Lima-licious
Well I have to admit I wasnt looking forward to a visit to Lima. Afterall Quito hadnt really done much in terms of impressing me on behalf of Sth American capital cities - unless of course you dig on dirty, polluted and dangerous and plenty of people I have met told me Lima was pretty much the same.
So we roll into Lima, first impression is that it's bloody massive and covered for 8 months of the year by the mysterious garua - not quite fog, not quite mist. Seeing that Lima is on the coast and is really part of the desert to have this strange slightly damp weird foggy, cloudy thing over your head all the time rather strange. Apparently when the Spanish arrived and settled they did so in summer when it was glorious blue skied and sunny and then a few months later in rolled the garua which then stayed put.
But apart from that I really like the place, its smack bang on the coast and the ritzier suburbs like Miraflores sit on massive cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean. In fact Miraflores is quite the decadent place, when Ed and I arrived we headed down there for lunch. Lima is famed for it's food and after 4 months of rice, beans, salad and more potatoes than you can poke a stick at I went wild. Menus bursting with Italian, Thai, Chinese, modern Peruvian, middle eastern, French and much more.....I thought my mouth was going to explode from all the flavours I had been missing for so long. Naturally we had to top it off with a big bottle of Argentian red and some chocolate cake....and while we were pigging we were entertained by the spectacular views of the ocean and the crazed paragliders who sail off the cliffs and right over our heads while we were eating.
Following the pig session we went to the cinema, went disco bowling and book shopping - after 4 months in wilderness capitalism has never tasted so good.
However now I am sated there are plenty of other things to see in this vibrant and interesting city, great mud pyramids, catacombs and more museums than you can poke a stick at and apparently more cute n cuddly Peruvian dogs (thanks for the hot tips Grunter!)
So we roll into Lima, first impression is that it's bloody massive and covered for 8 months of the year by the mysterious garua - not quite fog, not quite mist. Seeing that Lima is on the coast and is really part of the desert to have this strange slightly damp weird foggy, cloudy thing over your head all the time rather strange. Apparently when the Spanish arrived and settled they did so in summer when it was glorious blue skied and sunny and then a few months later in rolled the garua which then stayed put.
But apart from that I really like the place, its smack bang on the coast and the ritzier suburbs like Miraflores sit on massive cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean. In fact Miraflores is quite the decadent place, when Ed and I arrived we headed down there for lunch. Lima is famed for it's food and after 4 months of rice, beans, salad and more potatoes than you can poke a stick at I went wild. Menus bursting with Italian, Thai, Chinese, modern Peruvian, middle eastern, French and much more.....I thought my mouth was going to explode from all the flavours I had been missing for so long. Naturally we had to top it off with a big bottle of Argentian red and some chocolate cake....and while we were pigging we were entertained by the spectacular views of the ocean and the crazed paragliders who sail off the cliffs and right over our heads while we were eating.
Following the pig session we went to the cinema, went disco bowling and book shopping - after 4 months in wilderness capitalism has never tasted so good.
However now I am sated there are plenty of other things to see in this vibrant and interesting city, great mud pyramids, catacombs and more museums than you can poke a stick at and apparently more cute n cuddly Peruvian dogs (thanks for the hot tips Grunter!)
posted by Kate Browne at 8:27 AM
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