Lima, Peru

December 28 - 30, 2017

Thursday - Friday

Our trip began with a very early alarm in order to be ready for our 4:45 AM pick up. Our flight to Houston was uneventful. Once in Houston we had a three hour layover, so we grabbed lunch and hung out before boarding our flight, which was very pleasant. We arrived in Lima around midnight, and took a taxi to our hotel. We slept like logs and didn’t set an alarm. We woke up after 10:00 feeling refreshed and ready for the day. After consulting with the concierge we headed to the Miraflores area, having our Uber driver drop us off at the Indio Market, where I enjoyed browsing gorgeous textiles and purchasing some handcrafted stone and silver jewelry. From there we walked through a park full of adorable stray cats, which the boys of course loved.

 From there we then walked down Avenue Jose Larco. We ended up at the Larcomar shopping center overlooking the ocean, where we walked around, enjoyed the view, and ordered a couple of empanadas for a light lunch. The entire area of Miraflores is perched atop cliffs, with the ocean several hundred feet below. It is a popular spot for parasailing and surfing, and there is a lovely pedestrian path that extends along the clifftops, adorned with interesting public art installments and dotted with trendy cafes and bars. 

The beaches sprawl below the cliffs, though they are separated by a busy freeway that runs along the coast. Our concierge had made us a reservation at a Lima institution, a restaurant called La Rosa Nautica, which is a large complex built out onto a pier in the ocean. She told us we would need to take a taxi to get from the shopping center to the restaurant, but we walked along the path for several hours, and found a pedestrian stairway that led down the cliffs to a bridge that led across the freeway to the beach. 

We sat at the beach for a while, just watching the waves, and Ewan threw rocks into the water. 

We decided to head to the restaurant a little early to see if they would seat us, which they did. We had a lovely window seat overlooking the water. We shared an incredible ceviche to start, followed by the prime rib special, accompanied by an Argentinian malbec. It was scrumptious!

Saturday 

Unfortunately this day did not exactly go as planned, and has been a huge disappointment to say the least. We woke up early to eat breakfast and pack up before grabbing an Uber to the airport, as we were taking a flight to Cusco, then driving to our hotel in Urubamba where we planned to explore the Sacred Valley. The ride to the airport was very depressing. Lima is not a beautiful city. We drove through impoverished neighborhoods where hawkers wove through cars selling food or offering to wash windshields. Buildings were run down with bars on windows, and trash littered the streets. Traffic was bad and it took nearly 45 minutes to get there. Once there we learned our flight’s gate changed, and then was delayed 40 minutes or so. We finally boarded the plane. Then we sat. And sat. And sat. With no forthcoming information we sat on the plane for over an hour on the ground until they announced that the flight was canceled and they made us get off the plane and head out through baggage claim (thank God we were traveling carry on) and go back outside and back to the ticket counter where we stood in a veeerrrry slow line only to learn that we were booked on a new flight TOMORROW. They gave us vouchers for taxi, food and hotel for the night, though of course Gavin insisted we book a Starwood room instead, this time in the appealing Miraflores area, close to shops and restaurants. I didn’t disagree. We spent 20 minutes or so getting our affairs in order notifying our hotel in Urubamba of our change in plans and booking our Lima hotel before grabbing a taxi back through the sketchy neighborhood into town. Upon arrival at our hotel we were given a coupon for complimentary drinks at the hotel restaurant. We were also quite hungry by this point, so we set our stuff in our room after checking in and headed straight to the restaurant. We welcomed a refreshing Pisco sour (or two) and a late lunch. 

Feeling bummed out about our travel hiccup and also exhausted and unmotivated we ended up crashing in our hotel room for a few hours. Finally around 8:00 we rallied and headed out to the cafe we had spotted the day prior boasting the best churros in Lima. Given we weren’t terribly hungry having had a late lunch, a light cafe dinner followed by legit churros sounded like a good plan. I must say, those were the most delicious churros we have EVER tasted. Filled with either dulce de leche, vanilla or chocolate cream, and surrounded by warm, crispy dough coated in cinnamon and sugar, they were to die for.  The evening ended on an up note, as we were excited and hopeful that we would continue our itinerary as planned in the morning.