Parasailing		Makaja beach	View of high cliffs above the beaches	View toward Waikiki beach
Elizabeth and the waves	Rosa Nautica restaurant	Makaja beach		Fresh crabs for dinner?
	Interior of Rosa Nautica restaurant	Beach art

By the way, don't get fooled by the number of people you see swimming on these beaches.  I stuck my feet into the ocean.  It was frigid!  At first I thought it was just me, a Hawaiian spoiled by the warmth of our ocean water.  Later on, however, we learned from a tour guide that the water temperature here ranges from 12C to 15C (54F-59F).  Brrr.... No wonder I thought it was cold.  That explains why all surfers here wear wet suits, just like in California.

City Tour

In the afternoon, we took a tour of the city.  Personally, I prefer exploring new venues by myself.  But when you're pressed for time and are starting from ground zero, taking a took seemed a more efficient way of learning about Lima. 

We started the tour at Huaca Pucllana (see below). Machu Picchu may get all the glory, but ruins even older than the Cusco giant can be explored without ever leaving downtown Lima. Indigenous peoples started building Huaca Pucllana in 400 A.D.—nine centuries before the Incas started setting stones at mighty Machu Picchu. Those earliest residents gathered, traded, made community decisions, worshiped and sacrificed women and children at Huaca Pucllana for 300 years. They abandoned the site when the Wari empire conquered the area in 700 A.D., and built a cemetery for its elite on top of the pyramid. The Incas moved in some three centuries later (also see a chronological chart of Peruvian cultural history in a photo below).

Huaca Pucllana	Huaca Pucllana	Colorful buildings in downtown Lima	Colorful buildings in downtown Lima	Colorful buildings in downtown Lima
Colorful buildings in downtown Lima	Colorful buildings in downtown Lima	Colorful buildings in downtown Lima	Italian-style architecture	Italian-style architecture - now art museum
Italian-style architecture	Downtown Lima	Downtown Lima	Beautiful frescos	A French-inspired style
Republic Square, built in 1921, on first centennary of Peruvian independence	Gold jewelry of pre-Inca cultures (a Museum exhibit)	Gold jewelry of pre-Inca cultures (a Museum exhibit)	Gold jewelry of pre-Inca cultures (a Museum exhibit)	Gold Tumis - also predate the Incas
Chart of Peruvian cultural history	Plaza de Major (main square in Lima)	Plaza de Major (main city square in Lima)	Plaza de Major (main square in Lima)	Plaza de Major (main square in Lima)
Plaza de Major (main square in Lima)	Plaza de Major (main square in Lima)	Plaza de Major (main square in Lima)	Presidential palace, built by a French architect in a Versailles style	Plaza de Major (main square in Lima)
Plaza de Major (main square in Lima)	"Why are you turning away?"	A pink galleria! (an arcade mall)	San Cristobel hill and police guards around presidential palace	Riot police in action
	St. Francis monastery	"No pictures, please!' (inside the St. Francis monastery)	A 36-ft deep stack of skull and bones

Miraflores Sunset, Dinner

We got back from the tour just in time to enjoy a lovely sunset over the Miraflores beaches...

As we looked across the Makaja beach (middle right) we saw a giant cross illuminated by some very powerful flood lights.  We also saw it later on in the evening, when we went to dinner at Costa Verde, an excellent restaurant right on the Makaja beach...

... where the above pictures were taken.  In case you're wondering, if it was our Perucian hosts who put the U.S. flag on our table.  That seems to be a tradition in this restaurant.  The guests next to us, for example, had a Brazilian flag on their table. Interestingly, there was also some HP marketing event taking place at the same time, so you can see the giant lighted cross in the distance over the HP props on the beach.  At one stage, HP used to use the cross (actually a "+" sign as part of its logo).  They abandoned it when the current administration took over in 2005.

And that's all she wrote so far from Peru.

Also check out...

2009

• The Altomesayok Journey (May-June 2009)

2008

• Communing with Holy Mountains in Peru (June-July 2008)

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