Meet Pablo Valverde, traditional picaronero

He has been selling picarones for 20 years in the Parque Kennedy of Miraflores, and has gone on to take part in a number of gastronomic fairs including Mistura. He is Pablo Valverde, the picaronero.

August 21, 2010 | Lima City Guide, Peruvian Food

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Organic Food in Lima

Healthy, organic and in all cases tasty. Organic options are growing in availability in the gastronomic capital of the Americas.

June 7, 2010 | Lima City Guide, Peruvian Food

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The Cats of Parque Kennedy

The cats that live in the Parque Kennedy in the heart of Miraflores are at the centre of a conflict between animal lovers and some local residents.

March 10, 2010 | Commentary/Opinion, Lima City Guide

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Lima sees six months of rain in one week

Lima – the mild rainless desert city, but for how long? Winters have been growing colder and wetter, summers arriving later than ever.

This week alone, supposedly the first full week of the first month of summer if we discount November – a time when most of the population of Lima usually heads to the beach – has seen 50% of Lima’s typical annual rainfall after an already wet winter.

January 10, 2010 | Nature, News

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Don’t Honk your Horn [Featured]

I wrote last month about the attempt by Miraflores to outlaw the engrained habit of horn overuse. Lima is blighted by noise and much of it from people honking incessantly in vain attempts to make traffic lights magically change to green, to make traffic jams suddenly clear up or to justify the ignoring of traffic laws. Could the effort by Miraflores, just one district in Metropolitan Lima, start the ball rolling towards a quieter and more pleasant Lima? Who knows.

US Expat Ben Jonjak witnessed a publicity drive taking place in the heart of Miraflores, part of the effort to make commuters and transport providers in the district aware that if they don’t change their ways and obey long established laws they will soon be fined.

March 12, 2009 | Commentary/Opinion

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Curich and the cremolada

It’s summer in Lima. The days are hot and they are long. The sun pushes you down with its full force, as if a heavy weight on your shoulders, and the humid air is thick like treacle. The gentle sea breeze along the cliffs of the Costa Verde in Miraflores seems to disappear during the hottest hours of the day, just when it is needed most. Ice cream sellers whistle as they ride by on their ice cream dispensing bikes… but you are thirsty and a thick ice cream won’t refresh you beyond the 30 seconds it takes to devour it. What is there that can save you from collapsing into a heap in the middle of the street?

A cremolada, a cremolada from the home of cremoladas, a cremolada from Curich.

February 26, 2009 | Lima City Guide, Peruvian Food

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Lima of yesteryear – 1920s to 1970s

The Lima of two periods of time are both equally well known; the colonial and modern Lima that is still visible in the area around the city’s plaza, and the modern noisy metropolis that extends for kilometres.

But what about the time in between?

February 6, 2009 | Lima City Guide, Modern Peru

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Air accident in San Diego reminds us of Alfredo Salazar

In 1937 Alfredo Salazar managed to crash his damaged plane in an unpopulated area of Miraflores.

Just a few days ago a horrible accident occured in San Diego, United States, when a US F-18 fighter jet plummeted into a residential zone, destroying homes and killing four people including two children. The pilot had ejected seconds before.

A similar tragedy almost occured in Peru 71 years ago. A plane completely in flames was heading was falling rapidly over the skies of Lima, heading towards Miraflores – then only a sea-side town found at the end of Av. Arequipa.

December 15, 2008 | Lima City Guide, Modern Peru

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APEC 2008 comes to a close

As the security fences and blockades are pulled down, and life in Lima gets back to normal, Peru can be proud that it successfully held such a large scale international event. The numbers of delegates and the numbers of heads of state all in the capital city at the same time was unprecedented for the country, but despite Peru’s reputation for inefficiency everything went surprisingly well.

November 24, 2008 | Commentary/Opinion, Lima City Guide, News

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A walk along the Costa Verde

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, there’s nothing nicer than a walk along the Lima’s Costa Verde on a sunny day. Big changes have been taking place over the past 5 years. The old historic but sadly decaying houses along the cliff front have been gradually pulled down and new apartment blocks built in their place, while the once ugly and unsafe cliff-top between the lighthouse in Miraflores and the district of San Isidro is now greener and wealthier than ever. Expensive apartments now overlook children’s play areas and green spaces with pristine pathways, benches, and flower gardens.

November 4, 2008 | Commentary/Opinion, Lima City Guide

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Intact Wari tomb at the Huaca Pucllana

Built by the Lima Culture, the Huaca Pucllana eventually came under the control of the vast Huari (or Wari) Empire. Although various Wari artefacts have been discovered here, this is the first Wari-period tomb to be uncovered.

August 26, 2008 | Archaeology, Lima City Guide, News

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Destruction of Lima’s architectural heritage [Featured]

Lima grows ever higher. In districts like Miraflores, Chorrillos, Barranco and San Isidro are loosing more and more of of their traditional homes, the majority of which built in the early 1900s. They are forced to make way for grand towers and modern apartments that ignore the style of the surrounding area and simply don’t fit. Worse still many defy urban-planning rules implemented by local municipalities.

August 19, 2008 | Lima City Guide, Modern Peru

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