Wendy

It is hard to believe that we are already on our last stop of the trip… Since we hadn’t heard great things about Lima, except for the food, we had planned only two days there. Alexis reserved a hotel with a pool and we thought we’d just kick back before returning to real life in Paris. This, of course, was before we met « Tutty ». 

Sam’s friend from school, Amandine, is French/Peruvian. She and her mother spend every summer vacation ‘at home’ in Peru. I should have known when they offered to collect us from the airport that they were on a serious hospitality mission! 

Needless to say that after flying in from Cuzco on Friday afternoon, the next 48 hours were a crash course on the diversity and charms of Lima. Never would we have seen the city like that without Tutty and her boundless generosity. 

After checking into the Hotel Luxury Inkari (very comfortable but decorated in a cross between Asian bling and just plain poor taste), Tutty and Amandine collected us and drove us around Lima. First we visited Larcomar, a modern, beautiful open air mall overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Miraflores. Sasha would surely have been perfectly happy just to stay there for the full two days! Then we drove to the historic district of Barranco with beautiful colonial buildings and an obvious nightlife. We stopped to savor an authentic pisco sour there at Juanito before Tutty drove us down to the beach. 

We were going to watch her cousin sing at La Rosa Nautica, a lovely restaurant and bar constructed on pillars off of a jetee 300 meters from the shore, but we could not stay at the bar with minors. So, we met up with Tutty’s friends, Fernando, Anita and their two girls, and headed out to yet another spectacular venue for supper: Huaca Pucllana, an adobe and clay pyramid ruin in the middle of Miraflores! Amazing. 

We ended up at Fernando and Anita’s home dancing until after 2am. Never did we expect our first half day in Lima to be like this!

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On Saturday, we got some rest and spent time at the pool before Tutty took us under her wing again. She sent a driver to take Sam and Sasha to El Punto with Amandine to visit her friends. Tutty drove us an hour outside of Lima to Mamacona where we watched traditional dances during lunch and then saw an impressive horse show, « Dpaso – caballo peruano de paso », with Fernando and Anita. 

From there we drove back into Lima to visit El Museo de Oro del Peru, which has rooms upon rooms of weaponry from around the world unlike anything we had ever seen. Downstairs were impressive pre-incan and incan gold relics. 

We had made a reservation at Virgilio Martinez Veliz’s restaurant « Central »–voted best restaurant in South America–months prior. Though we were only able to get seats at the bar at the time, we were thrilled to get a table when we arrived. So, as luck smiled upon us, we felt we just had to opt for the 18-course tasting menu! (See Alexis’ photos in our ‘fooding’ section). 

Sunday, the very last day of our eight week trip, had arrived. Tutty had spent so much time and effort showing us around that we declined her offer to show us Lima’s Plaza de Armas and cathedral before bringing us to the airport out of shear embarrassment for all she had done. We relaxed at the hotel pool with the kids and then Alexis and I ventured out to find « Bambam » a cevicheria about which we had heard great things. We were not disapponted and were lucky to get to try the « conchas negras, » a delicacy that Tutty had raved about. 

When we returned to the hotel, who did we find but Tutty and Amandine waiting for us. They could not let us leave Lima without the kids visiting a giant shoe outlet that they had been dying to go to and without our seeing the main square! Now that is boundless hospitality! We all piled into the car with our luggage and were off. The traffic was horrible as usual and as we finally approached the cathedral 30 minutes before we were supposed to be at the airport for our flight back to Paris, Tutty was calling out the window to a taxi driver to figure out the fastest way to get there. In the end, she hired the taxi to guide her and ensure quick passage. Ah, very impressive that South American service!

We arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare feeling extremely spoiled to have seen and done so much in Lima. Gracias Tutty!

Alexis

Wendy a déjà très bien raconté nos 3 derniers jours à Lima, je vais donc me contenter de quelques photos d’illustration et d’écrire un article sur Central, LE restaurant de Lima.

Arrivée sur Lima

Quartier de Barranco, avec Amandine et Tutty.

Baie de Lima.

Au restaurant Huaca Pucllana.

Musée del oro, impressionnante collection d’armes à l’étage, et d’artefacts precolombiens en or au sous-sol. À faire absolument (merci s Tutty de nous l’avoir recommendé).

Momie inca.

Le bar de Central,

Le ceviche (avec concha negra à gauche) de BamBam, magnifique!

Et voilà, c’est là dessus que notre voyage se termine, merci de l’avoir suivi. Pour info nous allons publier dans les semaines qui viennent des articles plus pratiques sur tous les aspects de notre périple inoubliable en pays andin, stay tuned!