Traveling to Peru: 5 Places to Visit in Lima

If you are headed to Peru to indulge yourself in the culture and people, the best place to start is in Lima, Peru’s capital and largest city. Lima has grown in spades in the last decade and with the growth has become more modern. Lima offers the perfect combination of comfort and culture.

 

 

Lima is located along the west coast, and offers a variety of activities both on the beach and off. Lima is divided into districts, each offering its own style and features. TIME magazine wrote an article titled Lima: 10 Things to Do giving their opinion of the best places to go and see within the large city.  Spending a year in the city, here are my top 5 must-see places within Lima:

1. The Basilica Cathedral

This beautiful cathedral is located in downtown Lima in the Plaza Mayor. Built in 1535, this building contains an abundant amount of history, including the begining of Christianity in Peru. Catholicism was not a religion until the Spaniards came over and conquered the land from the Andean people. 

2.  Plaza de Armas

This plaza is the largest in Lima, and offers history dating back to the 1500s. The Plaza de Armas is home to government buildings including the Government Palace, the Presidents house. This is also the house of the last Incan chief and is said to be set on sacred land. While you cannot go into the Government palace, you can see the changing of the guards that occurs at noon each day. Peru's old train station and other historic buildings are also located around the plaza and are fun to explore.

 

3. Incan Ruins

While most people think the Incan ruins are contained in The Sacred Valley, Cusco, and Machu Picchu, there are structures scattered throughout Lima and other cities of Peru. These structures were built as the Incans made their way from Cusco. These structures are all over the city, and you will see multiple structures without even searching for them!

4. Locomar

Located in Miraflores, along the cost line, this is my favorite place to spend a warm sunny day in Lima. The view is gorgeous, and there is so much you can do. Locomar offers great restaurants and a shopping area and holds numerous social events throughout the year.

 

 

For those adventurous enough, Miraflores offers the best experience and landscape for paragliding. With the view of both the ocean and the city you get a unique thrill as you sail across the sky above.

You occasionally see things like skateboarding dogs or dogs on motorcycles too!

5. Parque Kennedy

Located in Miraflores, Parque Kennedy is named after American president, John F. Kennedy. This park is home to at least fifty abandoned and feral cats. There is an organization that cares for the cats and adopts out the ones who are newly abandoned. Surrounding the park there are many restaurants and small shops making it a fun and relaxed environment.

 

 

 

Lima can be a funny place. You can see the strangest sights, last year we saw Santa driving a cab, Bumblebee from Transformers and a whole slew of other fun and random sights. Have your camera ready for your adventure, and enjoy exploring Lima! 



Traveling to Peru: An Introduction

I have had many opportunities to travel with my family, and in 2013 after graduating from high school, I had the chance to move with my family to Lima Peru. I spent a year there, from July 2013-June 2014, and had the opportunity to go back for a month in December 2014.

Peru holds a special place in my heart; I spent two years living there when I was ten and going back almost a decade later was remarkable. Through my experiences in that beautiful country, I have grown, and  have learned a lot about cultures, and humanity that so many others do not have the chance to experience. I have truly been blessed in my life, and in my travels.

My favorite thing about Peru is the children and the opportunity I have had to volunteer, but a close second would be touring Peru and learning about the culture. Even within the Peruvian culture many differences are expressed in different areas, each is in its own way unique and each offers its own experience.

 I have written a series of blog post about traveling in Peru based on my own life experiences. I'm no expert at traveling, but after living in Peru for three years, I have come up with a few tips designed to help first time travelers as they make their way through this beautiful country.

Being Back and Going Back

The past few months being in the States has almost been as startling as living in Peru, you get used to things, and any change can be hard. I walked down every single grocery store isle when I got back and was almost amazed at the difference in variety and quantity. A month later I stopped and stared at the shelve of molasses. In the one year we were in Peru, we had only been able to find one jar of molasses, which went into gingerbread cookies at Christmas time. I hand washed ALL my dishes for the first month because I forgot we had the modern connivance of a dishwasher. I still  take cold showers because I don't expect to have hot water.  Other things have been different too. If I bump into someone, my first response in my mind is in Spanish. But the biggest change for me has been not volunteering, I really miss that. I do a lot of YSA/JAS (young single adult) activities and go to Institute every week, but I haven't been able to fill my time with volunteering or working and that has been hard for me.

I am so grateful for the opportunities I have had in Peru.

I have learned more about life in the past year than I have ever learned from a textbook. The lessons I have gained about humanity, and compassion and love will stay with me for the rest of my life.

Living in Lima Peru has been eye opening, and an incredible experience. I am blessed to have had such an opportunity and to have been able to meet so many amazing people, and to be apart of their lives. I am grateful for those who took time to help me, and to give of their time and efforts to volunteer beside me and I hope that you will all continue in your own way. If there is any lesson I have learned it is that, if you do good, it impacts your life in ways you never thought it would.

This isn't goodbye, not yet. 

 I will be back in Peru for a few weeks in December. I am so excited to be able to see my kids (the children at Westfalia) and to be able to see friends. I hope to be able to do something for the children this Christmas, even if it is something simple. I want to challenge you all to find a way to give to someone else this Christmas who is struggling, or just needs a little extra love. It doesn't have to be big. It's really the small things in life that matter the most. 

Think about it, and how you might be able to do something for someone else this Christmas season. If you need any ideas, feel free to comment or contact me.

I also just wanted to say thank you, for reading this blog and supporting me. It really means a lot to me, and I am very grateful to you all.

Project #3

Before I left I finished project #3, making hygiene kits. I ended up making 140 kits, including toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, a soap container and a package of kleenex. It took a lot of time to buy all the items since buying in bulk is unheard of in Peru. The hardest to find was the soap boxes. I think we had to go to four different Plaza Vea's, two Wongs, and a Totus to find them all. Not to mention we had to improvise at end and buy small plastic containers from the kitchen isle, but after about a month of shopping and with some help from Laura and my dad all the kits got put together and my mom helped rearrange them in boxes for us to take to the orphanage.

 

 

 

On the left is a kit with a toddler toothbrush for the kinders, and on the right is one of the regular kits.

 

 

We delivered the kits on Wednesday, and hopefully in this past week they have given a kit to each of the children and hopefully they are using them.


Project #4 fell through, I was too busy running around finding everything I needed for the hygiene kits that I didn't get to make the first aid kits, but maybe in the future that can be something I do. I don't know if I will be going back to Peru or not, but you never know, right?