Lima: The City We Didn't See

When booking our trip, I made sure that we had a couple of days to spend in Lima at the end.  Everyone says to skip Lima, but I think that's a mistake.  Who can say no to the ceviche capital of the world?  Not me, that's who.  So I booked a hotel in the Miraflores District.  Look at how beautiful this is:

(via)

I also thought it might be nice to be able to relax for awhile and be able to drink some Pisco Sours without the altitude knocking me over.  I also saw that there were places to dance, shop, and eat.  Needless to say, I had all these wonderful ideas about what we would do with our two days in Lima.

That was all before Mike and I got hit with a stomach virus.  We have different theories as to what it was that did us in, but our ideas both have to do with the water.  I won't get into the details, but all I'll say is that we were in our hotel room for both days.  We were absolutely miserable.  The only time either of us left our room was to go to a shop around the corner to buy water, crackers, and ginger ale.  So much for a romantic time in Lima, huh?

That being said, our hotel was wonderful and if you are looking for a great place to stay in Miraflores, stay at the Mariel.  The best part of the hotel is that they offer an extended check-out.  So we paid the extra $30 to check out at 6 PM instead of noon, which was great since our flight was at midnight.

The only things I have to say about Lima are this: the Miraflores neighborhood is beautiful and looks like it would be a lot of fun to explore, the neighborhood around the airport is the exact opposite of Miraflores, and the drivers in Lima have a death wish.  There were a few moments when I thought we might die going to and from the airport.  I can imagine the following things were going through all the drivers heads:

• Lanes, what are lanes? 
• Turn signals - ha! 
• No way in hell am I going to let that massive bus that has way too many people in it try to cut me off! 
• You just did something mildly annoying so I'm going to lay on my horn!
• Oh, I just grazed the curb with my tire?  No big deal.

And all this was with the help of police officers directing traffic!  Yikes!  Out of all the places I've been, I think Lima had the most aggressive and nuts-o drivers I've seen.

So that was our trip to Peru!  Would I go back?  Heck yes!  Peruvians are some of the nicest people I have met and I would like to see more of their country, especially the Amazon in the north.  If you're given the opportunity to go, take it!  It's an amazing trip and one you'll remember forever.