Day three and four in Lima

With a few down days for me on both Tuesday and Wednesday (conference days for Brent), I decided to do a little exploring for most of Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon and wandered the streets in and around the hotel where we are staying.  I found a great park – Bosque El Olivar – which I found out later was home to over 1,500 olive trees.  And, crazy pigeons! The parks here are gorgeous, and a great spot to walk and people watch!

Honestly this part of the city (although beyond very safe) feels a little cut-off and isolated from the rest of the city.  After exploring this area and comparing notes, this very wealthy sector is home to many high end businesses, embassies, and government offices.  It is quite a mix up of very securely monitored bulidings, some residences, and little shops and cafes dotted about, although in a very inconsistent manner.

When Brent finished Tuesday’s round of events, we embarked on a journey on foot to see if we could make it down to the ocean.  After a few twists and turns – learning along the way that streets aren’t exactly straight, and do not run parallel to each other, and seem to change names along the way – we finally made it!  

Although, what still to this day remains a mystery, is how exactly we get down to the water’s edge due to the sheer cliff faces that line the coast, and the 4 lane road that runs along side of it.  No easy access!  Apparently there are indeed sets of stairs that do go down to the shoreline, but we didn't see them.

As the sun was starting to set, we lucked out and found a fabulous little café (Buena Vista Café) perched at the edge of one of the outcrops.  It was surprisingly inexpensive and a fabulous place to enjoy a light supper, and enjoy the sunset!

Wednesday was another day of exploring, and getting packed up for our trip over to Cusco, and the beginning of the last half of our journey to Peru.  This was the part of the trip I was looking forward to the most.  I am not one for hanging around in big cities, so exploring the mountain town of Cusco, was definitely more my speed!  After a long conference day for Brent, we decided to walk back to Parque Kennedy, for dinner and a little more exploring.  We had another fabulous dinner at a restaurant that we had eaten at a few days prior, and then checked out a few more of the Incan Night Markets.  

Lima has been an interesting city for sure, with a very wide variety of neighbourhoods and districts.  It was a great introduction to the Peruvian culture, however a total eye opener when it came to the quality of life of the Peruvian people.  We saw both extremes - the less fortunate and the wealthy - and their doesn't appear to be any middle ground, at least from what we observed.  We met some amazing people during our time here, who made our stay in Lima that much more enjoyable.  Now, it's off to the little mountain town of Cusco, and then to Machu Picchu!