Peru in April!

A Delightful Peruvian Adventure Begins in Lima

After an easy flight through DFW in April, Larkin and I landed in Lima. We had to leave Michael behind due to the extreme altitudes we were going to experience. After a unique drive south from the airport we arrived at our hotel on the coast. Driving can be crowded and harrowing where 6 lanes can all of a sudden be squeezed into 2. April is a foggy month at the coast – nothing new to us Dillon Beach creatures.

Larkin’s last roommate, Claudia is from Peru and was going to be in town on Easter break. We had Friday and Saturday to enjoy Lima with Claudia and her friend which included a day of 13,000 steps and blisters and my first Pisco Sour – one of many! Lima is the only major city in the world that doesn’t have a subway/rail system. It seems instead they have lots of taxi type smaller vehicles. We enjoyed the use of one that continued to die on the streets but limped into a gas station. We then transitioned to another one to reach Baranco and continue our many steps. They say you aren’t a real driver of people in Lima until you have your first fender bender. Thank goodness that didn’t happen to us!

We wore masks almost everywhere except when we wanted to take pictures. Peru ended up being a very safe covid place for us! After Ecuador it was a very happy outcome! The food we found everywhere including Alpaca and Guinea Pig was delicious. Sometimes I take photos of food and actually remember what it was even if I don’t write it down. Other times I have no earthly clue like this one photo above- but it sure has pretty colors and I’d eat it again!

In the downtown historical area we enjoyed a museum and other old buildings. We walked toward what was considered a river, the Rimac river and it seemed much more like “streams” in Los Angeles more a highway over a culvert. It may only have been like that where we were downtown. The Peru hillside might have an incredible brightly colored palate above this River area, but it is not a safe place to visit. While I used to be able to photograph telephone booths, I now have to go for just incredible doors and doorways! I still like taking pictures of laundry but didn’t seem to notice too much on this trip.

We walked the waterfront on Sunday and enjoyed the views and the shopping center Larcomar built into the hillside. The views of the beach could almost be California with the VW bug. Their park of love also has the requisite locks for the lovers and a monstrously sized couple enjoying some amour.

Onto what became our favorite city in Peru: Cusco!