Peru – Lima – Walking Fast
With only 3 days booked for Lima and with the additional jet lag impact we had to have our skates on in seeing what the city has to offer. Lima is one of the largest Sth American cities at 8.85Million population with a giant urban sprawl of some 2,672sq klms (actual city 1,846 sq klms). Far too much to cover in 3 days. It is not the prettiest of cities with more than enough slum areas. Quite sad in places.
Lima has been hit with a few earthquakes & Tsunamis over the years. The major earthquakes were in 1687 & 1746. The 1746 one virtually took 3 to 4klms of peninsula from the La Punta area. The peninsula virtually sank into the ocean. On certain tide levels you can still see some of the outcrops of land. La Punta still has a peninsula (looks like Italy on the map) & this caters for a lot of boating including their Naval base. The development in this area is quite poor and very old.
Your first vision when exiting the International Airport (later to find it is also the departure for domestic flights as well) is the intense bustling of traffic. We landed on peak times with traffic as per my last blog. People, cars, trucks going about in organised chaos. Reminded me of an ant colony.
As to our Hotel; El Reducto (slight nightmare) situated on Av. Ricardo Palma (Peru always have street type first) it was a virtual straight line to the busy Miraflores CBD of some 12minutes walk. Scott was taken aback of what it entailed to cross streets & pedestrian crossings; with no guarantee of the right to do so.
With night fall quickly upon us we did the usual Trip Advisor for the closest restaurant that serves vegetarian food. Lima seems very late or reluctant to offer this food variety. Luckily; we found the Panchita Café quite close to us and it was very cosy and quaint on a corner location. For a little place it was certainly busy and the welcoming was quite warm too. It was a good night for strolling so we knocked over several blocks to get our bearings in order before heading back to our hotel. Thoroughly enjoyed seeing so many people out and about on a week night with markets, singing and dancing in the parkland.
The next day was a free day to wander the streets again. We weren’t looking for the tourist locations too much as the information we were getting didn’t seem there was much to offer without having to travel some distance. We went down to the Miraflores CBD and found the unusual Haiti (coffee & café) adjacent to Robert F Kennedy Park & Parque Central Miraflores & Central Town Hall. This café was a strong reminder of a location in a movie or two with outdoor seating, canvas awnings and staff well dressed to suit a Bahamas theme obviously. The service, cost and quality were well above our expectation. We even went back on another day .. too good to miss.
With great food under our belt we hit the pavements again and walked towards the Pacific Ocean for a bit of a view. Walking along the main internal freeway we saw how different the infrastructure and facilities were and how clever the vision was implemented. Between and over the road system were futsal and tennis courts, gymnasium and the like. Great calmness presented over the busy roadway below.
Upon reaching the roadway end we crossed under the cliff edge intersecting roadway to find great views of the ocean and night activities. Couldn’t believe the quantity of paragliders floating in the airway close to the cliff edge and construction cranes. Quite a sight. We kept walking up the stairs to the street level again to find more parklands and people doing all kinds of relaxing things enjoying the night air and the loud sound of the crashing ocean waves below (some 154m; 505ft). The ocean noise is not from the waves crashing in but the water cascading out over the millions or so oversized pebbles.
We had a slight idea of the cliff edge as we saw a brief view from our crazy airport taxi ride in.
The city with a large population growth and a daunting cliff face of 154metres against the Pacific Ocean any perceivable infrastructure was a monumental nightmare. Using great vision, the city has reclaimed approximately 300metre width; 7klms stretch along the cliff face edge for Stage 1 to accommodate a 6 lane freeway + busway and entertainment land with beach activities along the entire stretch. The variety of facilities are too many to identify with the infrastructure still underway. From futsal (small soccer fields) and tennis courts, a Go-Cart track, music and dance areas and special event areas just to name a few. To gain access to the new coast freeway there are long and steep roadways with a hairpin bend built into and additionally to the side of the cliff face. In turn, the reclamation is ongoing to link up eventually to the International Airport and to the La Punta neighbourhood quite some distance away (1 hour by car at the present with the traffic). This will provide an enormous access to these important areas and save probably 30mins driving from current route times. I’m hoping a Tsunami is some centuries away. There will be no escape for this area.
From our balustrade viewpoint on the cliff top and without warning we saw bright lights immediately below and we were overlooking a partly underground new shopping plaza called the Larcomar Shopping Centre; near Playa Redondo 11 parklands. There was a good variety of shops including high level name brand shops offering a very vibrant location for window gazers, eateries and people catchups. A very good and well-planned development.
One of the best viewpoints and superb food and wonderful service is in the La Bonbonniere Café Restaurant. Absolutely wonderful place and very affordable. You need to get in early for the well sought after dinner sitting though.
We returned to the Robert F Kennedy Park & Parque Central Miraflores to see the area more populated with people and sightseers. Mostly to do with the Eco-Markets and the culture markets but the biggest gathering was the community dancing, cultural band and people’s choir. The little amphitheatre was abuzz with dancers of all ages and with no formalities in just joining in. Such a wonderful ambience of interaction without any negative distraction. This should be the norm for any community rather than families sitting at home watching television and the like.
With a reluctance we headed back to our hotel in readiness for the next day. Hope you enjoyed this little story of a small district’s offering in such a large crowded city? Happy for you to share my posts or my website address even though copyright still applies. Nothing like getting a larger audience. Thank you for your time in reading this as always.
BH Life Travels 