22. & 23.05. Lima

What is most surprising to me about Lima are the smells and the cleanliness. You don’t see garbage lying around anywhere (well, of course we only saw the nice neighborhoods). And there are different smells all the time – not in a bad way, just unexpected. Lima is located right on the Pacific Ocean, but it might as well not be – there is a cliff coast about 100 meters high, which sort of separates the city from the beaches at the bottom.

On day one we visit the Miraflores neighborhood, which offers some nice gardens and a fancy shopping arcade right on top of the cliff coast. 

The exciting part comes in the afternoon, when we arrive at Huaca Pucllana – ancient pyramids of the Lima people. They pyramids were built with clay bricks that were merely dried in the sun. I have never seen this construction style before, it’s called bookshelf-construction and is apparently earthquake safe and quite durable  - 80% of the structures are still original.  

On day 2 in Lima we visit the historic center, which is pretty much the same as most other Latin American cities. Big cathedral, Palacio del Gobierno, and a big plaza. 

By the way - interesting stuff in the catacombs of the church:

We have to take little buses – Lima is barely starting to build a real public transportation system. The buses are fun though, you just get in and sit down, and at some point some guy or girl comes buy and collects the money – costs like 80 cents for an hour long ride. We have to walk for an eternity to get to our bus line again due to some road construction, which involuntarily brings us by the impressive justice palace and the Magic Water Circuit. As we walk down the street, I see a fire station. As I collect pictures of fire trucks from all around the world, I immediately take a picture. A navy officer behind me notices me, and tells me I can go ahead inside and take a look around - super friendly the Peruvians!!

We also stop by the mall close to our hotel before heading back – one of the nicest, most high-end malls I have ever been in!! I guess they have their share of wealthy people. Overall the country appears much more developed than I had anticipated.