Miraflores, Lima

Lima is a massive city. It is home to 10 million people. We have been in Lime twice before, as we passed through on our travels to elsewhere. Having lived in a big third world city before, I was not keen to spend much time in Lima. But I did want to spend a day or so here at the end for a few reasons: 1.) this is where the airport is to go home, and I wanted to be here at least one day before our flight; 2.) I wanted to boys to see the cosmopolitan side of Peru as well. We are staying just outside of Miraflores, one of the most fancy sectors in Lima. Our hotel, as I mentioned, is first class--nicer than what most of us are used to staying in Canada. It was a treat to wake up this morning in that huge bed with fine linen and to sit in the jacuzzi tub last night, I must admit. After arriving here last night, we headed out to Larcomar, a shopping centre located in the side of a cliff, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It is the height of North American-ism in Lima. I knew that James and the boys needed a dose of North Americanism. We briefly saw the park above the mall called the Malecon. It was manicured and clean. I was surprised that it was not littered with garbage (the one in the Dominican Republic is covered with junk). We headed down (down!) into the mall. By this time Mateo was seriously hangry...so food was a priority. We had heard rumours that there was a MacDonald's in the plaza, for Diego that was akin to rumours of the lost city of El Dorado...it did not happen. We did run across KFC, Pizza Hut, Tony Roma's, Chills, and Friday's (where we ended up going). It was like eating at home, sort of. The menu full of familiar things, milkshakes like how they make them at home, chicken fingers, and ICED TEA (yes, Diego finally got his iced tea after 3 weeks of drinking only water!). We had a meal and then headed to the movie theatre to watch TARZAN. The theatre was clean and huge. Really, really big screen. It looked the size of the screen in the Telus World of Science. The sound was clear, clean and loud. Amazing theatre. The mall also had many stores that are familiar to us - an iMac store, Aldo, Pandora, and many more. We enjoyed the movie in our reserved seating (just like at home), ate popcorn and lost ourselves in the story. FUN FACT: the movie had a scene where Tarzan is being patched up with ants...the ants are walking down a tree carrying parts of leaves....leaf- cutter ants! We saw those in the rainforest. So, I leaned over and with barely contained enthusiasm tell the boys, "look, leaf cutter ants!" And they are like, "we know," totally nonplussed.

Malecon in Lima

Larcomar Mall - totally Americanized

 

In the theatre

        Taxi ride home. Tuck into bed. Fall asleep. P.s. I will post pictures of some of this stuff later...don't want to wake the kiddos to retrieve the SD Apple cord thing. Hugs and kisses,