Peru Part I - Lima

One of the benefits of working for a big international company is that sometimes you get to travel to some pretty cool places for work. So when Erin found out she would be going to Lima for a 2.5 day conference, we thought it would be a perfect time to build a quick vacation around the conference and spend some extra time in Peru.

Our first (and last) stop was Lima, the capital and largest city of Peru. With a metropolitan population of over 8 million people, it is a huge city. We didn't see a ton of it, and to be honest, I don't think there is much to see outside of a few nicer touristy areas. There is a lot of poverty, and despite some nice areas, it isn't the most beautiful city.

We arrived on Sunday night for Erin's conference, which ran Monday through Wednesday morning. Erin's company set us up at a nice hotel, the Marriott, a beautiful high rise right on the cliffs overlooking the Pacific. Since we arrived pretty late and would be in Lima until Friday, we decided to rest after a long, long day of travel and just head to bed without seeing any of the town.

One nice thing we got to experience while in Lima was meeting up with a good friend. Our friends Shane and Colleen are currently spending a year travelling around the world, and their time in South America coincided with ours. Unfortunately for them, they had some problems with their camera during their travels, but because of that, we were able to arrange a meeting with Colleen, as we brought a replacement camera down for them and she needed to pick it up. So Colleen flew into Lima on Monday morning and spent the day with us. While Erin was in her conference, Tim and Colleen toured the Miraflores district of Lima. And that night we all went out for dinner and drinks together. Colleen headed back out to (I believe) Bolivia early the next morning after a short but nice visit. If you're interested in following their adventures, you can see them here.

On Tuesday, with Erin still in her conference, I went on my own to visit "Lima Centro", Lima's downtown, which is home to Lima's main cathedral, the main town square, another old church which holds the catacombs of Lima, and the city's main shopping district.

Once Erin was finished her conference on Wednesday, we had plenty of time to see the city on Wednesday and Thursday. We spent more time in Miraflores and Lima Centro, and visited the Mercado Indios, a public market filled with dozens if not hundreds of stalls featuring arts and crafts from the Incan Indians that populate Peru.

We like Lima, but we were happy to be moving on to Cusco on Friday morning. We saw some nice things in Lima, and sampled some great local food like ceviche (raw fish "cooked" by marinating in citrus juice and serviced with cold corn and sweet potato), but it was time to move on.

Check back soon for pictures from Lima. Our computer is running really slowly right now and won't load photos. But some will be up soon, as well as more updates on the rest of our trip.