We ended up having a couple more days in Lima then we had originally planned. The airline we were flying with to Trujillo rescheduled the flight times and made it 100% impossible to visit Chan Chan. Boo.

Almost 8 million people live in the capital of Peru. Lima is a typical metropolitan area with lots of great things to see and do, but not where we really want to spend a lot of time.

We stayed near the ocean in Miraflores which is the touristy, newer, upscale, aka “safer” part of Lima. There were several parks and a shopping mall within walking distance from the place we were staying. Larcomar overlooks the Pacific Ocean, and is partially outdoors which would never work in Canada. Being able to watch paragliders from the mall was pretty cool though. We wandered from the mall to El Parque del Amor where the famous sculpture ‘El Beso’ is located. The park was a lot smaller than I expected, and not nearly as interesting.

There was only 1 brief moment where I didn’t feel 100% safe in Lima. We were on a very busy touristy street, and there was a 2 person team trying to pick pocket us or something. One was trying to distract Jon with maps etc on the left, and the other was just way too close for comfort on my right. We quickly shut that situation down. I don’t keep stuff in my pockets anyway, so they wouldn’t have gotten anything but lint. Otherwise, Lima seemed fine. Police were everywhere–police on Segways, police with dogs, and police with full riot gear. That dog’s name is Rocco. True story. He can do loads of tricks. His policeman handler was making him pose for photos. Safety first right?

Everyone we’d talked to about Lima along the trip said we had to visit the water park. Approximately 13 million US was used to renovate the park and create the water fountain circuit. (Which is ridiculous given some of the social situations in the country. I suppose the park is a revenue source?) The park is huge, it has the worlds highest water fountain at 80m. It was beautiful, but not as spectacular as I’d hoped. (Seriously, I was more impressed with the water show at the Bellagio.)

Not to be a total downer about Lima, it was just a complete change of pace from everything we’d been doing in Peru. On a positive note, I did enjoy the architecture. Some of the buildings were gorgeous. (ps: the historic district of Lima is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.) Along with beautiful churches, the Plaza Mayor also has the Presidential Palace (the Peruvian White House if you will.) Every day there is a changing of the guard–complete with marching band. Most of the police force with riot gear was out during the marching ceremony.

We visited several of the cathedrals including the San Francisco Monastery and Catacombs. The catacombs were eerie. Thousands of bones were arranged in mass graves. When someone died, their family was not permitted inside the catacombs; only monks were allowed entry. Eventually, the monastery ran out of space, and instead of being honest, they just kept piling people on top of more and more people. The bones are in a pit several meters deep. Pretty creepy really.