South Pacific 2015 - Lima

Today was the last day on board, we had to be out of our cabins by 8am and off the ship by around 9am. Regent usually arranges for passengers who have long waits for flights to be able to either stay at a hotel or go on a tour. This time it was a tour of Lima and it was probably the best value Regent Tour I have taken. The tour started at 9am and finished around 4:30 / 5pm after showing us the sights of Lima, visiting Miraflores and the Indian Market, the only extra would be lunch.

Our guide was Erika a very knowledgeable lady who spoke English fairly well, the only issue some people had, was that the speakers at the back of the bus were not working very well, which was unfortunate, but did not impact me.

Our first stop was San Francisco Monastery and Catacombs. Unfortunately photography within the Monastery and Catacombs is banned so was not able to take any photos of the interior which was disappointing as it is an interesting place with a lot of history.

From the Monastery we walked to the Plaza Mayor past the Casa De La Literatura Peruana. When I was in Lima last time the area we walked was being restored and they did a great job. One of my favourite things about Lima are the balconies, the different types of balconies can be traced to different periods of the 17th and 18th centuries, I am glad that there is a push to restore them.

Our first stop in the Plaza Mayor is Cathedral of Lima. When I was here previously I was on a bike tour around Lima, so did not get to go inside, so glad I got a chance to this time. The next photos are all of the Cathedral and they say a lot more than I could ever write.

After the Cathedral we waited in the Plaza Mayor for the changing of the guard, the only problem is that the guard did not really change, the band came out, a couple of guys marched to the front of the Palacio de Gobierno del Perú but whilst we waited the actual changing of the guard did not occur. Maybe the overslept.

After the Plaza Mayor we boarded the bus and headed to Miraflores for lunch. I was hoping that we would get to go somewhere where we could have Peruvian food, unfortunately that was not to be, we were dropped off at a high-end shopping mall, the Larcomar Mall, where the restaurants were mainly western style with a couple Asian restaurants, not sure why we could not have had lunch in the area next to the Plaza Mayor where there are a number of Peruvian Restaurants, I ate lunch at one last year as a part of the bike tour. Guess I will have to return one day to do a foodie tour.

One thing about the Larcomar is the view, the mall was built on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, it is pretty spectacular. The weather in Miraflores is a lot cooler than in Lima due to ocean winds. Morro Solar is the nearby headland that was obscured by the mist that became thicker whilst we were having lunch. You can also see La Rosa Nautica, a restaurant complex that extends out over the water, would have been a better choice for lunch, but….

From the shopping mall we headed to the Indian Market where the locals sell the handcrafts, lots of stalls to chose from, negotiating the price is expected. After the market it was time to head to the Airport, where I had around 9 hours to wait for a flight, thankfully the Airport Hotel is only a couple of minutes walk from the terminal so we had somewhere to wait until we could check-in. One thing that had changed was the Airport, the new terminal is pretty good and the lounge was fairly comfortable.

Next stop Miami.

What do you think of the new look?

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