Peru

San Isidro and Olive Grove Park Together with Barranco and Miraflores, San Isidro is one of the most developed districts in the city. It’s a prestigious place mostly inhabited by wealthy citizens. Architecturally and culturally, it’s not particularly interesting. The only historic landmark is Huaca Huallamarca, another ancient Indian pyramid, but a smaller one. The rest of the district is made up of tall glass buildings, multi-storey dwelling complexes, and local celebrities’ and attachés’ mansions. The district is considered the financial and diplomatic centre of the capital. Its status is proved by the fact that it’s here that the main offices [...]

Lima Beaches The coastline of Lima and its surroundings is over 3,000 km long, but it’s almost impossible to swim here. Who’s to blame? The above-mentioned cold Humboldt Current. There are some exceptions though: a few beaches in the northern part of the suburbs, which the warm El Niño current flows by. But even these places are only comfortable to swim at certain times of the year. Moreover, the Pacific Ocean is unquiet near Lima. High waves rise here all the time, which makes the waters unsafe for swimming. However, the coast is popular with surfers. We often saw people in [...]

Climate Lima is located in a tropical zone, so we expected warm weather and occasional showers. But the climate is unique in the capital: it’s a tropical desert! It rains here almost as rarely as in the Sahara. The city’s coast is washed by the cold Humboldt Current, starting from the shores of Antarctica, while the other part of the city is covered by mountain ranges creating a kind of a shield. That’s why the humidity level in Lima is really very high, but instead of abundant precipitation, low thick clouds often hover over the capital. We noticed this feature of [...]

The next stop in our journey around Latin America was Peru, the cradle of the ancient Inca civilization, a country with incredible history and magnificent natural landmarks. We decided to stay in Lima, as it’s easier to study the culture and feel the rhythm of local life living in the capital. We usually spend a month in every city. But getting ready for the trip, we read a lot about Lima and figured that there was, presumably, not much to do there, so we decided two weeks would be more than enough for a visit to the capital. After Uruguay, we [...]