you can buy from guniea pig to normal pig everything you can imagine. Although the temperature was around 29 °C, the meet was apparently all day on show whithout any form of cooling.

After leaving the historic center behind, went to see Barranco a rather upscale neighbourhoud with its beaches and rich street art.

Barranco is one of 43 districts in Lima and is considered to be the city's most romantic and bohemian part, being the home and working place of many of Peru's leading artists, musicians, designers and photographers. In the 19th-century, it was a very fashionable beach resort.

There is a walkway to the sea that runs through Barranco, called the Bajada de los Baños. Crossing over this walkway is the Puente de los Suspiros, or Bridge of Sighs, a bridge which crosses the ravine itself and was inaugurated on 14 February 1876.

 

We were finishing the evening in Japaneese-Peruvian restaurant Maido, which is listed as No. 5 in Latin Americas best restaurants list according to S. Pellegrino's list.

http://www.theworlds50best.com

The 12 course "Amazon Nikkei Experience" tasting menu had an excellent presentation, each meal a piece of art ranging from sea food to chicken and as a highlight the 50 hours slow cooked wagyu beef with quail egg yolk and ceccina fried rice topped with amazonic chilli.

The first ("Snacks"; crispy chicken skin, pachikay sauce, rice senbei, regional sausage, roasted plantain, sachatomate emulsion)

 

and the last ("Cacao": piura 70%, yuzu, shica shica ice cream, mochis, bahuaja nuts, amador cacao nibs) course.

For more pics

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Tomorrow having an early flight to Cusco.