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Coming back to Arequipa from Colca Canyon we were a couple of hours early and were lucky enough to bring our flight forward. We arrived in Lima early evening and were met at our Airbnb apartment by Maria. We are in a beautifully decorated duplex in the beach area in Lima called Miraflores. We are very excited that we can go upstairs to bed and even more so to have our own washing machine! Maria has also been kind enough to leave lots of provisions for us including tea, coffee, eggs, bread, butter, rice and tuna. Even better, we were given a voucher from Airbnb for £100 as a goodwill gesture due to all the hassle we had over getting our money back from the dodgy hostel we stayed in in Mendoza, so part of this stay is covered by that.
Lima is a large city, and although we didn't get to see much coming from the airport as it was dark, we go out to explore the following day and to find a city with lots of character. We walk through the bohemian district called Barrancca that is just on our doorstep. There are some interesting colourful colonial houses with iron or wooden balconies, ornate shutters on the windows and lush foliage in their front gardens.
We go to a Mario Testino museum set in a beautiful colonial building. Although he has lived in London for most of his life, Mario is Peruvian and was born in Lima, and has a permanent photography exhibition here. He is renowned for his eye capturing the instant and making his subject look relaxed, nonchalant and elegant. This is clear in the series of photos of celebrities, and in particular the photo's of Princess Di, taken just two months before her death. Her portraits hang in a separate gallery and the air in here is cold, which we wonder is for effect. A talented photographer whose photos draw you in. His photos of native Peruvians in their traditional colourful dress are the ones that really stand out.
Walking on, we see another art museum set in a beautiful mansion surrounded by well-kept gardens. The Museo Pedro De Osma is mainly full of religious paintings and pretty much of what we have already seen, so it's just a flying visit.
We have booked onto a two-hour chocolate workshop where we learn about the cocoa bean from its crop to the end result of some delicious chocolate. We are on the workshop with an American family and some local kids and we are all given aprons to wear. There was lots of information to take in before we got anywhere near getting our hands on the chocolate. The kids (and Steve) were bored and no doubt just wanted to eat the chocolate, so were being naughty throwing cocoa beans around and getting under everybodys feet. We were allowed to pick 15 beans each out of the large sack, so Steve painstakingly picked out the largest ones. These, however, ended up in one big pot with everyone elses, so his dedication was in vain. The chef roasted the beans (in their shells) for 10 minutes, we then got to peel the shell's off and grind down the cocoa beans. The smell released was pungent of chocolate. As our chef made lots of different drinks with some of the ground beans the kids were busy dipping their grubby hands into one of the bowls he was yet to use. It might add to the flavour! We were then able to taste small chocolate chips of dark, milk and white chocolate and choose the one to make our chocolates. We then poured our liquid chocolate into our chosen moulds and were able to pick from a range of marshmallows, nuts, coconut etc to decorate. We then had to wait 30 minutes for this to set. In all we spent three hours to pick some beans, peel and grind them and then pour some ready-made chocolate into moulds. It didn't quite scratch the culinary itch and it wasn't quite what we were expecting as we thought we would be making it from scratch but bloody hell, it tasted good!
Lima has a big traffic problem, however the large 'bendy-bus' network has its own lanes and is very efficient, but always very full and most journeys are a squeeze. We took a bus into the centre of town to start a walking tour.
The walk that we were following from The Lonely Planet took us out to some of the city's plazas with the most impressive for architecture being Plaza de Armas. A large pedestrian square covered with yellow and red ferns surrounded by beautiful buildings dominating each block facing the square. It includes the Presidential Palace, the Archbishop's Palace, the Cathedral and an area that used to serve as a market, bullpen and execution site. It was a hot day and we soon ended up going into cool department stores in search new shoes, make-up and basic commodities. Everyone thought we were buying shoes for Ronald McDonald as Steve was continually diappointed to hear they didn't stock the size for his flippers. Back on the trail, we pass some balconied alleyways, busy markets and a small park overlooking the colourful houses on the hill opposite.
We are staying close to the beach and Miraflores is set on a cliff top overlooking the sea. There's not much of a beach to sunbathe on, but there are lots of surfers out there waiting for the 'big one'. It's a beautiful residential area with palm trees and gardens surrounding the luxury apartments. Lots of high end retailers and some good restaurants dominate a new development facing out to the sea.
Lima doesn't see much sun and most days are cloudy. We realise how much sunshine we've had over the past weeks. We make the most of the apartment with the high speed internet and make sure we do some research for our onwards travel and we give some of the museums, etc a miss as they are getting a little repetitive now.
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