Lima for Lacey's Birthday!
After a restful night's sleep, we went down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. It was really good (other than the tamales that were bad). Lacey raved over the hot chocolate that was literally melted delicious chocolate. The croissants were a hit as well.
For ease of transportation sake, we stayed at the same hotel as before which was just across the street from the airport. However, all of the city's sights are a decent way away. So we packed up our backpack for a full day of being away from the hotel and ventured out in an Uber. Ubers in Peru are incredibly cheap. It was about $5 for a 35 minute trip across the city. We tipped as much as we could!
We took the taxi to the main square area of Miraflores, a neighborhood of Lima. This is the main tourist part of Lima (there's a historic part of the city too but it's not visited as much).
We went to the main park to see the "cat park". There are a bunch of cats that live in the park. There was also a book fair going on. The stalls were not open yet but we made a mental note to visit the area later in the day. The other excitement in this area was that there was an outdoor exercise class going on.
We proceeded to walk down a looooong boulevard street to the ocean. Along the way, we stopped and got Lacey some Starbucks for her birthday (free b-day drink). It was a quiet Sunday morning so not much going on.
Lima is known as the "green coast" city. And boy, they mean that. The miraflores neighborhood is perched on cliffs tops above the rocky ocean beaches. The green plants that cover the cliffs are spectacular! I wanted to take Lacey paragliding over the cliffs but the companies that do it were not open. Sometimes the conditions aren't right for it, or it could be a covid thing, or it was a Sunday. Either way, we couldn't do it. Lacey didn't really want to do it anyway haha.
There are lots of parks along the cliff tops so we meandered between these parks for a while. We stopped at a crepe shop and got a DELICIOUS strawberry and caramel one. It was fun to eat it while overlooking the ocean. We kept walking along the cliff tops until there was a path down to the ocean itself.
We followed the path down to the ocean side highway. The beaches in Lima are all very rocky plus it was relatively cool out (maybe 60?) so not exactly a "beachy" day. There were a lot of surfers though! There were a few people parked in vans along the beach who asked us if we wanted to learn to surf. We politely declined haha. There was a pier with some restaurants and stores but they wouldn't let us in without a reservation.
We made our way back up the cliffs and away from the ocean to find some lunch. We went back to the main square and got some sandwiches at a famous Peruvian sandwich chain. La Lucha Sangucheria Criolia. Lacey got a burger that was pretty good but was messy. I got a sandwich that was yummy. The fries and juice were the highlights.
We meandered through the book fair and I sent some snaps to my sister Amy because I knew she'd love them. I also got her a Harry Potter book in Spanish to add to her collection.
Our next stop was an outdoor mall right on the cliffside. I can't remember what it was called but it's kind of famous just for its location and views. The mall kind of sapped a lot of our energy though. We walked through a few stores and went into a grocery store to get a snack and water but woof. Our feet were feeling the day already. I tried a kind of pop called "Inka Cola" that Sergio had told me about. It was... awful. It tasted and looked like anti-freeze.
We walked along the coast some more but ran into some construction. We also didn't really know what we wanted to do next. There were some other neighborhoods to explore but it was getting late in the day for that and it was a quiet Sunday. So we decided to take the long route back to the main square.
On this route, we walked by the hotel that the Peruvian soccer team was staying at. There were a ton of fans outside the hotel cheering on the team when they were leaving for the match. The fans were singing and dancing and had tons of flags. It was a fun scene!
Craft beer is starting to be a thing in Peru and Lima especially. We walked by a craft beer place so decided to stop in. It was a really cool vibe in there! Lacey got a pisco sour (yummy) and I got a craft beer. Two South American soccer teams were playing each other and there were people watching it in the bar.
We proceeded to walk back to the main square and the sun had set by this point. To keep our spirits up, we visited another cool bar right in the main square. Lacey got a beer smoothie (it was okay) and I got a weird beer. The atmosphere of the bar was great though.
The park right outside the bar has a famous Picarones stand. Picarones are a fried donut with a honey syrup on it. We have seen them on YouTube and on Netflix food shows. They were delicious and warm and sweet but not too sweet and wow. It was fun watching them be made and then eat them. The park had a bunch of people and families in it. It was a fun place to hang out for a bit.
Our last stop of the day was a Peruvian restaurant for dinner. This was without a doubt the best food we had all trip and it wasn't close. It was a little fancy of a place so we didn't exactly dress up correctly but it is what it is. We ordered ceviche and grilled chicken with passionfruit pisco sours to drink. Every single thing we ate was so flavorful and delicious. The grilled chicken was seriously the best grilled chicken I've ever had. The spices and the grill marks and wow. Lacey didn't like the passionfruit in the pisco as much as a normal one but it was still good. The best part of all of this? It was only $34 for everything including tip. Insane!!!
With full bellies, we got an uber back to the hotel. It took us a little while to get one to agree to drive us but we got it figured out eventually. We packed up because we had to wake up at 3:30am for our flight back to the USA. Then we relaxed and slept well after a LONG day of walking and sightseeing and eating.
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