Miraflores

Our time in Lima was cut in half, but we did mange to see a little bit of the city. As mentioned in our last post we stayed in the Miraflores district of Lima.  Miraflores is very safe from a crime point of view - there are security guards and cameras everywhere.  From a traffic point of view it is a bit less safe; it is very busy, and everybody seems to drive.

We left late in the morning in order to let the kids sleep a little, and headed down the street to meet my Mom. She took us to a restaurant called "La Lucha Sandwiches". The sandwiches were really good, nice bread and the fruit juices were delicious. Wyatt and I shared a pineapple smoothie, while the kids enjoyed a strawberry smoothie. The food was delicious, but I did find "Chicharron (fried Pork) Sandwiches to be a little heavy for so early in the morning. even I have my limits ;)

Don't expect things to be as cheap in Miraflores as what you read about in blogs about Peru. We found a lot of American chains, both food, and clothing; KFC, Pizza Hut, GUESS, etc, and the prices were pretty much on par with American prices.  Some of the small local shops were a bit cheaper, but you would still be looking at the equivalent of about $10 CAD for a lunch - very similar to Calgary, maybe just a bit less.

The traffic was insane! Think New Jersey but only driven by people who like playing Grand Theft Auto.  Lanes (and stop lights) are completely ignored, and everyone honks their horns constantly.  Cars routinely get within mere centimeters of each other, and nobody seems to think anything of it.  Crossing the road is like playing Frogger... you have to wait for the gap and run for it.  Apparently Peru has a death rate of 21.5 casualties per a thousand inhabitants, which is the third highest in the world.  The majority of those accidents are from Lima (Source).  I can definitely see why that is the case.  I liked going around Miraflores, but I don't think I would ever want to drive there.  We tried taking pictures of the traffic, but still images just don't do it justice.  Instead, here is a painting from our Airbnb entrance which shows how one must run to cross the road while walking one's dog:

The stairs up to our Airbnb had a lot cool art

We took a tour of Miraflores on a double decker bus, here are some pictures from the tour. The tour around Miraflores was only 10 soles (around $3 USD) per person, which was a much better price than the tours in Time Square $29 USD (We did not take that one).

Wyatt and Irma (My Mom) waiting for our bus tour to start.

The ruins of Huaca Pucllana inside the Miraflores district

A cool church from our tour

A view from Lacomar

The church of San Francisco in Miraflores

Look, a train!

After the bus ride, we walked down to a mall built into the cliffs overlooking the ocean.  This was incredibly busy, with all the American chains.

Maija and Terran in Lacomar, Miraflores

We were right by the ocean!

Wyatt right by the ocean

We found this statue of Paddington Bear from "Darkest Peru"

Wyatt and I had postponed our anniversary celebration until we got to Lima. This is at EDO sushi in Miraflores (a medium-high end chain of Sushi restaraunts in Peru, not at all affiliated with Edo in Calgary).  We had Lau Maki (fried calamari with avocado, tempura, and ceviche sauce) and Acevichado Maki (breaded lobster and avocado wrapped in tuna with acevichado sauce topped with green onions and sauce).  Both were excellent, but we both agreed that the Acevichado Maki was the better of the two.

Some cool Peruvian Japanese fusion sushi

A Millenial-style selfie at the restaraunt