Back when Miraflores was a small seaside town some way outside Lima, long before the construction of the highway that runs along the foot of the cliffs of the Costa Verde, the well-to-do of Lima would walk down the cobbled street of the Bajada Balta to the beach resort to spend a summer’s afternoon by the sea. The cliffs were still green, the river Surco and the other pre-Inca cannels brought a continuous supply of fresh water from the Rimic river kilometres away, water that now doesn’t make it past the parks of San Borja and Surco.

Today, the seafront has been widened by tens of metres for kilometres of its length. A busy coastal highway runs along the backs of the beaches while exclusive multi-story apartment buildings keep watch at the tops of the rocky cliffs.

Where the building on the seafront stood in the early 1930s is now one half of the highway, what was the beach are now a series of beach clubs, enjoyed just as much today as back then.

Tags: 1930s, beach, costa verde, lima, miraflores