Downtown Lima

Thursday, September 11, 2014
Lima, Peru
We started the day with breakfast - mango for me, avocado for him and saltenas - sort of like empanadas but better, with meat, potato and onion inside, but I wish I knew what spices they use to flavor it. Yum!!!


Then we went downtown Lima. As I mentioned, Lima is divided up into many districts (43 according to the internet) - each has its own mayor and government, and then there is a central metro government that is over all of them. We're in the Miraflores district. They have built bus lanes down the middle of the freeway. Every so often there are stations, but otherwise the buses just zip along - no need to stop for traffic or lights. Very fast and efficient. It dropped us about 3 blocks from the Plaza de Armas.
 

 
































 

 Here is the Plaza de Armas and here we are there. Everyone keeps telling us it is SOOOO cold and we should be wearing winter clothes. You can see how cold we think it is - probably about 65.













 

 
We arrived there just in time to see the changing of the guard at the palace. First the military band marched out and came right up to the fence and gave about a 20 minute concert. Then there was much pomp and circumstance as the guards came marching out around the grounds. Quite impressive.
 





 
 


 
Here is the cathedral and the bishops palace. I think our new pope isn't so happy about bishops living in palaces.



 


 
From there we walked to the old train station behind the palace which they have turned into a library and museum all about Peruvian authors. It was well presented, and it is so nice to see that they are preserving and using these old buildings rather than tearing them down or letting them fall apart.
 


















 

We ate lunch at an outdoor cafe a block from the Plaza - causa (potato and veggies) and lomo saltado (beef, onions and fried potatoes in a sauce) and Armando had papas a la huancaina (potatoes with a creamy cheese sauce, but not like the cheese sauce my friends in America are thinking of) and pollo con salsa cuy (chicken with the kind of sauce they serve when they cook cuy - guinnea pig - but the sauce isn't made from cuy!)
 









 




 


And here is Plaza San Martin. Jose de San Martin is the one who liberated Peru from Spain. Their George Washington, I suppose. This is a beautiful plaza with really beautiful buildings, a theater and a really fancy Hotel Bolivar.
 
 




 

 
 
 This is Casa Wiese - used to be an importer of machinery and hardware. Now the building houses SUNAT which is Peru's IRS.
 





 










 

 
And here are just a whole lot of neat buildings and typical balconies you find in downtown Lima.  
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Comments

Gonzalo
2014-09-12

Great 'paseo' through downtown Lima.
You missed historic [and historical] Cordano's bar/restaurant right outside Presidential Palace, but you did go into the Old Train Station (I have never been inside). Your journals are pleasant, easy to read and very entertaining!

2025-02-13

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