Lima - the City of Kings

Before going on to describe our time in Lima, a few stats on the city would be in order:

• Population - over 10 million spread over 2800km2
• 12∘S and 77∘W
• the climate is a warm desert with average rainfall of 6.4mm or 0.3in, but an average humidity of over 80% 
• if you want to learn about the Garúa, [a fog that is so clear that it poses no problem to visibility but so wet that drivers have to use their windscreen wipers] a feature of the coastal climate of Peru, go here
• Despite being in the middle of a desert, the city is very green thanks to water coming from the Andes
• Lima, the Spanish colonial city, was founded in 1535 which makes the founding of Quebec City look quite recent!
• Lima as an Incan city has a history dating back to before 400AD at which time it was known as Huaca Pucillana
• there are 30 districts in Lima each with its own mayor, and then one “super mayor”

Arriving at Lima airport at 12.30 am and our hotel at 3.00am was not ideal. We surprised ourselves by being at breakfast at 9.30am the same morning. In the afternoon, we took a city tour with Peru Smile, and as it turned out two other members of our Peru G Adventure Tour, Kate and Yvette from Orange County, Los Angeles.

Rather than recount our city tour on a blow by blow basis, I’ve opted for a mix of observations on specific sites along with general observations of the city,

Living where we do on the Pacific Rim of Fire, we are attuned to other cities that have to deal with the threat from earthquakes. Lima, and indeed Peru as a whole, has experienced many more earthquakes than we have in BC , some of which have been extremelydamaging. This is reflected in the greater state of preparedness in evidence compared to BC. One example: in all buildings in Peru there are large “S” signs indicating a safe place in case of an earthquake - you can’t miss them. While these spots don’t guarantee survival, they do provide a very quick and easy reference point in case of a “shake”.

Given its lengthy history, there are many architectural gems from bygone eras which have survived the earthquakes, or as in the case of the Monastery of San Francisco has been restored. 

Many buildings in the older part of the city boast balconies, some of which are very ornate. The balconies are reminiscent of those seen in European cities from Turkey to Sweden. Today, they seem to be more for decoration than function. No visit to Lima is complete without a visit to the Monastery of San Francisco famed for its catacombs where there are thousands of human bones that you pass on the conducted tours. There is also a significant collection of large artworks that were painted in Spain before being shipped to Peru where the panels were re-assembled. 

From the Monastery, we walked through the old part of Lima down Jiron Ancash past some iconic buildings that now house cultural organizations or government to the Plaza Mayor just in time to take in a religious procession heading slowly to Lima Cathedral. From what our tour guide told us, there are many similar such major festivals throughout the year.  We found it confusing that the brass band leading the procession was playing the theme from Star Wars at full blast as it entered the cathedral! As we were exiting the Plaza, we saw a police water canon parked very conspicuously. As we walked down Jiron de L’Union, a pedestrian mall, we were reminded of is counterpart [Drottninggatan] in Stockholm where there were many Syrian refugees, whilst here in Lima the refugees were from Venezuela.

The walk continued through the city to the Plaza San Martin where political meetings can be held, but no demonstrations, and there were police on hand to make sure! The Plaza is where the Pisco Sour was invented and refined; the pisco sour is claimed by both Peru and Chile as their national drink. In the centre of the Plaza is a statue of Peru’s liberator, José de San Martin - the design of the statue includes a representation of Madre Patria the symbolic mother of Peru. The sculptor’s instructions called for Madre Patria to be given a crown of flames. Unfortunately, the Spanish for flame is “llama”, so you can guess what is resting on top of Madre Maria’s head!

We had one more stop of interest on the way home - at the Olive Grove planted by the early Spanish in 1560. Only 3 olive trees had survived the journey growing to 3,000 trees by 1821. Today it serves as an oasis in large busy city. In 2011 over 1 ton of olives were distributed around the neighbourhood while still leaving oil to be pressed into oil.

Ciclovía was a word added to the lexicon whilst in Peru. The concept is to close designated streets on Sundays and public holidays to vehicular traffic, making them available instead to cyclists, joggers, skate boarders etc etc. The concept was born in neighbouring Bogota, then spread across South America before going global. When in Lima on the Sunday before our departure, we saw cyclovía in action, with the traffic barriers coming down at 1.00pm. The concept does seem to attract a lot of cyclists, many of whom would not cycle in the normally busy traffic of Lima.

Many, most houses have fences or barbed wire around the perimeter in many neighbourhoods.  Although, the travel and government web sites reference urban crime, we never felt in any danger walking around the city - particularly in the Miraflores neighbourhood of our hotel, or along the Cirquito de Playas which hugs the top of the cliffs that follow the shoreline. None of our tour group, nor other tourists we met had encountered any security issues.  Indeed, at one fruit stand on the Circuito de Playas, a local woman made sure that the trader did not cheat us out of 1 Sol [40c] when we purchased bananas!

We enjoyed a walk along the Cirquito de Playas when in Lima both before and after our G Adventures tour.  Golden sand has been trucked in to cover the black pebbles, but wave action quickly reveals the volcanic pebbles beneath. Although the beach is far below one can hear the pebbles rolling in the surf while walking along the cliff tops.  In addition to trucking in sand, the city spends a lot of money trying to stabilise the steep cliffs. The Cirquito boasts some of the most expensive real estate in Lima - the many apartments taking advantage of the oceanside views, when the garúa is absent!  On weekends, many of the local citizenry take advantage of the parkland, and clay tennis courts to be found along this promenade. A number of surfers, wearing wet suits were enjoying the surf far below despite the cool water temperature due to the cool Humboldt current.

Huaca Pucllana is a remnant from Incan times - when the Spanish arrived they covered up this pyramid in an attempt to eradicate Incan culture. It was only after an earthquake in 1981 that this structure was exposed. Today is fenced off to the public unfortunately, although it is illuminated at night.

There is a building boom going on across Peru;  because there is no property tax to pay until the building is complete, many/most Peruvians are in no hurry to complete the construction of their home. That’s quite a loop hole and, in such a poor country, it’s unsurprising that so many people take advantage of it. Should the Peruvian government change this law, the view from the bus window may well be improved for the tourists passing through, but the extra costs would throw millions of Peruvians further into poverty and debt!

As noted earlier, Lima experiences a desert climate with almost no rain making it the third driest city in the world. There are no street drains to be seen, one can only imagine the scene if the city were to experience some BC type rain!! Well wonder no more - this is what Lima looked like after torrential rains earlier in 2017.

We can share our dining experiences in Lima - they were all within walking distance of our Hotel On our fist night in Peru, we went to Restaurant Marchand across the street from our Hotel where we had traditional Peruvian food. The owner who had lived in Montreal and Toronto for a number of years was a gracious host. When we first met our travel group, we went to the El Parquetito on the edge of Parque Kennedy for dinner after the introduction and orientation. Free Pisco sours were served before dinner. On the last night of the tour, we naturally went out for dinner as a group - this time to one the fanciest, most expensive restaurants in town, the Huaca Pucllana - named after the adjacent Incan pyramid. We had a very nice meal, although the waiters thought that we didn’t quite match the usual clientele! On our last night in Lima, we went to Brujas de Cachiche, a very classy restaurant specializing on Peruvian cuisine, but it seemed to cater more to the locals than Huaca Pucllana.

Next will be the Ballestas Islands.