Lima, Peru

We awoke this morning to bright sunshine and blue skies.
Christian ventured out for the early morning excursion by skiff to the Bellavista Nanay morning market along the Nanay River to sample exotic snacks from the Peruvian Amazon like Amazon Caterpillar. Jim and I opted to stay in out of the heat.

After breakfast we docked back at the wharf in Iquitos.
On our way to the Iquitos airport we made a stop at the Manatee Rescue Center, a special animal orphanage for Amazonian manatees. It is also home to monkeys, otters, birds and other animals that need nurturing before being returned to the wild.

At 2:30pm we landed at the airport in Lima and were met by our tour guide, Miguel and driver, Mr. Martin. Traffic in Lima is horrendous and will unfortunately limit our sight seeing capabilities. Thank heaven we have a driver with nerves of steel! I sure wouldn’t want to drive in this traffic mayhem.

We started with a tour in the Centro Historica de Lima, a historical area of old Colonial Lima, where we are surrounded by amazing architecture. The area is a designated UNESCO heritage site. The Centro contains government offices, public squares, places of worship and a beautiful central fountain. Christian was thrilled to get his photo taken with a group of guards surrounding the Presidential Palace.
After walking about the square, we visited Iglesia y Convento de San Francisco. It is a stunning example of the “Lima Baroque” style of architecture. The central nave is known for its beautiful ceilings painted in a style called mudejar (a blend of Moorish and Spanish designs).
The geometric Moorish-style cupola over the main staircase was carved in 1625 (restored 1969) out of Nicaraguan cedar. But the strikingly yellow monastery is most famous for its bone-lined catacombs (containing an estimated 70,000 remains) and its remarkable library housing 25,000 antique texts, some of which predate the conquest. Sadly, the texts have not been protected from nature’s elements and are essentially turning into dust. Bones—including thousands of human skulls and femurs—are piled in eerie geometric patterns in the catacombs beneath the monastery. This was the city’s first cemetery.
As we’re leaving the Centro Historica de Lima we watched the end of the the changing of the guard ceremony of at the Presidential Palace, very similar to the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace.

We continue our drive through Lima up to the Cristo del Pacifico statue. The “Christ of the Pacific” statue is a 37 metre high statue of Jesus erected in 2011 as a gift from a consortium of Brazilian companies to the city of Lima. From here we have the most amazing mountain top view of all of Lima and watch as the sun sets and the lights of Lima erupt across the horizon.

Next we visited Barranco, one of 43 districts in Lima, considered to be the city’s most romantic and bohemian area and home to many of Peru’s leading artists, musicians and photographers. Barranco is also noted for its restaurants. The district of Barranco was officially established on the 26th of October 1874. We had hoped to visit Lima’s contemporary MAC Museum here but sadly we ran out of time.
We walked across The Puente de los Suspiros, Barranco’s Bridge of Sighs, which was built in 1876 over a ravine that has become a walkway to the sea that runs through Barranco, called the Bajada de los Baños. If you wanted to woo a woman or court a fine young gentleman, the Puente de los Suspiros was the place and thus the bridge became known as a place of amorous sighing, hence the name: the Bridge of Sighs. The bridge remains today as Barranco’s most iconic symbol of art and love and poetry.

Our last stop is Miraflores, the most popular place for tourists, visitors, foreign expats and locals who can afford it. Old houses coexist with modern multi-story buildings, hotels, casinos and banks. It has a stunning mountaintop view of the Pacific Ocean. Miraflores is also well known by surfers for its beaches on the Costa Verde (green Coast)
We popped into the Belmond Miraflores Park hotel to do a quick freshen up before dinner. This happened to be the same hotel where we stayed on our NG trip 2 years ago. It’s a gorgeous hotel with a lobby filled with beautiful floral arrangements.

And finally the Pièce De Résistance…dinner at Central Restaurante in Miraflores. If Lima is known for one thing, it’s gastronomy. The city has become the culinary capital of South America. Central is the #4 rated restaurant in the world and I’ve been looking forward to eating here for months. We were so lucky to be able to snag a reservation. It is quite a challenge to get that but kudos to our travel agent, Catherine, who pulled off the miracle. Chef Virgilio Martinez reflects the biodiversity of Peru in each of his Peruvian dishes and is featured on the new season of the Chef’s Table on Netflix. The Central menu takes guests on a culinary expedition through Peru’s ecosystem, from the Amazon to the Pacific coast. Chef Virgílio Martínez and his team forage in the jungle, desert, mountains and sea to discover diverse local ingredients found at every altitude. We had hoped to do the Mater Elevations menu which is 17 courses, but sadly time won’t allow that so we opted for the Mater Ecosystems which is 11 courses. Jim enhanced his meal with the wine pairings for each course. I’m always enthusiastic about a great meal but this meal is almost indescribable. Each course is plated like a work of art and displayed like a beautiful riddle on the palette. Thank heaven our waiter always pointed out what was and wasn’t edible on the plate! I tried to take photo’s of each course, but got carried away with eating and missed a few of the courses. The meal was an incredible culinary adventure that we enjoyed immensely. As we were waiting for our car, the hostess came running out with a gift from the Chef. It is the most exquisite journal done by a local artist with each page representing the ecosystems of Peru specific to his menu.

Finally, it’s time to head to the airport for our 1am flight back to Atlanta. As we’re leaving Central we can see the large lighted cross that is a key feature to the coastal skyline shining on the horizon. It was installed for a visit by Pope John Paul II

Back on Delta and ready to try to nap on the flight back home. It’s been a great journey!