Santiago, of Haku Walking Tours, was our Lima Tour guide for the day!
In the Plaza Major
On the rooftop balcony of Hotel Espana, with the San Francisco Monestary behind us!
To start our adventure in Peru, Dennis and I had arranged a half day walking tour of Lima. The company, Haku Walking Tours, practices sustainable tourism and all of their profits support local Lima communities. They do many projects to support the Lima shantytowns and so we felt really happy to hire them.
The Haku Walking tour company will arrange for pick up and drop off from your hotel, so they came to get us at the Sonesta Posadas del Inca, in the Miraflores district.
By the way, this was our suite, on the 6th Floor…
Posadas Del Inca 6th Floor Suite – 1st half of the suite (facing the street)
2nd Half of 6th Floor Suite
From Miraflores, we drove to city center. Along the way, we passed many famous buildings and parks. Santiago pointed them out along the way and the driver stopped a few times so we could get pictures.
Palace of Justice (taken from the car!)
The Italian Art Musuem
Castle on San Martin Plaza
San Martin Plaza
Pictures from here on down were taken on foot during the tour!
Our first stop was the Hotel Espana. We did not stay here, but the owner is an art collector, so for tourists, it’s a nice place to check out!
Saint Michael Painting
Second Floor Art Collection. Impressive!
Inca Pottery
Up on the rooftop balcony, the Hotel Espana has a tortoise and two peacocks…Here’s the female peacock!
And, here’s the male peacock.
The view from the rooftop is incredible, with the San Francisco Monastery and the colorful shantytowns in the distance.
Next, we got to go inside the San Francisco Chapel. You can see Dennis, behind the fountain…he just got done taking the next picture.
Me taking a picture of the San Francisco Chapel.
Inside the Chapel. It’s beautiful!
The Chapel Altar
After the chapel, Santiago took us on a tour of the Monastery. The highlight was definitely the library, where there were books from the 15th century. It was awesome. The only picture they let you take inside the Monastery is of the gardens…
They don’t plant food in the garden any more, but back in the day, they used to sustain the friars with the food grown here.
Next, we headed over to the Lima Historic District. On the street behind us, were where the very first merchants set up shop, several hundred years ago!
The Lima Train Station
Bar Cordano, where Hemingway and others have had drinks. We did not have a drink on our walking tour, but we did come back at the end of our Peru trip…
An example of a closed balcony. Lima has open and closed styles. The closed ones came about in the late 17th century, when one of the Spanish Aristocrats was upset that men were oggling his daughter. So, he enclosed his balconies and then everybody else in the city followed suit.
The Government Palace
Lima Cathedral
The Inca Flag. This is not the gay pride flag, as you might think. The colors represent the separate cultures and geographical districts of the Inca Empire.
Courret’s Photography Store, since 1955. Back in the day people would come hundreds of miles, to have their film developed here.
Lima Post Office
This Lion will eat your mail…and your hand too, if you get too close!
Lima’s Street of Love!
Awww, shucks!
We ended our tour with the street of love, and then they drove us back to our hotel in Miraflores.
For dinner, we went to a place in Miraflores called Punto Picante, also known as the House of Ceviche, which was about half a mile away. It was a pleasant walk. We got there during happy hour, so we enjoyed huge bombers of beer and ordered an even larger pile of ceviche. It was amazing. We also got some chicken wings and fries…all for 20 bucks. Yummy!
Tomorrow, we would be flying to Cusco.
Tags: Bar Cordano, Ceviche, City Center, Haku Walking Tours, Lima, Miraflores, Peru, Punto Picante