After over a week of super high altitudes, we are heading to Lima and back to sea level. Our flight is out of Juliaca, the city that we rolled through a couple of days ago on the train. Octavio (guide) and David (driver) picked us up for the 1 hour ride to the airport. To control speeding on the roads, there are road humps about every ½ mile which is very effective, but definitely slows down the ride. The scenery was dry, dusty and barren, with small shops dotting the road.
The airport was little and easy to navigate, and we were able to access the small lounge to enjoy coffee and wifi. The flight was a quick 1.5 hour and soon we were in the car with our driver, navigating the insane Lima traffic.
Our hotel (Marriott Courtyard) is in Miraflores, an upscale area known for its mall on a cliff overlooking the Pacific ocean, high rises and shops/restaurants. Exploring the area, we found the noisy, busy main drag leading the 6 blocks to the cliffs, but then a few blocks away peaceful, quiet residential roads with nice apartment buildings and homes. Quite a contrast.
We enjoyed dinner at Tanta, a casual restaurant in the mall with a beautiful view of the ocean and was perfect for watching the sunset over the ccean. Malls provide a look at how small the world has become…no matter where we are in the world a large mall will have the same stores- Aldo, Banana Republic, Gap, Crocs…with a few (very few) local stores thrown in (you don’t see Equal Alpaca everywhere).
The next morning was a bit lazy, as our Lima city tour didn’t start until 2pm. Once the tour is over, we are off to the airport to fly to Montevideo, Uruguay. We took another walk through the neighborhood, repacked and relaxed.
Right on time, Ophelia, our tour guide arrived along with Adrian our driver and we were quickly navigating the crazy traffic. What should be a 15 min drive into the city center ended up being about 45 mins, at which point Ophelia asked if we were ok with walking. Yup..let’s go. It was much faster than just sitting in the car and going nowhere! We learned that there was a protest over mining, which was causing the total standstill of cars.
About 8 blocks later, we arrived at the large square surrounded by equally large churches, government and company buildings. The entrance to the square was all blocked off for an event (and we think maybe due to the protest down the street), but the views were still very cool.We circled around the square and started into the historical district, which in 2018 closed off the streets to create pedestrian walkways. Old balconies, small shops and ornate structures have been restored to reflect Lima’s history.
Our destination was the Basilica San Francisco, a large imposing church with baroque features, beautiful art and a maze of catacombs underneath the large chapel. In the catacombs were bones of between 26,000-70,000 people (they have no idea how many as no one kept count but there are a LOT) all arranged by type (all of the femurs in one spot, etc). This was a popular burial place up until 1810 and records were non-existent and the bones were fragmented and scattered. So who knows how many and who is buried!
To get to where our Adrian was waiting with the car, we passed around the square again where different police groups were doing a marching demonstration with great fanfare. Ophelia wasn’t sure what it was, but thought it might be a graduation of some type.
Our next stop was the beautiful Larco Museum, housed in an 18th century mansion. It is considered one fhe largest collections (5000+ pieces) of pre-Columbian art and pottery. It was fascinating to see the amazing pieces some created around 1000BC which would be still functional today.
The Larco is also very famous for its “erotica” exhibition. This part of the museum is all about sex in all its forms from the pre-Columbian time. Pottery depicting ever type of sexual position made it clear that it isn’t any different than today (man/woman, woman/woman, man/man, etc).
After enjoying the Larco courtyard with the beautiful flowers, it was time to head to the airport. We bid farewell to Ophelia and for the next hour chatted with Adrian in the totally stopped traffic. As we had several hours before our flight, we weren't in any hurry.
Lima airport was uneventful, and with access to the very nice LATAM lounge, we ate, read, dozed and people-watched until our midnight flight was ready to go. Next up: Uruguay.