On the road again. (Go ahead and sing it!) Not sure we’re ready to be on the road again…

But here I am, once again, writing a blog post while sitting up in the hotel bed one-finger-pecking on my iPad mini.

Our travel day to Perú was long and tiresome, but without delays or missed connections. We flew United Airlines from PDX to Chicago, then Copa Airlines to Panama City, Panama and finally to Lima, the capital city of Peru.

This is the third South American country for us to explore. When we quit our jobs and sold most of our possessions, we traveled 4 months in early 2015 in Ecuador and Colombia.

I am in Arequipa, Perú and as I write I hear continual outbursts of horns honking, car alarms, barking dogs and fireworks. Later I asked the hostal desk clerk if today was a special day or if shooting fireworks were a daily event. She replied it was a daily event,  ‘we celebrate life.’

Welcome back to South America!

We had mixed feelings about traveling again, but packing has become second nature to me and by the time we arrived at PDX we were feeling pretty excited. My stuff fit in the 21″ roll-aboard.

Perú is in the same time zone as Chicago, Illinois.

Lima traffic is horrendous.  (In the future I’ll try not to complain about Portland traffic.) At one point during the taxi ride from the airport we didn’t move for 30 minutes.

The Republic of Perú is a huge country. It is almost twice the size of Texas, but is slightly smaller than Alaska.

We stayed in Barranco, a quiet community overlooking the coast – south of Miraflores, known for its art galleries. There was a quiet square and a Starbucks.

Our stay at 3 Bs B&B Barranco was a fantastic find! An oasis in the chaos: clean, modern, and quiet with great beds and pillows, cooked to order breakfasts with strong flavorful coffee, and friendly, helpful English-speaking staff. I booked through Booking.com and they arranged the airport taxi transfers. Lima is an expensive city and we paid more than our usual, but the desire to be pleased on our first night after a long flight (rather than displeased) justified it.

Street mural in Barranco.

The Bridge of Sighs and Barranco church.

The capital is on the Pacific Ocean. This is taken from a Barranco viewpoint looking north to Miraflores. The temperature was very comfortable, but it’s gloomy, foggy and gray with 80% humidity year around. Due to the Humboldt currents, they say it never rains in Lima! All of this may be why the city has a grimy feel to it.

We only had one full day in Lima. After exploring Barranco we traveled on the extremely overcrowded Metropolitano public transport to central Lima and walked around the historic center and saw the changing of the guard at the Presidential Palace.

Lima’s Plaza de Armas in the historic center.

Most travelers to Peru visit the ancient Inca city of Machu Picchu, but there is a archeological site in Lima that is older than Machu Picchu.

Huaca Pucllana is an ancient pyramid constructed of handmade mud and seashell sun-baked bricks constructed between 400-700AD by the Lima and later the Wari people. It was used as a sacred ceremonial site and there is evidence of human sacrifice.

The photo in the museum shows how the pyramid had been completely buried and surrounded by the city. The plot was privately owned and scheduled for destruction. Today only 60% of the area has been excavated.

The Circuito Mágico del Agua is a park of 13 beautiful water fountains that are colorfully illuminated at night.  A special extravaganza show is scheduled at 7:15, 8:15 and 9:15. Some of the fountains invite human participation and changing rooms are available. Appropriately enough, Handel’s Water Music is broadcast throughout the park adding to the ambience.

This was the largest of the fountains, impossible to capture in a single photo. The color combinations were constantly changing as well as the water jets.

The colored lights changed and the waters twirled to look like the stamens of a flower.

A whimsical fountain.

After only 2 nights, we found ourselves on another hour-long taxi ride to the airport to catch a 1’20” flight south to Arequipa, Peru. 

In 5 weeks we return to Lima to commence our journey home. It will be interesting to see if our impressions differ next time.

Meet You in the Morning next time from Arequipa, Peru!