Every time I go to a city I’ve never visited before, I always try to get the window seat on the plane. I think it’s awesome to see the city from the sky. However, on my flight Caracas-Lima, my seat was in the middle aisle (2-3-2) and we arrived at night.

Once we arrived at the airport, I could tell a lot about the city that was waiting for me. A South America calm and clean city that they are worry about the planet (they do recycling) and organized. (At least compared to my beautiful country)

That first night, we couldn’t do much. We arrived at the hotel at midnight and very tired. Just sleep and relax for the next day.

The following morning, while having breakfast, I could feel the nice cold weather I love. My parents decided to take a sweater, as other people around us, because they thought the weather was going to be cold the rest of the day. Lima is a city that gives the feeling rain is on the way because of the cloudy sky all day. During the morning, and sometimes at night, the cold weather accompanied us. However, the rest of the day it was very warm. I always wear sun block when walking outside in the city, and that day, I got an uneven tan, even with the cloudy sky.

Our first stop was the old side of Lima, the historical downtown. We arrived at Plaza de Armas. A beautiful square with a fountain in the middle and surrounded by the Cathedral, the President’s house and other government buildings, keeping the gorgeous and colorful colonial architecture alive.

We visited the Cathedral. A place you cannot miss to see. It is big and full of history, art and interesting pieces that can take you back in time.

Later, we strolled by the narrow streets until we reached the Monasterio San Francisco. From what I heard, this is the only place where you will see lot of pigeons because people can actually give them food. At other squares, is forbidden. Inside the Monasterio, we couldn’t take any photos or videos, but I still can remember every single detail including the horrible -I don’t like it- humid smell. I think the weirdest, although interesting part of all, we were underneath the church where the catacombs are located. Meaning, we were walking among bones and where many people were buried years ago without a coffin. It is definitely something I don’t get to see often.

After getting to know part of the old city, we visited Parque del Amor (Love Park). It is a cute small park, which took me back to Parc Güell in Barcelona, Spain, with the designs around the park similar to Gaudi’s. From there, you can take a good look at the ocean and the beach with lots of surfers enjoying the big waves.

Peru is known by its gastronomy and naturally we couldn’t wait to try every dish we could. Before the trip, a lot of friends recommended us a lot of restaurants; it was very hard to decide which one to go first. At the end, we were ready to have some fresh seafood, pisco sour and ceviche.

By 4pm we went to a mall. I wasn’t that excited to visit one, but I’ve heard the view was amazing from Larcomar. They were right. We walked around the place, took some pictures of the ocean in front of us and enjoyed the nice weather at the open mall. But it got better by sunset. The various red tones in the sky and another pisco sour were our date.

Our trip in Lima was divided by another amazing experience and breathtaking places – Sacred Valley and Cusco – and then back to Lima for one last day.

For our last day in Lima, we visited another mall, this time it was Jockey Plaza. If you really want to go shopping, you’ll find great stores in here. But we stayed for an hour or so.

From the mall, we went back to Miraflores (nice area to stay and easy to walk to many places). I love visiting handcraft local stores so I can get little things as souvenirs for me, for my family and friends. While I was around in the city, I saw a lot of shopping areas especially with handcrafts, but I was told to visit Inka Plaza better. I actually found a lot of things and it was relaxing to walk by the area.

At night, we visited a park named as Circuito Magico del Agua (Magic Water Circuit). It’s a big park, which opened its doors in July 2007. It has various fountains with lights, music and very entertaining for the family.

We didn’t spend many days in Lima, but I’m sure we will need to go back again to see more.

I invite you to see our Acceso Total 29‘s video about Lima.

Keep it clean 🙂