Our Great Adventure: Lima Day 286 01/07/2015

We were up bright and early, had breakfast on the roof terrace and then jumped in a taxi to the main local shopping area to continue the search for a bikini. We arrived 15 minutes later but after walking through the precinct we soon discovered the shops were very limited. Luckily we had spotted a few boutique shops in the up market San Isidro area we had just driven through so as it wasn't far we proceeded on foot. The first 2 shops sold very skimpy outfits that Diane was comfortable to wear, so we popped into Rip Curl, where we bought a pair of swimming shorts. As Di felt her current bikini top would last for use in the Galapagos we walked back the 3km to Miraflores district, where our hotel was located in the warm sunshine (which is surprising for Lima as it is usually clouded in a grey, misty sea hoar, which gives rise to it being one of the most polluted cities in South America). After a couple of unsuccessful stops in passing chemists for some contact lens solution for Diane, we walked alongside Park Kennedy to the office of Mirabus. They offered a 3 hour tour of downtown Lima for 70 Nuevo Soles each (£14) which whilst wasn't cheap, we thought as we had not seen this area on our 2 previous visits we would go and get some culture. As this didn't start for a couple of hours, we headed across the square and had lunch in El Cappuccino, which we had been too on our last visit a couple of years ago; the sandwiches, lemonade and ambience were still as good. At 2.30pm we were back on the park, in front of a picturesque church, boarding our atypical red double decker tour bus. The sun was still beating strong so we were glad of the breeze as we were upstairs in the open topped area. The first part of the tour was through Miraflores, which is an affluent area, looking at the different houses and their architecture. We also stopped to gaze across at the pre Spanish ruins, which were originally built in the pre Colombian era and have only recently been excavated. We then crawled through Lima's notoriously dense traffic, through numerous lights and jams, with the ever constant background noise of car horns. We first passed the huge national football stadium and then onto one of the two main squares, Plaza de San Martin. As he was Peru's liberator as well as Argentina, he is one of the co heroes of the Independence in Peru, with Simon Bolivar of course. We hadn't see much of General San Martin since Argentina a couple of months ago so it was nice to see a familiar face! We were now in the start of the old part of Lima and the streets narrowed considerably, although the traffic was still as dense. We passed some magnificent European style buildings built in the 18th and 19th century, similar in style to the ones in Santiago, Buenos Aires, La Paz and Montevideo. We then entered the huge main square, not surprisingly called Plaza de Armas. All 4 sides had impressive buildings, with the cathedral on one, the presidential palace on another, and government offices on the other. We went around one of the side roads and stopped outside the impressive Monastario de San Francisco. We alighted the bus for our 45 minute guided tour, dodging the multitude of street vendors waiting to try and sell us their wares. The monastery was beautiful inside but unfortunately we were forbidden to take any pictures; they allowed people to do it up to 5 years ago but some people didn't obey the "no flash" rule. So as with many things in life the few spoil it for the rest! The most interesting area was below ground in the catacombs where there are over 25000 skeletons all on display; it was a very enclosed, dusty, dark experience although nothing like the silver mines of Potosi! Back on the bus we made our way back to Miraflores though the increasing density of traffic as we were now hitting rush hour. The only place of interest we passed was the Museo de la Inquisicion where the Spanish tortured the non believers, but it is now the South American Trade Conference centre with a fine statute of Boliver in the plaza of his name. The sun now had disappeared and the grey, cold skies were back so we were relieved when we got back to Kennedy Park (after going via the Pacific Ocean coast) so we could get back to the warmth of the hotel, Simon stopping off on route to get a haircut. After packing in anticipation for our 0530 departure to the airport, we went to the Italian restaurant we been to last time we were here and had a fine Peruvian/Italian meal and toasted our last night in Peru.