Loving Lima

Our time in Lima was short - really just an afternoon, dinner and sleeping at the hotel.  But we packed in a lot in a short time.

I understand from some of the NG staff that the stop in Lima occurs because they can't fly the 757 charter plane direct into Cuzco in the Andes.

We landed at the airport, headed out through customs and picked up our "wheelie bags" - the one provided by National Geographic.  Only one bag in Lima and Cuzco, the other one remains on the charter plane while we're in Peru.

Seventy Nat Geo "wheelie bags" all being unloaded at once

We were ushered to tour coach buses where we met our local tour guide, Emily, and drove through a number of Lima districts on our way to see the Museo Rafael Largo Herrara.  We learned a great deal about Lima along the way - economy, culture, education, food and drink, history.  It's a vibrant and dynamic city.  Lovely temperature, in the middle of summer in the southern hemisphere.

Looking out the windows for our 40 minute drive, my impression was lots going on as the Friday afternoon launch of the weekend began.  The city is colorful, clean, prosperous, full of people and taxis and busses.  We learned that it's very typical for people to use public transportation in the city.  We passed shopping districts, the university, parks and a zoo filled with kids as school is our for summer, restaurants and casinos.

We had a guided tour of the Rafael Largo Herrara museum. It contains the most important collection of pre Columbian ceramics in South America. Even the arrival was a delight - the corridor leading to the museum was lined with bougainvillea, cactus and other interesting flowers and plants.

After our museum tour, we socialized in the courtyard, drinking Piso Sours and Inca Cola, a light yellow soda made with lemon grass flavor.

Reception at the museum - featuring pisco sours and inca cola

As twilight was settling over the capitol, we headed back by bus to the Miraflores district and our hotel, the Belmond Miraflores Park hotel, located on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. 

The room was spectacular - a shame to spend only one night.  And a lovely surprise was waiting on our bed, representing the local artisan communities of Lima - a woven scarf for me and silver cufflinks for Michael.  We finished the evening with a buffet dinner at the hotel restaurant - excellent ceviche, yams, avocado, corn and tomato salads, potato causas, braised beef tenderloin, orange chicken - so many good things to try that we skipped desert.  Fell into bed exhausted, preparing to be up before dawn with our suitcase packed and ready to head to Cuzco.

Pretty details at Lima's Belmond Milaflores Park Hotel

Our gifts from Lima artisans - woven scarves for the women and silver cufflinks for the men