Hi guys!  So today I will start to share some of my Peru travels. 😊  For this post, I’ll start with Lima, Peru.  I only spent two full days there, which I think was sufficient time to see the city.  I had an early flight from Santiago (5am which meant I needed to be at the airport by 3am, ouch!) and arrived around 9am.  I went straight to my hostel to drop off my bags and since I couldn’t check in yet, I headed to a nearby Starbucks to get some caffeine and meet up with fellow volunteer, Lucy, and her boyfriend, Jesse.  They are traveling Peru together for a bit and then she will head back down to Chile for the big Independence Day celebration (Sept 18th) before she finally heads home to Canada (similar to my plan!).

We accidentally came across a central Lima walking tour on the metro/bus thing that Lima uses (looks like a metro, but really is a long bus) and ended up joining them for the morning.  We were able to see the Plaza de Armas (really, really nice actually), the changing of the guards (didn’t see much with all the security), a few other historic buildings, and we sampled a maracuya sour (a popular passion fruit cocktail, I saved the recipe)!

After the tour, we grabbed a bite to eat and then decided to head to Huana Pucllana which is a large historic ruins site that dates back to the 500s and is located in the middle of Lima.  Several different civilizations lived there over the course of the years and eventually the ruins were covered up.  They aren’t exactly sure why, but for years the ruins appeared to be a large hill in the middle of the Miraflores neighborhood.  We had to take a tour as part of the ticket since they didn’t allow for people to explore solo since certain areas are still being excavated and are off limits.  The tour itself was a bit boring, but it was cool to see these old ruins.

Here are a few photos of the ruins:

That evening, we went to dinner at a local Cerveceria in the Barranco neighborhood which is where we were staying.  We enjoyed a few beers and then headed back for an early night.  I was rather tired considering I pretty much stayed up the night before due to my super early flight.

The next day, they had a bus to catch so we grabbed a late breakfast together and then they were off so I decided to explore more of the Barranco and Miraflores neighborhoods solo.  The Miraflores neighborhood is very nice, but you can definitely tell that it is a wealthier part of town and that it isn’t an accurate representation of other parts of Lima.  The Barranco neighborhood had a more authentic feel which is why I liked it a bit more.

I took it easy on my second evening as well since I also had planned an early morning flight to Cuzco (what is wrong with me!) the next day.  So that’s it for this short Lima post.  I do not have many photos actually and just realized in looking at what I do have that I do not have any of me, Lucy, and Jesse!  Shame on us!  Well anyways, be on the lookout for my next post which will be about one of the highlights of Peru so far, Machu Picchu!

Until then,

Kimberly

P.S. Per usual, for more photos check out the following google photos album:

Lima, Peru