Exploring Lima

Lima, it sounds as a strange exotic city in the middle of the jungle to some people. Well, it is a jungle out there, but not of trees. Lima is a huge city in the middle of the dry coastal pacific dessert of South America. The sun harly ever shines there because of the everpresent fog. Despite of this, Lima is worth more than just a stopover on your way to Cuzco. The city has a nice colonial centre with a beautiful Plaza de Armas (the mainsquare). The old centre has some nice sites like the San Fransisco monastary and good shopping. In the outskirts of town there are some really nice museums like the Museo de Oro (goldmuseum) and the Museo del Nacion (national museum). As long as you take some precautions Lima is a relatively save place. Don't show your wealth too much, no big watches or videocamera's.

Quick Tips:

Walk around in the colonial center of town, plaza de Armas, Plaza San Martin. Go shopping on Union, or just relax on plaza de Armas. At night, party in Baranco.

Best Way To Get Around:

Lima is a huge city. The best way to get around is by: Taxi, taxi, taxi.

Take a cab from the city centre to the museo. I paid about 10 soles. From the centre it's about a 15 minutes drive via the expressway. You'll notice the neigbourhood getting better all the time. Suddenly a huge concrete bunker appears; this is not a millitary structure (though it could be) but this is the museum. Bring your dictionary because you will not find any English guidebooks here.

The museum shows the Peruvian history from Nazca to Macchu Picchu, from Moche to Inca. It's very complete and the exhibitions are pretty well organised. Also the museum is the favorite school excursion spot in Lima.... when I was there, there were hundreds of scholars also viewing exhibitions in the building.

After having visited the Museo del Nacion I had the splendid idea to go to the Goldmuseum. It should be close to the MdN. So I walked out the door to the street to find me a taxi. Halfway there (it's a broad sidewalk) a nice police officer starts to have a little chat with me.. where are you from, how do you like Peru, the usual stuff. And then the million dollar question: 'where do you want to go?' I say, 'The Goldmuseum.' And this nice man is so friendly to get me a taxi. He even bargains me a good price. But when I get in the cab I am charged a little bribe for this service: 3 sol. Well, it's not that much so I get into the cab and trust him to drive me to the museum. The officer showed the driver the way, so no problem, I thought.. After driving in circles for a while the driver stops the car, asks me to wait a moment and gets out of the car. Ten minutes later he returns and drives on.. After some more circles we stop again and he asks some people for directions. Finally someone knows where the Goldmuseum is and after a 40 minutes drive we get there. I pay the man his 6 sol (a real bargain for a 45 minutes ride), and visit the museum.

The museum is actually two museum, the gold and the weapons museum. There are no English guidebooks here. The only way to learn something about the exhibition is to hire a guide. The goldmuseum really is packed with gold, and without the guide it all looks the same.. so get the guide.

On my way back I couldn't find a cab back to the city centre cheaper than 25 sol. But it took me less than half an hour to get back (only 5 minutes until we passed the Museo del Nacion). My advice: buy a good map before visiting the goldmuseum.

Barranco, on the Pacific coast of Lima, is the place to be on weekend nights. Grau and Bolognesi are packed with bars, pubs, disco's and restaurants. The disco only start to fill after midnight, so don't go there too early. I don't know the official closing time, but when I was there it was at least 5 in the morning. Peruvians love to dance on Salsa music, so 50% of the night you'll hear salsa. If you are lucky some nice chicas will teach you how to dance on the salsa music...

A lot of guidebooks speak about La Noche on Bolognesi. I didn't like it.. It is a huge place with several bars and dance floors. The only problem is that the dance floors (on the Saturday I visited) were packed with chairs. Our effort to start a party on one of the dance floors was not appreciated and the chairs we had removed were quickly returned. Since we wanted to dance we left the place and had a lot of fun in the dancings next to la Noche.

Guidebooks tell you to be careful in Lima. Even the people in Lima tell you. Hide your cameras, wallets and watches. They use the -two fingers pointed the eyes- sign to warn you about thiefs. One day a taxi driver told me he was robbed at gunpoint the day before, but they didn't want his money only his cars' frontlights. But that was in a bad part of town. As long as you stay in the centre or in Miraflores not much will happen to you. Just take the normal precautions and you will be alright. So don't be as stupid as this friend of mine that walked through a busy shopping street and got his watch ripped. Just don't wear a watch. There are plenty of public clocks.