For lunch, which had to be my first Peruvian ceviche, I chose the restaurant overlooking the ruins of Huaca Pucllana, planning to visit the site after. Unfortunately, the ruins were closed! Spoiler, I did make it back to them. 😉

Lunch view!

I started off with this crisp and refreshing local beer, very citrusy, a perfect pairing to a dish like ceviche.

I ordered the “classic” ceviche. The server asked how spicy I wanted it, and I said whatever is considered average since I eat ceviche with habanero in Mexico.

What a pretty plate! The white corn on the left that looks like hominy is called choclo, and the crunchy kernels on the right are called cancha. At the bottom of the plate are camote, sweet potato, which I thought sounded like an odd pairing with ceviche, but were actually the perfect complement. There are no words for how good this was — definitely more acidic and salty than the Mexican version, very spicy, and with an excellent mix of textures, from the very soft white fish to the crunchy corn. The ají chile was fruity and made my nose run but was definitely not as hot as a habanero.

The desserts all had eggs except for this delicious mango and passionfruit sorbet that I paired with an espresso:

I walked back to the hotel after for a nap, then went off in search of more craft beers. I’ve really missed pubs/bars with a good variety of beers on tap that you can sample before making a choice, just how I learned to drink beer almost 30 years ago in Scotland. I chose BarBarian.

I asked about dark beers, and my options were a black IPA or a porter. A porter was just a bit too heavy for my mood, so I opted for the Zula Black, requesting only 200mL so I could have another one after.

My second choice was the Enana Roja (red dwarf).

I love amber ales, but I do believe this was my first time having their cousin, the red ale.

My final stop of the day was dinner at Kauza.

I started with a mocktail made with hierba luisa, or lemon beebrush, and pineapple:

My main was a classic Chinese-Peruvian dish, a local favourite, lomo saltado. This is beef sautéd in a wok with soy sauce and possibly some type of vinegar, as well as red pepper and onion, and served with fries and white rice. I actually make a beef very similar to this and did not know the origin of the recipe. From speaking to locals, I got the impression that this meal is to Peruvians what a hamburger might be to me. I enjoyed the meal but had to concede that I am really not a fan of potatoes! If I can’t enjoy potatoes in Peru, then I think I’m a lost cause!

Meals are often served with cancha.

I wandered around a bit after, found some ice cream, then returned to the hotel where, not surprisingly, I passed out around 10PM!

I slept okay my first night in Lima, even if it wasn’t quite enough. I wanted to make sure I was able to make it to breakfast by 10:00, and then I had a walking tour at 10:30, which started a 15-minute walk away from the hotel. I was pleased to see my phone had charged overnight, after realising before bed that I’d missed one very important part of international trip planning: checking the power situation at destination! Peru is on 220V and uses a variety of outlets. Thankfully, the ones at my hotel were versatile, accepting a number of different plugs. The table lamps had the same type of plug as my chargers, which are rated for up to 240V, so I was comfortable plugging in.

The included breakfast buffet had plenty of options. I found it funny that the “American” breakfast was eggs and hotdogs when that is actually a typical Mexican breakfast.

The produce, especially the tomatoes, were so fresh!

The hot dogs were cooked with potatoes, so I tried some just because you can’t go to South America and not have potatoes. The veggie medley was incredible, so fresh, crisp, and well seasoned. The hot dogs were definitely more along the lines of a German frankfurter than an Oscar Mayer wiener.

I then headed out into an overcast day and what felt like throngs of people. Crossing the street as a pedestrian in Lima could be an Olympic sport. I headed in the direction of what is commonly known as Parque Kennedy, but is officially Parque 7 de junio, and unofficially Parque de los gatos to meet a guide for Lima by Walking, a free walking tour operator, in front of the Saga Falabella store off the main “oval.” My best travel tip is to look for one of these free walking tours when you arrive in a new city — they are consistently the best way to get orientated. I’d checked ahead of time and an appropriate tip for such a tour in Lima is 35 soles per person, about 200 pesos or 10USD.

I had no trouble finding the guide, Ricardo. He said that a group of five had reserved and I could join them on the 10:30 Spanish tour, which was perfect. I ended up doing all my tours in Spanish in Lima and had near 100% comprehension on all but one where I had 95% comprehension. I know it wouldn’t be the case in, say, Argentina!

I’m surprised by how much I remember of the tour, but I’m just going to give some brief highlights.

Our first stop was Parque 7 de junio, which commemorates the Battle of Arica. I haven’t fact checked this, but a general apparently threw himself off a cliff with the Peruvian flag to prevent the flag’s capture by the Chileans, who ultimately won the battle. A small section of the park was renamed Parque Kennedy after the US president. At the time of the Cold War, there was a Havana Park in Pensacola (I believe our guide mistakenly said Miami), and to keep a distance from Cuba, the park was renamed to Miraflores Park. To maintain diplomatic relations, the decision was made to rename a part of Miraflores’s main park after the US president at the time.

The unofficial name for this park is Parque de Los gatos because of the cat colony living there. There are programs for sterilisation, adoption, and care of all these cats, which numbered in the hundreds before the pandemic, but now are settled at about one hundred total.

In Mexico, we use the spelling “michi” rather than “mishi.”

I’ll pause here to share the origins of Miraflores, which will lead us right back to the park and its cats.

The original capital of Peru was Cusco. Francisco Pizarro, a Spanish Conquistador I’m sure you’ll come to hate as much as me by the end of this trip, moved the administrative centre from high up in the mountains to a more strategic location by the ocean, what is now Lima’s historic centre. As happens, the city grew up around this centre and the rich folks living in the crowded core sought the healing qualities of the ocean, so they built their holiday homes in what is now Miraflores, which overlooks the ocean. Over time, both the human and cat population densities increased to the point of the cats building a colony in the neighbourhood’s primary green space.

The Iglesia Virgen Milagrosa is made entirely of concrete and is only about 130 years old:

This is Miraflores’s town hall. There are a many districts in Lima, each with their own town hall, mayor, and budget.

None of the vegetation we see is native to Lima, which actually is actually a desert. All the lush greenery is a façade that needs to be watered daily. Despite Miraflores being very overcast, its natural state most of the year, it almost never rains in Lima.

We then strolled towards the malecón. Miraflores is protected from tsunamis by being built so high above the ocean.

Stop signs in Peru say “Pare.”

Looking south.

Parque del amor was inspired by Parque Güell in Barcelona.

The statue is of the artist and his wife.

Here’s the road from the airport. It was built over the natural sand beach and then a manmade beach was rebuilt alongside it. This new beach could not hold sand, so all the beaches along this stretch of the coast are made of pebbles.

With the advent of electricity and homes lighting up the night, this lighthouse fell out of use.

Looking north towards the Parque de los chinos.

Fascinating building!

It is wedge-shaped.

It was along this stretch of the walk that we got a very brief recent history of Peru, the conflicts that made it a no-go zone when I was growing up, destroyed the economy, and still echo today. Peru hasn’t actually been open for tourism for that long. It reminded me a lot of visiting the Balkans. There were recent protests at Machu Pichu that affected tourists, and there were a lot of protests in Lima. I was repeatedly advised to stick to Miraflores, Barranco, the main avenues of the core of the historic centre, and to take taxis between these areas. I never felt unsafe in during my time in Lima, but this did not feel like the best time to be exploring Peru in general, at least not on my own.

The final stop on our tour was Parque de los chinos, to commemorate the importance of the Chinese in Peru. They were brought over in huge boatloads to fill the labour shortages after the abolition of the slave trade, then stayed and helped shape modern Peru. We were given examples of how the Cantonese language affects Peruvian Spanish. For example, soy sauce is “sillao,” which they say with a definitive Chinese accent! Another influence is the abundance of “chifa” restaurants, which serve Peruvian-Chinese cuisine, the name coming from the phrase “chi fan,” meaning literally “eat rice” but can be taken to mean “time to eat!”

The Japanese also play a large part in Peruvian cuisine, and their fusion cuisine is nikkei. I got the impression that chifa is more basic everyday food and nikkei is gastronomy, something that my research confirmed.

At the end of the tour, I declined help with taking a bus back to my hotel and instead chose to walk to my next activity, lunch!

Will you look at that! I had no idea Oxxo is in Peru!

Miraflores is very clean, with well maintained streets. I know there are really rough parts in Lima, but I never saw them. Yet, the parts outside of Miraflores that I did go through that were definitely less scenic and had graffiti also were clean with good streets. The vibe of what I experienced in Lima was more reminiscent of Spain than Mexico, but for the neighbourhoods climbing the hills around the city that definitely made me think of northern Mexican border towns.