PERU ~ Pt. 1 (Lima)

Jenai
Mar 1, 2018
3 min read

It's time for our second blog post, and it's Thursday. So, #tbt to one of my favorite places in the world. Peru.

I turned 30 in 2016 and knew I wanted to visit Machu Picchu for my 30th birthday. As we started researching for our trip, we learned that the beauty of Peru was not limited to just Machu Picchu, so we decided to also spend time in Lima and Cusco. In total, we spent 2 full days in Lima, 2 days in Aguas Calientes (where Machu Picchu is located), and 3 days in Cusco. This was a perfect amount of time, and the order we chose to visit the cities helped us ward off altitude sickness. More on that later, but Cusco has an elevation of 11,152′!

Lima

We took a red eye flight from the US and arrived in Lima at 5:30 a.m. We were exhausted and headed to our hotel - the JW Marriott in Miraflores (downtown). We love staying at Marriott properties, and the JW Marriott was ranked #1 on TripAdvisor. It did not disappoint. Even though the official check-in time was not until much later, we were immediately given a room with a gorgeous view of the water. What a way to start our trip!

After a quick rest, we were ready to explore and grab some breakfast. We walked along the cliffs, and made our way to La Mar for ceviche. Oh my was our food fresh and delicious. We loved the ceviche trio and the scallops and clams roasted with garlic and chilies.

I could have kept eating and trying more dishes, but we needed to save room for our evening food tour with Lima Gourmet Company. We LOVE food tours! And this tour was one of the best!

We started off the tour with tasting Pisco Sours at a cute restaurant overlooking the beach.

We then went to Amaz restaurant and made our own Amazonian-style ceviche using plantains. So fun! I made mine extra spicy!

While we made our ceviche, we also had some great appetizers. We even came back later on in our trip to get the arroz chaufa again!

Then we headed to the pre-Incan ruins at Huaca Pucllana where we enjoyed more food while looking at the ruins.

By this time, we were so full! We ended the tour in the Barranco district. The Barranco District is so cool and eclectic. The Bridge of Sighs is located in the District and it is said that if, on your first time, you walk across the entirety of the Bridge without taking a single breath, you get a single wish. Of course I participated!

Our next day was our last full day in Lima. We started off the day on a bike tour with Bike Tours of Lima. I only got one picture (darn) but I would totally recommend the Bohemian tour.

Last, but certainly not least, we had an epic dinner at Central Restaurant. When we first decided to visit Lima, I knew we had to snag a reservation. I've been a fan of Chef Virgilio Martinez since visiting his Michelin star Peruvian restaurant in London, Lima. Central Restaurant is the Chef's flagship restaurant and is regarded as the #1 restaurant in Latin America and in the top 5 in the world. Thankfully I got us a reservation! And, wow. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves (they are in no particular order because I can't remember and there was sooo much food!), but I'll let you know that the Chef was in the kitchen and I was a total fan girl.