Lima

On September 13th 2018 we arrived to Lima, initially not having many expectations of this trip, maybe because of things I have lived in latin america I had prejudgements, but the thing I can say now is that I was proven completely wrong. Today is one of my favourite countries in the world to visit and eat, but I will get to the "why" while I describe the whole journey in several articles.

We arrived at the Lima airport where the first thing we wanted to do was leave our stuff in the hotel to visit the city. We were warned that in Lima you can find dangerous places and that you have to be careful with thieves, that for me, coming from a latin american country means keep your eyes really open. At this point this was already a negative point in the trip, because going into a country/city where you have to care about if they are going to steal from you or your safety as person is in dangeour adds a negative connotation to the place. But like I said before I come from a latin american country and I know is not like this with everyone, there is always great people and speaking the same language that in the country makes things easier.

The first person we met was our taxi driver, who ironically was Venezuelan (like I am), and because of what I said at the beginning I didn't trust him much, but after a conversation I managed to gain some trust and jump in the taxi to get us on the way to the hotel. During the ride I managed to learn a lot about his situation, and as matter of fact, he was a really hard working lawyer who was driving taxis because he needed another source of income. He was in a really difficult situation because he had to immigrate from Venezuela.

If you don't know about Venezuela, the corruption, insecurity, lack of basic resources and extreme puverty has pushed a lot of nationals to emmigrate and this is getting worst every year that is passing by, but that is not the subject of this article, even though I mentioned it since it was a big part during all my trip meeting all these people. This is a sensible subject to a Venezuelan and probably a lot of people who read about it will feel identified.

Continuing with the taxi, he confirm to me that you have to be careful with the areas you go but he also told me that in general people are really good people that will try to help you and tell you what you should avoid and how to move around in the city, sadly this problem of security is an inherited problem that we have in all latin america and they are trying to really hard to change, which is a good thing. I mostly used uber to move around in the city and as matter of fact, all the drivers that I had were amazing people that helped me a lot and told me what to avoid. Here is where I started believing that most of the people want it a change and things are not as bad as I thought. This started chaging my view of the city.

Once we arrived in the hotel we left all our things and went to the city centre by taxi, we wanted to take a first view of how the city looked like. Normally I like to walk every city that I go, since I think is the best way to really feel and see what is going on but I wasn't sure we had that level of security in Lima since most of the people use cars to move around. Asking around, most of the people told me that the city centre is safe to walk during the day since there are a lot of police, and again they are really trying to change this problem, so you will see that in Lima are "no go zones" but also places where you are going to be fine, including for tourist.

We went to all the main governamental buildings. Starting at plaza de armas

We visited the cathedral of Lima, Iglesia de la Merced, Museo covento San Francisco y Catacumbas, Parque de la Muralla, Plaza Bolivar, China Town , finishing in the market.

As you appreciate in the pictures the weather in Lima was grey, but I'm used to that coming from London, so for me was not a big deal, for others might be a different opinion. The only thing I can say is that no matter the weather the places are worth it.

When we were done with the centre we decided to go to Miraflores and visit an arqueological area. This is famous for the pyramid of Huaca Pucllana (picture in the head of the article). One of the only ruins remaining of the Lima culture, this place is well known as an administrative area and famous for designing their irrigation systems in areas that were surrounded by desert. You will understand later on how important this was in Peru and how it allowed them to develop settlements across considerable territory. But even though they were really advanced in many aspects, like every other civilization around this time, this culture was taken over by another culture called Wari.

We finished our day going to eat to a well known restaurant, that introduced us the typical gastronomy of Peru, owned by one of the most famous chefs called Gastón Acurio, Tanta Peru. Like I mentioned in other articles food for me is really important, and knowing the original food of the culture is vital, so ending up in a place who introduced us to such a big variety of what Peru means, could not have been a better end of the day.

The day showed me that sometimes you have to leave prejudgements aside, find out more and start getting amazed by the wonders that this country can offer to you, not only in culture, but also in people and food.