Lima – Weekend Getaways

So, what is the tourist, with more time in Lima then they’d prefer and no interest in a city experience, to do?

The truth is, Peru is such a magical place that you do not need to go too far outside the city of Lima to find attractions that rival those elsewhere in the country. From desert oases, pretty Andean villages and ancient pyramids to hiking trails, white water rafting and horseback riding – here’s the run down of nearby weekend getaways.

January 26, 2009 | Lima City Guide, Nature

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Huacas of Manchay Alto

There’s not much left of it now, but there is something special about this temple complex in the Lurín valley that makes it so interesting. At about 3000 years old, it makes the city of Pachacamac just to the southwest look positively modern.

December 18, 2008 | Archaeology, Lima City Guide

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Glorious Pre-Columbian Lima

When Francisco Pizarro arrived in the Rimac valley, founding the city of Los Reyes on the 18th of January 1535, he arrived in place quite different from what you might imagine. Here was an expansive green and fertile land, in the middle of the Peruvian desert coast, home tens of thousands living under the rule of the Incas. Where Lima is found today was once a land of pyramids and palaces, cities and farms, with complex irrigation canals spanning kilometres in length bringing water to every home.

September 15, 2008 | Archaeology, History, Lima City Guide

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Santa Rosa de Chontay

Chontay was once and ancient resting stop or tambo on the way to Pachacamac from Juaja. The pre-Inca tambo building that existed was destroyed by the Spanish who built a church of the same proportions in its place in the 1630s. The bell is almost as old, from 1794. Some ruins can still be found, along with farming terraces which were once used to grow cereals and coca.

September 14, 2007 | Lima Region Guide

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Antioquia

As part of the series Explorando Lima, in which I demonstrate the immense diversity that Peru has to offer without even leaving the region of Lima, I visit Antioquia, a town that brightened its future with a lick of paint.

September 10, 2007 | Art, Lima Region Guide, Modern Peru

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Camarones del valle de Lurín

As I continue Explorando Lima, where I demonstrate the immense diversity that Peru has to offer without even leaving the region of Lima, I come across a style of cooking spicy fresh-water shrimp.

September 6, 2007 | Peruvian Food

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Qhapaq Ñan, Lurín

As part of the series Explorando Lima, in which I demonstrate the immense diversity that Peru has to offer without even leaving the region of Lima, I walk part of the Qhapaq Ñam,  the Royal Road otherwise known as the Inca Trail, in the valley of Lurín. For more on the Qhapaq Ñan, see The [...]

September 4, 2007 | Lima Region Guide

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Ruins of the Lurín Valley

There have been so many ancient cultures in Peru who have gone on to create so many citadels, farming terraces, temples and pyramids that you often only need to climb the nearest hill to find remnants of their existence. Because of this the vast majority of the country’s archaeological sites are relatively unknown, unvisited and unprotected.

July 8, 2007 | Archaeology, Lima City Guide

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Cieneguilla

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.

June 17, 2006 | Lima City Guide

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