Because of plane issues our non-stop overnight flight from Toronto was changed into a one hour stop in Jamaica to refuel in the early morning before continuing on to Lima. Although the airline did compensate us, it really wrecked any chance of us getting overnight sleep. We arrived in Lima around 6:30 a.m. after a longer and more sleepless flight.

Hitting the ground running

After getting out of the baggage claim around 7:30 a.m.. we immediately found someone holding an Airport express sign after the baggage exit and were directed to a booth to pay. It was only 15 soles (US$4) each as we had matching tickets (slightly higher for solo travellers). We’d heard good things about it as well as bad things about taxis so we went with this method. The bus goes to a few key locations around the Miraflores district to the south-east of the airport, the location where most foreigners stay when visiting Lima. It ended up being cheap and efficient.

We were directed to a bus shelter just outside the airport behind the Wyndham Airport Hotel (where we stayed our the last night in Peru) and we were soon off to Miraflores.

The first thing we noticed was the traffic, and it took awhile to get to our hotel. On the plus side, the drive along the coast before moving up to the city was very picturesque.

We arrived at our hotel, the Casa Andina Standard Benavides located a block south of the central park. We arriving at our Hotel just after 8:00 a.m. so with hours to go before check-in we dropped off our bags and started walking. We were tired, but there wasn’t much else to do. We ended up doing 25,000 steps the first day.

It begins and ends with the park

Miraflores is in a triangle pattern, with key sights at each point.

Miraflores Central Park (Parque Central de Miraflores),is the main public park in the Miraflores district. It is divided into two parks: John F. Kennedy Park (Parque John F. Kennedy) and 7 June Park (Parque 7 de Junio). The former gives the entire park complex its popular name, Kennedy Park

During the daytime the park was quiet but had a steady presence of people walking through. There were some people selling foods or other items but it was not crowded.

Parque Kennedy was named after U.S. President John F. Kennedy because of an economic initiative he launched in 1961 that aimed to establish economic cooperation between the U.S. and Latin America

The roundabouts were one of the trickier things to navigate in Peru as they were often quite large with not all sections having crossing points for pedestrians. You had to navigate the correct circles to get across and patience was key.

On the first evening there was a serious discussion going on with speeches and poetry. Things were busier at night but it was a very safe place to be, as was all of the Miraflores district we passed through.

We headed back to the park again, and it seemed that no matter where we went, we would go through the parks before returning to our hotel.

One nice thing about larger cities is the chance to see some artwork on display at no cost. On this evening we had the opportunity to check out some fusion art involving the tribes of the Amazon. We ended up doing about 25,000 steps on the first day which we didn’t intend on doing but it worked out well.

Hitting the coast

The next day we went down to the Larcomar district of Miraflores next to the coast. It was an easy walk about 15 minutes south of our hotel.

Approaching the shopping mall from the top, you don’t even notice it. It wasn’t until we went into the complex that we could see how the design is built into the side of the cliff–very unique.

But in the end it was just a mall with a view. Being a mall, Larcomar was nothing special. It was the view from the open-air mall that was most important. We had a few snacks but didn’t stay long.

Walking along the coast

From Larcomar we began to walk north, taking in a number of spots along the way. Next up was Parque del Amor (Love Park)

As we continued north the ocean views were excellent.

Along the way there were a number of places to stop and enjoy the view. Tiny stands sold various snacks and you could even do some exercise with a view!

We wanted to visit the Miraflores Chinese Park but it was closed for renovations. So our last stop was Parque Pluma at the bottom of a series of steps leading down.

After a long day we decided to go vegetarian and had some falafels, hummus and assorted vegetables for dinner. I really liked the mint lemonade. The only negative was exhaust fumes occasionally coming in when traffic was backed up.

Notes:

-We quickly noticed the car pollution. Peru had a lot of diesel cars in particular and many of the buses had poor exhaust filters. Anytime we followed major streets too long or lingered wherever cars were idling we suffered the effects, and quickly learned to take side streets. The problem repeated itself in many other places as well.

-The hotel was very nice. It had a clean, modern room and a great breakfast buffet. The location was great with everything within a 15 minute walk. The only major exception was the impressive Huaca Pucllana ruins, which were a 25 minute walk away–still easy to get to. It will be the subject of our next post.