Our Day in Lima

Friday April 25th

                                                                                  

We took a taxi into the Lima historic district. There are a lot of old buildings that date back until almost 1535 when the Spanish conquered Peru. They established Lima as the capital of the Spanish empire in South America. There are several large squares. Around the Plaza Major are government buildings and the cathedral. A military band had a concert and the soldiers marched in all their fancy uniforms. The kids were visiting from their schools and having the best time.

We paid to go into the cathedral. (La Catedral) The area has seen many revolutions as well as earthquakes. They are all remembered with squares and statues as well as national holidays.

We enjoy talking with the guys on the sidewalks trying to convince us to eat in their restaurants. We decided on one and spent a couple of hours at lunch eating traditional Lima food and talking to the waiters. We won’t need dinner tonight.

We took another taxi to the newer business part of town. The traffic was terrible. It is fun trying out our Spanish on the taxi drivers. They like trying out their English as well. He took us to Parque Kennedy. It is a nice park with flowers and trees and people enjoying the beautiful day.



From there we walked to the cliffs overlooking the sea. There is a park for lovers, a bike and walking trail and several other parks overlooking the Pacific Ocean. We love searching out lighthouses and there a real nice one in one of the parks.

We were pretty tired by now. We hailed another cab back to the airport and our hotel. There are no freeways and the traffic made it real slow going. I like driving in crazy foreign traffic but this town would be no fun at all. It is so jammed that you can hardly move. Everyone, going at a crawl, tries to force their way ahead. Jan was glad we were not on the motorcycle.

We are catching a plane to Arequipa in the morning.