Lima, Peru - Immediate Comfort

Barranco Neighborhood
We're in Lima for a few days on our way to Cusco where we'll begin our hike to Macchu Picchu on Monday.  I haven't been here for twenty years and the last time I came I don't remember where I stayed.  Couldn't have been Barranco, the neighborhood we're in now.  I fell in love with it immediately.

It's in the southwest of the city, on top of the cliffs overlooking the Pacific.  It reminds me of Barcelona, another colorful, yet faded port town that has style.  The crown may be tarnished a bit, but it's still regal.

Coming from Ecuador, especially the grimy Guayaquil, we felt like we'd stepped back into civilization.  The neighborhood is buzzing.  So many cafes, museums, restaurants and street art.

The bread alone made me feel whole.

As we make our way further south in the continent, the Spanish gets fuzzier and fuzzier.  I'm having trouble with the Peruvian accent.  They tell me it gets even harder in Chile.  The pink building in the distance is the neighborhood library.

It's spring time here in South America and in Peru, the winter is dry and windy.  Everything looks parched.

The signs of summer are here though.  I'd never thought of Lima as a surf town but its beaches are famed for good surfing.

Near our apartment is one of many pocket-sized parks.

Just on the far side of this monument are steep cliffs that lead to the Pacific.

Many of the buildings have small porches, elevated high enough to catch a glimpse of the ocean.

There is a lot of street art.  Some takes the form of murals but there are also many interesting sculptures.

Even the cafes have painted walls.

Tonight we went out for drinks.  I had a pisco sour, which hails from Lima.  The Dodo is still recovering from a dose of Montezuma's revenge she got in the Galapagos.  Poor thing.  First time I have ever seen the Dough felled by a stomach bug.

She felt well enough to eat a lunch of Nikkei food.  It's a fusion of Peruvian and Japanese cuisines.  Many hundreds of thousands of Peruvians of Japanese descent live here, second only to Brazil.  They came here in the late 1800's to farm and stayed.  One of their most famous, for better or worse, was Alberto Fujimori - the tough president who took on the Shining Path and won.  He's still in prison today, serving out a long sentence for using "less than humane" methods in the fight.

We're staying on the second floor of this condo, just a block from the cliffs.  It's been a pleasurable, restive two days.