Peru receives me with a slogan that seems to presage interesting emotions, at least for the palate. I spent a good time of my stay to savor and enjoy the delicious and sophisticated Peruvian cuisine. Lima is a city where it does not rain, surrounded by a desolate desert landscape.
We landed in Lima at 07:30 in the evening with the eyes cast between fatigue after 16 hours of flight. The city of Lima would be the ephemeral point of departure, of a trip through Peru that filled us with anxiety and expectation. We had decided to sleep overnight in the so-called Miraflores neighborhood.
Because of the fatigue, I only remember having negotiated the taxi with a shotgun face, and head to the hotel in the Miraflores neighborhood. During the journey and because of fatigue, I forced myself to observe for the first time the Peruvian capital. With glazed and irritated eyes, a flowery place with a strange monument caught my attention. The taxi driver told me without asking what it was about the park of love!
Day 1
After spending the night at the hotel in Lima, we wanted to take advantage of the morning to visit the Miraflores neighborhood. During breakfast at the hotel, we met a girl, a little lost in life. She did not remember from where she came from or what she did in Peru exactly. We also shared a table with a cyclist who was traveling the world on his bicycle. These are tories that are only heard when we travel.
Without the exhaustion of the previous day, I was able to remember many details of the arrival in Lima. The energy and enthusiasm of the trip to Peru resumed to their highest level. I remembered then that I lowered the price of the taxi to half (with the face of a shotgun).
We only had the morning for a march through the Miraflores neighborhood. We intended to complete the visit to the city of Lima quietly at the end of the trip. Though a little lethargic because of jet lag, we walked in search of the malecon and the Peruvian sea.
This is how we arrived at the Salazar park to realize that the Miraflores neighborhood is a modern and well-to-do district full of hotels, large buildings and elegant boutiques. In the center of the park is the shopping center, with many stores of well-known brands and restaurants with a beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean.
We continue the route bordering the Cisneros boardwalk, a very clean, well-kept and quite flowery place. As we walk through this area we come across a nice and calm place, with several parks and terraces full of gardens.
The Miraflores neighborhood ends in a cliff, which ensures stunning views over Lima's beaches. The beach landscape is visited by surfers who take advantage of the breeze and waves that make the site an ideal spot for surfing. In contrast to the seascape, we see a curious and attractive structure that houses a blue restaurant.
Whenever I embark on a great trip, I find it hard to convince myself and set off the things that haunt me in my mind. There are the parasites that accompany us in the life of obligations like work, money, routine and problems. Then I look forward to that moment when my brain goes from survival mode to enjoyment mode.
We were comfortable walking through the Miraflores neighborhood until we found the famous park that had marked me the night before. At that moment, I felt the click on my person. The enjoyment mode was suddenly installed in my head! It may be due to the mix between the sea breeze, the color of the place and the giant monument of a couple in love.
The Parque del Amor is a nice name. There is a work of art of a couple showing the gesture of love with a kiss. The sculpture has the appropriate name of the kiss right in front of the sea and was the work of a Peruvian artist named Victor Delfin. The monument is surrounded by phrases of love, of several Peruvian poets in mosaics of various colors.
That's why for me the real trip through Peru did not start at the airport, neither at the hotel nor anywhere else. Well, the time and the place where I felt prepared to see the Inca country, was there, in the Miraflores neighborhood, in front of the play "el beso" and its park of love. The Peruvian custom says that you have to take flowers, go with your lover and offer a long kiss in front of the park of love!
We stopped on the way to eat at the restaurant overlooking the Pacific Ocean. We have fish (buri) in seafood sauce with corn rice and fish breaded with prawns. We also have glass of strawberries, chocolate mus, vanilla mus and caramelized almonds, chocolate cake, lemon cream, lucuma and raspberries. It was not bad, but I expected more.
Our last walk through Lima passed without direction marching through the Malecon to the lighthouse. I do not know why I did not decide to do paragliding. They continued adding color to the sky next to the lighthouse La Marina, located in the Antonio Raimondi park.
To begin to make contact with the pre-Hispanic cultures and the many archaeological sites that the country offers, I had the opportunity to visit the Huaca Pucllana. Having dinner on the terrace of his restaurant, we see the pyramidal structure.
I was explained the history of the Lima Culture that settled in this coastal area of the country, between the III and XIII centuries. The pyramid grew with the superposition of constructions. Each house was built on top of the previous one, and thus it was gaining height for centuries.
To cope with the strident rhythm of Lima would have been an impossible mission if it were not for the kisses of the Lima people. That made me feel confident for some relaxing jacuzzi and for the flavors of culinary delights. There was hardly anyone passing through the Indian market. The vendors resigned themselves in the absence of clients.
At the hotel, I did not know if I was wrong to be in a theme park. Women of different races dressed in colorful clothes moved from one side to another that made me believe that this was a dream. It turned out to be an encounter of indigenous women of the world.
It was unique to have this unexpected opportunity! Women from many countries, from different communities, from multiple races, adorned with their original and multicolored indigenous dresses. And I was over there, in the middle of all of them!
The next days I go to the Cusco region and to see the Machu Picchu. I would have liked to visit the area of the Cordillera Blanca, the Huascaran, but that required more planning and more company than my own shadow.
