Lima, Peru is a modern city right on the Pacific coast. When I arrived it was pitch black, but you could smell the ocean air and the road from the airport to downtown went between the ocean and the city. Before I get into the specifics of Lima, let me tell you about some of the facts I learned about Peru in general.

First, and frankly the most fascinating to me, Peru has 30 of the 32 world climates. They have a monsoon climate, a desert climate, a tropical savanna climate, a subtropical climate, and many many more. This means you can be sand surfing in the desert, then go literally surf in the ocean within a few hours.  You can climb to the top of a mountain – say for example the mountain in the Paramount Pictures Logo (Yeah, that mountain is real and in Peru) – and then walk down to the rain forest. Unfortunately for me I only had one week in Peru and could not explore all of this despite desperately wanting to.

Peru is one of those sneakily big countries. It borders five other countries and as I stated above, it features mountains, deserts, lakes, an ocean, rain forests, regular forests, and more. You could have five weeks in the country and still not see everything worth seeing. Of its 30ish million people, 10 million of them live in Lima, the nation’s capital.

Ok, that’s enough of the stuff you can read on wikipedia. When I arrived in Lima it was humid and night. Luckily in the little homework I had done I had packed for both warm and cold (remember those 30 climates?). The one thing I failed to do is any research on Lima. So when I woke up the next morning I got my day pack and started walking, deciding if I got lost I’d get in a taxi with someone who didn’t speak English and look like the dumbest American in history as I pointed to a spot on my map close to my hotel. Seriously, what’s so funny about “necesito ir aqui” with my finger pointed to a map? Because one taxi driver thought it was hilarious. Anyway, after turning right about six times and left about seven I ended up in the “financial area.” Of course I did not know that’s where I was, it’s just what a local told me. This is a part of town with tall buildings that could have been downtown St. Louis if a few more people were drunk and in Cardinals shirts.

Now, if you have read my Top 5 Tips for Backpacking you’d know one of my tips is to talk to strangers. So that’s exactly what I did. I struck up a conversation with a local social worker or social scientist – look her English was about 325 times better than my Spanish, but there were a few English words which sounded a lot like Spanish to me. Per her suggestion and it being her day off, she took me to the city center. She showed me where pisco sours were invented (a pisco sour is the national drink similar to a frozen margarita only deceivingly stronger and nothing like a margarita), then we headed up to the governmental palace in the Plaza Mayor. On the way there I noticed the wooden balconies on older buildings. Every old building had them and most of them were enclosed. The Historic Centre of Lima is worth seeing, especially lit up at night, unfortunately I was there during the day, but it was still worth the trip. However, the best part of the day was still coming…

After walking through a museum and seeing a bunch of Santas ride by on motorcycles with a police escort, we headed to Chinatown. Now, the first thing I have to tell you about Chinatown in Peru is the last thing that my new guide told me: Don’t ever go there alone. Frankly very reassuring words that I was glad to hear… after having been there. Apparently it is a rougher part of town. But what it has is worth going to – Chifa. Chifa is the local Peruvian-Chinese blended food. Think of the best Chinese food you’ve ever had in the US. Now multiple that by 7. That’s what this is. If you ever decide to go to Peru you HAVE to go find chifa. And ceviche. And alpaca. And anticuchos. And cuy chactado. And, well you get the point. Lima is sometimes called the Gastronomical Capital of the Americas. It has earned this title. The food alone makes the trip worthwhile.

I spent the next day exploring the ocean coast. I watched surfers from a high bluff and then watched a solid tennis match between two very old people. Lima has built a running/walking trail along the high bluffs that put the city 100 feet above the ocean. Along this trail are all kinds of things to do – like tennis. They also have a Paddington Bear there. So of course Paddington and I stopped to take pictures. That night I visited a park with a bunch of cats – locals recommended it. And sure enough, there were lots and lots of cats. However, this was just a brief stop because I had something better in mind: STAR WARS. That’s right. I was in Lima when Star Wars came out. So I went and saw it… in Spanish. Capped off a perfect day. There were other smaller adventures in Lima and I’m sure one day I’ll write about them. But the next day I hopped on a regional plane and flew out to Cusco to visit the Land of the Incas.