Lima, Peru

Lima was our introduction to Peru.  Sondra and I arrived early in the morning and had the whole day to look around and wait for the others to arrive.  Lima is an odd mixture of Colonial architecture, Peruvian modern, ramshackle, and just plain odd.  Here's a sampling:

A government building in the center of town.

Inglesia de la Virgin Milagrosa in the Miraflores District - Church of the Miraculous Virgin, by Polish architect Ricardo de Jaxa Malachowski, dates from 1939.

An embassy building with ornate carved wooden balconies dating from Colonial times.

Museo de Arte Italiano.

A plaza in downtown Lima.

Statue of General Jose de San Martin, the Argentinian liberator of Peru, Plaza San Martin in downtown Lima.

La Catedral, Plaza Mayor.

 Colonial complex of San Francisco, completed in 1672, houses a church, a convent, several chapels and catacombs.

A view from my hotel room window.

Another view from the hotel window.

A collection of styles on a typical street near the Indian Market.

A hotel in the Miraflores District.

Of course we did some shopping.

Here we are having our first Peruvian meal, a delicious mix of gnocci and seafood.  I'm looking a little travel-worn.

We took a walk down to the Miraflores Clifftops and saw the mosaic Parque del Amor.

 We had a view of the restaurant on the pier where we would dine the next evening.

The next day we saw some of the sights of Lima.  The Huaca Pucllana ruins date from 10000BC to 700AD.

We saw replicas of the Nazca Lines at Parque Grau.

We went to the fish market in Chorrillos, with its picturesque fishing boats and Lima as the backdrop,

 rustic restaurants featuring seafood fare,

vendors with fresh seafood for sale,

and pelicans on the alert for an easy meal.

We visited the Larco Museum, a private museum which has a vast pottery collection and many fine examples of textiles, jewelry, ceremonial objects, and a few mummies.  The grounds are beautifully kept.


This is an Inca khipu, a system of knotted strings which scholars think may have been an ancient record-keeping system.  No one has yet broken the code of the knotting system.

So those are the highlights of our three days in Lima.  Next we fly to Cuzco!