Peru Diaries 1 – Lost Luggage and Lovely Lima

Saturday morning April 24th, we were all set to make our way into Lima with a short stop in Atlanta – bags:check, passport:check, airplane ticket: check. En-route to Atlanta we hear “this is your captain speaking, I am sorry folks, but due to thunder storms in Atlanta and low fuel levels we will have to re-route to Charlotte”. Great will we or wont we make our connection to Lima? Well, 2 hours later we were running through Atlanta’s Hartsfield airport and have made our connection with 5 minutes to spare. Neither R nor I have ever run so fast! Of-course we made the flight, but 6 hours later, after staring at the conveyor belt for 30 minutes we realized that our bags did not – oh well. It would have to be sans bags in Lima on Day 1 of our trip. We had Raphael (old man full of advice for tourists) take us to Hotel Antigua Miraflores; which was the sweetest little place I have seen – it had beautiful art on all the walls and the most amazing coffee I have ever tasted. It was like a large bed and breakfast. After a good nights rest we set out to explore. I won’t bore you with all the details but just give the highlights. First stop El Centro; this is where all the monuments are. There was a vibrant parade in the main square (Plaza de Armas). We strolled about took a lot of pictures. The highlight for me were the Catacombs in the San Francisco Cathedral. It was eerie to walk underground and see human bones piled up from the 17th Century. In the afternoon we headed to Barranco and ate some amazing food. I cannot write enough about the food in Peru – It is Fantastic. The fish, the meat, the corn, the potatoes -  all of it is fresh and cooked with so much flavor. Barranco is an area in Lima that over-looks the sea – we whiled away our time enjoying Ceviche, Lomo Saltado and many Piscos. In the evening we chilled out in Miraflores where we bought a beautiful painting for our home and chatted with the locals. I had to stop R from eating street food that he was salivating over. Did not want a sick husband at the beginning of my trip. We got our bags at 4 am in the morning – and were all set to travel to our next destination Cuzco and the Sacred Valley ! Below are some pictures from Lima that you can peruse through.