Exploring Miraflores and Barranco

I woke before 0900 after the best night sleep since we left home. After breakfast we walked to the centre of Miraflores, an affluent suburb.

Our priority was to get some Peruvian Soles. For Soles withdrawals ATMs had a high local fee of about USD5 and a low maximum withdrawal. For USD, the fee was similar but the limit was higher. It worked out better for us to get USD and change them into Soles on the street.

While there were many armed guards around, licensed money changers (identifiable by their blue vests) were on the roads with their sacks of dough. It must be reasonably safe, I concluded.

There were many eateries and the prices were similar to NZ; this was a real surprise. We saw some beautiful roll-sandwiches (select your own fillings on fresh bread) but the prices ranged from 15-26 soles (about NZD7-12). We opted for Chinese as it was more economical.

We realised later in the day that there are many places that serve a set meal (appetiser and main) for 10 soles (less than NZD5) Freshly squeezed or blended juices are cheap at 4-5 soles (NZD 2+) which meant that a juice and set meal would set us back less than the price of just the juice back in NZ. This was more our kind of pricing!

We walked back to our hotel and I overshot intentionally to explore the malecon or beautifully landscaped waterfront where people paraglide off the cliffs. There were also surfers in the water. I hadn’t expected Lima to this so affluent. It felt more like Santa Monica or Beirut whereas I had expected more of Valparaiso.

There wasn’t much to do in Miraflores per se. It was a good introduction to Lima and a nice base. The church was closed for renovation but we manged to get our essentials (money, shaver, toothbrush).

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After a rest in the afternoon, we headed to Barranco by Uber. The vehicle turned out to be a taxi with it’s sign removed. We thought it was a reasonable fare until subsequent rides with taxis which were cheaper (half price) and in nicer vehicles.

We got dropped off at the church of St Francis of Assisi and wandered to the waterfront area. Like Miraflores, it was on top of a cliff. It is a very nice area to wander around and have a drink or a meal; a place to absorb the atmosphere rather than to do or see anything specific.

We found a cafe and tracked our bags using the internet, to find that they had put it on the second flight rather than the first. Anyway, we were pleased to know that they were inflight.

With that comforting thought, we taxied back to Miraflores, to the corner ot Palacio and Arica where we had seen many cheap and good eats. We settled for a ceviche appetiser, two meals and a papaya shake.  We walked dinner off, making our way back to the hotel. Time went quickly making arrangements for bus travel now that we knew we can safely leave Lima with our luggage.