In a bid to get over my cold faster, we left the winter of Lima and travelled 20km into the hills past La Molina suburb of Lima. Here it is warm, sunny and dry all year round.
Our route to La Molina is a pass through the foothills, which are like mountains in themselves. Here in the dry desert these foothills look like gigantic piles of dirt, rock and sand. The road from Surco into La Molina is cut through these foothills, from which you have a good view of fog-covered Surco about 100 meters below. La Molina feels like a separate city as between it and the rest of Lima these hills are a divider.