The flight from Porto Alegre to Lima went smoothly with comfy, spacious seats and good food.
The arrival at Lima brings you a landscape that looks like from another world. Lima stays on top of a desert and it's hard to find green sceneries except for the strip near the Pacific ocean. It's a joy to walk the clean streets, specially in the upscale neighbourhood of Miraflores.
Miraflores is the nicest district, very clean, organized and safe, custom tailored for tourists. It's there that both the "park of love" and larcomar mall are. Larcomar mall stays on the pacific ocean front which leads most of its restaurants to have a fantastic view. Unless there is mist, that is. We are here in the beginning of march. There is a huge mist clouding over the city for most of the morning. It's crazy to think the city can have 95% humidity yet it never rains.
The second day was spent downtown visiting plaza de armas and the saint francis monastery. The monastery is a architectural relic, but the the fact people used the underground as a cemetery is shocking. There are 25000 people buried there, these days there are only skulls and femurs left though.
The main street is reserved for pedestrians with hundreds of shops on each side and it ends near parque de exposiciones. A couple km ahead is the parque de la reserva where the show of water and lights is presented in the evenings.
To get downtown from miraflores simply get on one of the blue buses on Jose Larco street.
Another cool aspect of the Miraflores district is that there are uniformed people on the street who will exchange dollars or euros for the local currency using the official rate. The exchange shops will sell Soles to you for 2.82 to the dollar while these guys will sell for 3 to the dollar, a much better deal.
The city stays on a high plateau which is smart considering the earthquakes.
The airport is far away in the not so pretty Callao district. Taxis do not have meters so you are on your own while haggling the price.
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