Lima–2014 January 11

I arrived in Lima at 2:00 a.m., one hour late. I was afraid the airport might be shut down, but there were quite a few arriving flights at that hour. On the plane, I had filled out a customs form that said you could only import two USB sticks and two memory cards without customs duties; unfortunately I had four of each. When I got to the customs area, I was handed a newer version of the form and told to fill it out. It had a limit of four USB sticks and four memory cards, so that worked out well. I asked the customs guy how to classify an e-book reader; he said it was a “tablet,” which I could bring in without import duties, so that worked out nicely too.

The cab ride to the hotel was uneventful, though it did pass through a couple of rather sketchy areas of the city. I checked in at the hotel, checked to see if wireless worked (it does), emailed people to let them know I arrived, and then crashed.

Here are some views of the room, the view from the stairs outside the room, and the outside of the hotel. (As usual, click any picture to see a larger view of it.)

Kitchen/dining area Bedroom with orange-ish bedspread. Hotel staircase visible from kitchen window Plants in stairwell, viewed from 4th floor Hotel exterior; many south american flags outside Front view of hotel showing entranceway

A quick word of warning about visiting Perú: wall sockets will accept either the round European plugs or the flat blade American plugs. However, the voltage is always 220 volts. If your power supply doesn’t automatically do the voltage adjustment, be prepared to see blue sparks and smell smoke when you plug things in.

Wall socket for US/Europe plugs

The hotel is in the Miraflores district, which is very upscale. I walked around the area and found myself near the Parque Central and Parque Kennedy (after passing by a rather disturbing costume shop).

miraflores logo Wooden stairway with arched glass panels along side Disguise shop with two human mannequins and a bee costume. Park with colonial building in foreground and church dome in background Upward view of church dome Angel holding sword and shield Shrine to Mary at side of church Artists displaying paintings Bust of Alfredo Benavides Side view of large ceramic bull, painted colorfully.

There are a lot of feral cats in the park, though they are used to humans and are quite approachable. The government is running a program to have them adopted.

peach and white feral cat lying on side Peach and white feral cat, standing. calico cat at rest sleeping brown and white cat. sleeping calico cat Orange/white kitten in vegetation Sign for campaign to adopt feral cats

I then walked down to Larcomar, an upscale shopping area in Miraflores. I stopped in at a cultural center and saw a series of photographs by children ages 5-12 in a remote, impoverished area of Perú. It is part of the Daniel Malka photo project, where you can see more of the photos.

Red-bordered doors at cultural center Photos of Peruvian natives photo of drawing of bird taken by young child Photo of man running through mountain landscape

Also on display were paintings by Judith Vergara Garcia.

Paintings of women Painting of woman holding a card in front of her face

More things that caught my eye on the way to Larcomar. The yellow building with cactus is an office for the ministry of justice; they specialize in crimes of corruption.

Mardi Gras mask and roses Large painting of standing man, painted horizontally on second floor of a buildling. sidewalk tiles with wavy pattern and circles between the waves Abstract blue and yellow design on 2nd floor of building. Long view of building with abstract blue/yellow design Large wall painting of a bird on its back; multi-colored. Metal gate painted in multi-colored geometric design Building with different colors of gray bricks Flower baskets with blue and red flowers Yellow building with cactus in front of it.

I’m not putting many pictures of Larcomar itself here; if you’ve seen one outdoor multilevel mall, you’ve seen them all. However, the view from the top level is quite spectacular.

Inca-style sculpture at entrance to Larcomar View of cliffs from Larcomar Beach view from Larcomar Colorful awnings from above

I decided I would walk down to the beach, rather than parasailing down, to see it up close. It was a long-ish walk, but there were interesting sculptures and art along the way.

Person parasailing Older house with flowers growing on walls Cliff side with vegetation growing on it. View of curved stretch of beach Lone tree on cliff side Door in frame without any walls or house. Abstract geometric sculpture Large sculpture of two people embracing and kissing.

The long staircase took me to a road that led to the beach, where I saw people surfing, and got a nice view back up the cliff.

Winding stone stairway down to sea View from sea up to cliffs Surfers waiting for wave Dolphin on a blue-painted buoy. Moss-covered rocks View up toward cliff top

From there, I walked back up the stairs, and back to the hotel after stopping for "salchipapas," which is sausage and fried potatoes. It was good, but way too many potatoes—and that was just a half portion.

Today’s Signage

Text reads: “Always wash your hands with soap and water. With clean hands, we’ll always be healthy.”

sign with cartoon image of boy washing hands.
Sign at church telling people to turn off cell phones

This one is in front of a church. It says: “To talk with God, you don’t need a cell phone. Please turn it off.”


Peruvian postal service sign with missing letters.

It looks as if the Peruvian postal service is also falling upon hard times; at least their signage is.


Hair salon advertising “She Male Style” Woman with multicolored hair style

Advertisements for a hair salon and a hair coloring salon.


Person in red hoodie running with pizza under arm.

Artwork for a Pizza Hut Delivery establishment.


Sign in search of women engineers

I’m not sure if this one is sexist or not. The text reads: “Women think differently than men. Because of this, we need more female engineers.”


Schweppes advert with man smoking “pipe” that is a schweppes glass.

Text reads: “It’s not always the sun that raises the temperature. Separating men from boys since 1783.”


Smiley face and words “Do something good today” written on stairway Graffiti of cat eyes, nose, mouth, and whiskers

I saw these on the stairway to the beach. The first one reads “Do something good today.”


Low contrast silver on green sign

Finally, this is a typical street sign. The low contrast makes them almost impossible to read; I suspect the silver is reflective so that it shows up just great at night.