We woke up in Lima to a beautiful view of sunshine and the ocean. After grabbing coffee in the lobby and checking in on the world, I had a delicious breakfast at the hotel, which included amazing charcuterie. Originally, we had booked a hotel in the middle of the city, but after seeing a Windows background image of the cliffs of Miraflores, we decided to rebook our stay at this wonderful location. The AC Hotel was right on the a cliff that overlooked the Pacific Ocean, and next to shopping, running trails, and dining options. I took a walk down to Larcomar, the outdoor mall built into the cliffs, and explored the area before the girls got up.
Our adventure for the day was Paratriking, and Uber turned out to be a fantastic way to get around Lima. We didn’t have to negotiate on price, and the precise location helped with communication. We were able to easily identify our ride, and we knew we weren’t being taken advantage of.
We got dropped off at Playa Numero 2 and walked out to the beach to meet our Paratriking team. It was a family with mom running the business, dad running the trike, and the kids helping out with everything else. They even had their own GoPro 360s, which I thought were a thing of the past. Amy went, then Charlie, then me. It was a great ride up along the coast, seeing all of Miraflores and the beaches, all in a two seat go kart strapped to a huge fan and a parachute.
As we were going through our gear, we realized that we hadn’t brought a charger for our Nikon camera, and the battery we had was dead. We tried to have one shipped to us from home, but then we found out there was a Nikon store in Lima, so that became our next adventure. After an Uber ride to a store with minimal signage, I went in and found some camera gear. But people were also coming in and then getting invited to the ‘back’. Who knows what else was going on there, but they did have the charger and they took both my broken Spanish and American Express, so we got our stuff and left before any trouble showed up.
At this point, we were in downtown Lima and decided it was time for lunch. We walked a little and found it challenging to figure out the menu and whether certain dishes contained onions or were too spicy. A man standing outside his restaurant told us he could find something for us to eat. True to his word, we got beer, fries, and access to bathrooms, so we were content. It turns out the man who got us to sit down was Jonathan Maicelo, a famous boxer in Peru. This was his restaurant, and he’s somewhat of a celebrity in Lima. I tried to get Charlie to take a picture with him, but she declined.
Next, we went shopping and attempted to walk back to the hotel, thinking it wasn’t too far. We found a department store that still carried Esprit, which thrilled Amy, and discovered some other shops to explore. Even though Google Maps suggested the shortest route back to the hotel, the path got hotter and sketchier, and we finally bailed and Ubered the rest of the way. After freshening up at the hotel, we had cocktails and played games before doing more shopping at Larcomar until our dinner at Tanta. Charlie attempted to watch a movie in Spanish, thinking she could figure it out, but the showtimes didn’t align. We bought some groceries, Swiss army knives, and then called it a night.
