Lima pictures prior to joining the Pursuit on Dec 1st.

[NeverStopLearning]

First, this is my first time posting from a cell phone, so this may not be pretty.

 

After a long series of flights from Ottawa, we arrived at our hotel at 3am. As this is a bucket list trip for my wife, we had decided to splurge and stay at Hotel B in the Barranco district.

 

Hotel B has an excursion with Azamara where they teach the mixing of various cocktails. I have no experience with this yet, but plan on testing out the bar tonight. 😉

 

So here are some pictures of the outside facade, the bar and library.

 

outside view.

The library. The long table holds an excellent buffet breakfast in the morning.

The bar.

The hotel has countless paintings located throughout the common and guest rooms. It has quite the history as well.

 

Hotel B is a chateau and Relais hotel which are known for boutique (expensive) experiences. The head manager greeted us at 3am and offerred a glass of sparkling wine. The concierge also handles private tours which we are trying out tomorrow. The hotel also arranged for a car and driver to pick us up at the airport. The level of service at this hotel is amazing.

 

Well, that is all for now. Editing on a phone is quite tedious.

[Grandma Cruising]

Thanks for the post and photos. Looking forwards to seeing more of Lima & your cruise.

[ellbon]

love the pictures.  I was in a different hotel and it was great but no manager at midnight and i had to buy my Pisco.

[Whistlerski]

Thank you for posting! We are leaving Vancouver November 28 and arive November 29 at 6 am yikes! What is the weather like? Trying to organize packing!!

[NeverStopLearning]

It has been mostly overcast and partly overcast the last 24 hours. No rain at all. Early morning is cool enough for a light sweater. Daytime highs are about 20C which is warm enough for just a shirt. We needed broad hats and sunglasses yesterday.

 

Time zone is Eastern so 6am is 3am Vancouver time. Airport is very busy but immigration is a breeze. If you haven't been here before, grab an official taxi from just outside baggage claim. There are cheaper taxis around the corner but at higher risk. A taxi ride from the airport to either Miraflores or Barranco is about $20 cdn/us and takes about an hour.

 

1 cdn dollar = 2.50 peruvian sols so prices appear high but are not.

 

For temperature charts check the roll call as I posted a pdf of the temperature variations for our cruise.

 

Hopefully we will see you on the ship. Our  tour fles in from Cusco in the afternoon, so we might be the last to board.

[NeverStopLearning]

I forgot to mention, if you are flying air canada rouge, the inflight meal is particularly unpleasant. There are two choices, General Tso's Chicken and Braised Veal. I had the veal which was exceptionally uninspiring and heavily seasoned. Something that I did not think was possible to do.

 

They even managed to turn mashed potatoes into something a 3 year old would avoid.

 

The wine was ok but I would bring snacks as a backup.

[excitedofharpenden]

1 hour ago, Whistlerski said:

Thank you for posting! We are leaving Vancouver November 28 and arive November 29 at 6 am yikes! What is the weather like? Trying to organize packing!!

If your on a device, download the Accuweather app.  You can load quite a few favourite places.  The cruise goes a long way south, getting progressively cooler.  Layers for later!

 

Phil

[NeverStopLearning]

From the hotel you can walk toward the cliff overlooking the ocean and then follow the road to the "Bridge of Sighs" which is a small wooden bridge overlooking a ravine.

 

Here are a few photos of the walk which is about 20-30 minutes.

 

Park before the bridge in the background.

The bridge of sighs

View from the bridge overlooking a walkway that runs along the ravine.

Walking the ravine toward the ocean.

View of the bridge from the ravine.

 

It was a very nice walk that I highly recommend. Barranco is a safe district. Your greatest worry is the people promoting the various restaurants along the ravine.

 

[NeverStopLearning]

Today we took a private tour arranged by the hotel of Lima's historical city centre. It was amazing and if you have the opportunity, I would seriously consider it. In all, we spent 5 hours touring the city. These pictures just scratch the surface.

 

This is the interior courtyard of the Foreign Ministry.

Solid Mahogany doors with inlay.

Amazing detail of the balcony supports.

One of the many churches in the town centre.

Close up of the external detail 

Interior of one of the churches during Mass.

Fountain in main city square.

Presidential Palace. (I think...)

Outside of another beautiful church.

 

Lima has an amazing history and an abundance of things to see. We could spend another day or two just exploring the beautiful landmarks. We didn't even have time to explore the Incan archiological sites or the multiple museums in the city.

 

That is all for this series. Tomorrow we meet up with the Azamara tour at the airport. Next stop Machu Picchu tour.

 

Hope you enjoyed the pictures.

[ellbon]

I feel after several days in Lima alone I need more. Everywhere you go takes an hour by car. The drive like mad men..worse then Asia.

[jamacka]

Hey, it's me.  Looks like you're having a great trip so far and your little camera definitely takes amazing pictures.  Keep it up and keep posting and updating.  We're looking forward to hearing and seeing all about it.  Have a great trip and don't forget, if you get wifi, you can use Google translator to communicate.  Most restaurants offer free wifi and often cruise ports also have available wifi.  Wifi on the ship may be spotty and unreliable (if what the folks on our recent cruise were experiencing is typical)

[Hayliegolden]

1 hour ago, jamacka said:

Hey, it's me.  Looks like you're having a great trip so far and your little camera definitely takes amazing pictures.  Keep it up and keep posting and updating.  We're looking forward to hearing and seeing all about it.  Have a great trip and don't forget, if you get wifi, you can use Google translator to communicate.  Most restaurants offer free wifi and often cruise ports also have available wifi.  Wifi on the ship may be spotty and unreliable (if what the folks on our recent cruise were experiencing is typical)

yes Robert has a neat little ap that translates as you point the camera to street names etc. it also does voice translation english to spanish and vice versa.   Robert,  I hope, will put up the spontaneous activity we did emerging ourselves into the , i would say private lives of families having their homes blessed. It was a real thrill and ,I would say honour that we were allowed to wander in and watch. 

 

 

[NeverStopLearning]

Here are some photos of the procession. The procession is entering off the street into a complex of apartments within multiple open courtyards.

 

Out of respect most shots are from the back and a distance.

 

The band played at the back. In the enclosed space they were quite loud. Everyone was having a good time singing and dancing.

 

The image of the saint from the back. You can see people watching from the balconies.

Close up of the saint's statue.

 

Side view of the upper balcony.

A shot of one of the staircases that I thought had a lot of character.

 

Lima reminded me alot of New Orlean's French Quarter because after the great fire, the Spanish governor of New Orleans sprcified stone instead of wood constructions. The historic buildings are very similar.

[Hayliegolden]

This was a real treat and probably a highlight of our tour.

 

[jamacka]

4 minutes ago, NeverStopLearning said:

Great shots.  Love the staircase.  In some places that kind of character is known as "termites" .  

 

 

 

 

Here are some photos of the procession. The procession is entering off the street into a complex of apartments within multiple open courtyards.

The band played at the back. In the enclosed space they were quite loud. Everyone was having a good time singing and dancing.

 

 

 

 

A shot of one of the staircases that I thought had a lot of character.



 

 

[Hayliegolden]

Our guide Beatric de Gonzáles said the wood  was original,  mahogany wood is used.

The average income for a month is $200.00 Canadian. that’s 510 sols in today’s market value.  People don’t have pensions from the government so they use ever means possible to raise a little more income. You have to be cautious but not frightend and don’t flaunt what you have. take photos but put your camera away afterwards, gold jewellery isn’t very good to wear so I took off my wedding ring but left my sleepers in my ears. The peruvians have a funny sense of humour which we didn’t mind one bit . One older gentleman came up to us to chat as he saw us wandering down the street. He talked to our guide and then said I hope I have lost my wife.  We laughed when we found out what he had said.  he was tired of shopping around with the ladies and wanted to get away.  He then went off to find them.  I had another fellow go by me who made 2 kissing noises and then dissappeared somewhere. I didn’t bat an eye and Robert said “ oh that’s a compliment.  I just shrug . no big deal.