Lima

We weren't sure what to expect with Lima, and didn't have high expectations, but we were pleasantly surprised. We stayed in the coastal Miraflores neighborhood, which is a little generic but geared towards tourists so it's pretty convenient. In hindsight we would have stayed in Barranco, just south along the coastline from Miraflores, and with a lot more personality and visual appeal.

Peru has arguably the best food in South America, and Lima is the center of that, so much of our time here was spent on a quest for great food. We ate at a couple of Gastón Acurio's restaurants, and the new trendy Central Restaurante, but our favorite restaurant was the traditional neighborhood cevicheria Canta Rana in the Barranco neighborhood.

We also visited the amazing Larco Museum, with a world-recognized collection of ancient Peruvian ceramics, textiles, jewelry, and other relics. It was really impressive and the museum was really well done, with a lovely setting and each item described in several languages.

We went downtown to the central plaza and were asked to participate in some funny teenaged girls' English class project. They interviewed us on video in English about our favorite food, pop stars, sports stars, and movies. We don't listen to pop music or watch sports so we just let them make suggestions and then we said yes to whatever they said, so somewhere on video their is evidence of us saying we like Justin Beiber and Kobe Bryant or someone like that.

Lima has some great public spaces along the coast. This awesome skate and BMX park is in the miles-long park that hugs the cliffs over the ocean.

A very skinny building along the cliffs.

Part of the excellent collection of Peruvian antiquities at Museo Larco.

I wouldn't mind getting to wear this one.

The pieces shown in the museum just scratch the surface of their collection. They have thousands more in storage. This view just shows a fraction of the items in storage.