Day 2 - Lima Time! Skulls, Cliffs, & Duck

Lima is a colorful city in many ways. It's filled with a wide variety of painted walls, houses, doors, and sidewalks making it literally a colorful city. It's like walking through a coloring book. Then you have the green trees, hazel and grey sky, yellow, pink and red flower beds, and of course the blue ocean. Perhaps the most colorful aspect of the city is the people.  They come from a wide variety of backgrounds. There is the obvious influence of the Incas and the Spanish, but do to its location on the Pacific coast, there is also heavy influences from Asia.  The result is a vibrant city filled with an equally beautiful population.

Colorful doors can be found throughout the city.

City walls give the city a vivacious appeal.

Mas colores de la ciudad.

We managed to wake up at a reasonable hour on Monday (10am), which allowed for a full day of Lima Time! Greg and I spent the early afternoon further exploring Miraflores, the commercial hub of Lima with shopping areas, art galleries, cafes, parks, churches, museums, and the beautiful cliff-side walking path.

The seaside cliffs are one of Lima's most popular outdoor destinations and with views like this, you can see why. This a view from Larcomar, the shopping area that is built into the side of the cliffs.

Iglesia de la Virgin Milagrosa (Church of the Miraculous Virgin) dates back to 1939...and I thought I was on a dry spell.

Parque Kennedy (as in JFK) is filled with arts & crafts vendors, food booths, and couples dancing to local music.

Lima's streets are flanked by Colonial mansions, pre-Inca ruins, historic churches, and museums full of treasures. Perhaps the most recognizable is the yellow and white Colonial Monastery of San Francisco. 

San Francisco's facade is one of the best examples of 17th-century Baroque architecture in Peru.

The massive doors to the main chapel.

A look at the vaulted ceilings of San Francisco's main chapel.

Greg walking through the tight walls of the eerie catacombs underneath San Francisco.

The catacombs of San Francisco still have bones of  the many who were buried there back in the Colonial period. 

Greg outside of San Francisco trying to avoid being covered in guano (a prime commodity for the Peruvian culture in the 19th  century).

Matt lending a helping hand to the local law enforcement.

After our trip to the city center, we had the pleasure of experiencing a real Peruvian rush hour on our way back to Barranco.  Once we finally made it home, we cleaned up and headed out to dinner.  Tonight's culinary destination was Fiesta, a restaurant that originated in the northern city of Chiclayo and made it's way south to Lima a few years ago.

Matt getting ready to feast at Fiesta.

Peru's signature drink is the Pisco Sour. Pisco is a local alcohol that is a bit like cachaza in Brazil or rum in the Caribbean.

Grilled ceviche with fried potatoes.

Grouper tenderloin with Tacu-Tacu (Peruvian rice and beans).

Arroz con Pato (Rice with Duck) is a traditional northern Chiclayana dish that has made its way on to menus throughout Peru.

It was a complete day in Lima. We enjoyed the outdoors, did some site seeing, explored some ruins, and feasted on another great meal. On Tuesday, we take an hour and a half flight from Lima to Cusco, the picturesque town in the Andes that acts as the first gateway to Machu Picchu.  We are spending two days in Cusco then heading to Machu Picchu for a day and then coming back to Cusco for a fun night on Friday. 

With limited internet access in the high mountains, we'll do our best to get timely posts up, but don't be alarmed if TIS goes dark for a couple days.