Our first morning in Peru, we had an opportunity for a tour around the area of our hotel in the Miraflores District of Lima.  A lovely woman showed us around for almost two hours.

Miraflores was once an independent Spanish town established in the 1500s.  It became a district within the city in the early 1900s as Lima expanded.  Miraflores has the upscale residential and shopping areas within Lima and is the primary tourist destination. 

We walked a short distance to a collection of city parks.  The first place we visited was the Iglesia Virgin Milagrosa  or Church of the Miraculous Virgin. It was built in the 1930s over the remains of another church.

The inside was beautiful, as expected.  Do you see the church cat in the foreground?  We saw two cats during our quick look inside.

We saw numerous cats on the park grounds.  They were brought into this area long ago to deal with rats. The cats are provided food, shelter, and health care through volunteer agencies. The 20 or so cats we saw appeared healthy and happy.

There are a number of art pieces in the park area. One of the parks is called the Parque Kennedy in honor of US President John F. Kennedy.

As we walked around Miraflores, we saw several Starbucks and other American transplants such as Popeyes, KFC, Subway, Papa John’s, Chili’s and Dunkin’.

This road used to be an irrigation ravine to the Pacific Ocean. 

Above, and along the side of the road, is the oldest social club in Peru. It began in 1918.  Today, the club includes 20 or so tennis clay courts perched along several hundred yards above the road.  

School children in Lima wear uniforms.  Their summer break will be in January and February.  South American seasons are opposite of North America. 

We walked to an area overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Hang gliding is allowed in this area of Lima, but only for professionals.  There are other areas that allow access for everyone.

There is another park dedicated to Love. The mosaic wall, going for about 50 yards, is representative.

There are love locks on the fence.

There is a statue called The Kiss within Love Park.

This is an abstract representation of an astronomical clock at Machu Picchu. (Spoiler alert: We didn’t see the original.)

The Waikiki Beach Club is where beginners learn to surf.

There are black rocky beaches in this part of Lima. Other areas in the city have sandy beaches.  Beaches in Peru are both private and public. 

This affluent district in Lima is very clean.  We were aware of many street cleaners doing the work – generally mature women.

During our walking tour, we were warned about the traffic being told that drivers put no stock in the value of pedestrians. We experienced that to be true! 

The other thing we noticed was that cross walk signals, supposedly allowing you to cross the street safely, had widely varying number of seconds to accomplish the task. The longest time allocation we saw was 78 seconds. There was no standard from intersection to intersection. 

We returned to the hotel and had a couple drinks in the hotel bar, including our first Peruvian beer.   While sitting there, we received a fraud alert on a credit card we hadn’t even had time to use!  While on hold with Citibank, I was thinking about how difficult it was going to be to deal with things that auto-bill to that card while in Peru.  Fortunately, we recognized the activity and it was a false alarm!

A little later we wandered off in search of a traditional Peruvian meal and found a restaurant that seemed to fit our needs.  We started out with the traditional Peruvian drink, Pisco Sours. They were very good.

Seafood is very Peruvian, but we eat very little seafood. We chose two chicken dishes to share.  The dish on the left was so traditional that we were served it several times during our trip.

We got lost on our way back to the hotel and had to turn on Randy’s phone to use Maps. Figuring out how and when we might use our phones with our Verizon Travel Passes was part of the preparations for the trip. We knew we’d have cell access in Lima and Quito, but what about the Amazon and the Galapagos? I had given my mother, my brother, our daughter, and our neighbor lists with all of our hotel contact information, along with contact information for the US Embassies in Peru and Ecuador. (Fortunately, Avalon Waterways had provided the information.) We also registered with the State Department about our travel activities. Prep for this trip was a lot – I was glad the prep was done and we were actually on the trip!

We enjoyed our day and looked forward to meeting our tour guide and travel companions the next morning.

We were in Lima on September 13, 2024