Exploring Miraflores, Lima, Peru

A cruise-related email you almost never like to see appearing in your Inbox is one with the subject “Itinerary Change” unless you had set your heart on a mystery cruise but this was all you could book. It’s a rare thing for a cruise itinerary change to be entirely welcome; they’ll typically be a late arrival or early departure or a “convenient” dock change from the city centre to an industrial complex miles from anywhere or the removal of a port altogether. We’ve twice had ports replaced entirely at late notice, although in both cases we ended up having cracking times, firstly in Kotor, then in La Rochelle.

Lima, the capital of Peru, was a port where we were notified of an itinerary change a few months before the cruise but it was very much appreciated indeed; instead of an evening departure we would be staying overnight! This changed our plan for the city. Instead of an in-depth cruise excursion to get as much done as possible we opted to break our extended day into three chunks covering some sights, a bit of culture, and the social side of the city: exploring Miraflores on our own, hitting the famous Lima fountain show in the evening, then heading into the city centre overnight.

Well, that was our plan. Lima would have something to say about that.

Port Of Callao, Lima

We were cruising on Princess Cruises‘ Star Princess, a fact you’ll already know if you’ve been reading the rest of this cruise diary series or if you’ve seen the travel portfolio structure at the top of this post or the tags at the bottom. There is something very important that you need to know if you’re cruising into Lima with Princess Cruises and, quite likely, other lines too: you cannot arrange independent travel for yourself at the port of Callao.

This isn’t a case of “nobody’s been able to do it but you’ve got a plucky look about you and just might have the skills” statement; it’s a restriction. And it might be that the restriction is lifted in the future, especially if a new cruise port is built (as we believe is the case), but for now it’s not possible. You are not allowed to walk off the ship unless you are with the cruise line and the cruise line will not drop you off anywhere near Callao. If you’re not on an organised excursion then your daytime activities are limited to the ship, although you can take the free shuttle bus to Miraflores (about 12 kilometres away) or San Miguel (a little closer, but running fewer times) later in the evening when the buses become freed up from their excursion duties. The port area, though, is a no-no. Miraflores and San Miguel are nowhere near the historic centre of Lima so if that’s where you’ve got your heart set on then you have to take public transport from those stops and, importantly, it’s from those stops that you must return; you can’t taxi back to Callao in the evening because you won’t be allowed in the port unless you’re on the cruise’s shuttle bus. If you miss the last shuttle bus then prepare for an extended stay in the Peruvian capital.

In case you’re wondering, the restriction around Callao is because of apparently high levels of crime and past incidences of tourists being mugged. For your safety and to stop the cruise companies getting sued (“My camera was stolen when I wandered down an unlit alley by the dock after midnight. I demand compensation!”) you have to accept that Callao is a port you’re only going to see through a bus window. To be fair, with it being a busy industrial port and the area around it geared up for the business that passes through there’s not a lot to see anyway.

Miraflores

Thus it was that we were off the ship nice and early for our excursion (effectively, a narrated bus ride with free time once we arrived at our destination) to Miraflores, an affluent district of Peru’s capital with clifftop views out over the long, sandy beach of the coastline on the Pacific Ocean. It’s not a place thriving with museums or historical interest with the exception of the pre-Inca ruin of Huaca Pucllana, a pyramidal structure dating to the early centuries CE. Unfortunately, the ruins are closed one day per week and I’ll leave you to guess from the lack of any photos of them as to what day we visited Lima.

Remember me saying that Lima had different things in mind with regards to our day’s plans? Well, it was on the drive to Miraflores that we got our first hint of that. I’ve driven and been driven in many capital cities around the world. Let me tell you: Lima is bloody awful. Or, to be fair, it was when we were there. The traffic was horrendous. The road layouts do not have much room to expand or be improved upon and an underground public transport system is but a dream. Roadworks were a sign that something was being attempted but all it was succeeding in doing was transforming our 12 kilometre drive into nearly an hour of crawling to our destination.

We were glad to reach Miraflores and get off the bus at Larcomar, the district’s shopping mall built into the cliff. Indeed, from where you first step foot in this area you cannot even see the mall as it is all below ground level, but you’re instantly drawn towards it as the roof of the complex serves as a fabulous viewing platform down to the shore and out to sea.

We already had a bit of a plan formed as to what we’d do in Miraflores with two parks being on the agenda for the time we’d have in the area. Having passed one of the parks on the way to Larcomar and deciding it looked even better than we’d expected we decided to head to that one first which would naturally take us in a roughly northwest direction along the cliff top at Miraflores. Even if we hadn’t had an outline of a plan we’d have probably headed that way anyway as we saw something that instantly caught our eyes: a statue of Paddington Bear!

I mean, it’s only Peru’s greatest fictional export dressed in the colours of the union flag! Who else can say they saw Paddington in Peru? This statue was commissioned by the British embassy and was unveiled in 2015, partly to promote the movie at the time but also to celebrate cultural links between the United Kingdom and Peru. If you’re wondering just what cultural links other than Paddington exist between the United Kingdom and Peru then join the club.

We followed the flat but curving clifftop path in conditions that were both hot and, thanks to the proximity to the water, humid. To fend off the onset of sweat for as long as humanly possible I made sure to take plenty of momentary stops in order to photograph the impressive views.

“Ooh, there’s a pier down there!” I said at one point. “We like a pier!”

“We do like a pier, you’re right,” agreed my wife. “But is there an elevator that will take us down and back up the cliff?”

“Not that I can see,” I answered, looking left and right along the cliff edge.

“Then you can fuck right off if you think we’re going to take a look at it.”

Intihuatana Sculpture

Just before we reached Puente “Mellizo” Villena Rey, an attractive bridge crossing a small break in the cliff to allow traffic from the beach area to ascend, we came to Parque Intihuatana, a very small park barely more than a grassy area by the roadside but one with an impressive concrete sculpture. As the park’s name implied, this was the Intihuatana Sculpture, created by sculptor Fernando de Szyszlo in 2014. Intihuatana are symbolic stones used by the Inca in astronomical observations with notable examples existing in Machu Pichu, for instance. As a fan of brutalist design this was a wonderfully pleasing piece of art to see up close.

Parque Del Amor (Love Park)

When I’d first suggested Lima’s Love Park to my wife I’d received a look that conveyed questions and threats in equal measure but I’d quickly explained that there were no hippy connections that I was aware of and it was because it appeared to bear more than a passing resemblance to Park Güell in Barcelona with its mosaic-tiled walls and sculptures that it had appealed to me. She’d already agreed that it would probably be nice to see before we’d driven past it on the way to Larcomar when her enthusiasm ratcheted up a notch further.

We headed past some cacti where I lamented the fact that a plant had been defaced for no good reason (seriously, stop doing that you arseholes), crossed the bridge, and made our way to the park.

If you’ve seen the Joan Martorell and Antoni Gaudí-designed park in Barcelona then, no, Parque Del Amor isn’t a patch on it, either in size or style. But it will be instantly familiar in appearance, it’s still a nice little place to take in, and it’s got far lovelier views, those being of an ocean as opposed to a city. The mosaic designs are nice – you can see some ancient Peruvian tribal influences in some of them – but not spectacular, but it’s still a place that’s worth a stroll around.

The large sculpture in the middle of the park is called El Beso, meaning The Kiss, and is a representation of the sculptor and his wife kissing. It was built in 1993 by Víctor Delfín whose works are often inspired by the Paracas culture, something we’d seen a bit of during our previous day in Peru in the Ica region. This is apparently a popular place to come for wedding photos and on Valentine’s Day.

Leaving the first of the two parks we wanted to explore we retraced our steps, taking us back across the bridge we’d crossed then following the pedestrian path that took us under it so we could start to head away from the coastline.

Kennedy Park And Central Park

The park we were heading for was Parque John F. Kennedy (I’ll leave you to work out who that park was named in honour of) but it was separated from a second park – Parque Central de Miraflores – by a pedestrianised road and you can pretty much treat the two areas as one. The reason we wanted to see this park wasn’t for any historical significance but because it used to be home to hundreds of stray cats, very popular with tourists. Now, prior to our cruise we’d learnt that there had been a programme enacted by the nearby church to find homes for the cats and that this had met with a lot of success, so we knew that there wouldn’t be as many around but we understood there would still be some, and we like cats. We’re cat people. Not in the Nastassja Kinski sense.

If you’ve read any of our previous cruise and travel accounts you might be thinking that travelling around the world and going off to find stray cats isn’t very typical for us and it’s hard to argue with that. The truth is, there wasn’t a huge amount that we could find to interest us in Miraflores; the two things in the area that had initially been high on our list were the ancient ruins (closed) and a brewery that made loads of local ales (a hobby of ours, but one thwarted by its opening times not aligning with our trip) so when we’d searched for other popular activities that weren’t shopping this was pretty much it.

I’m pleased to say that we weren’t disappointed with the cats; there were plenty walking around, laying around, or being made a fuss of by locals and tourists alike.

We weren’t disappointed with the park (or parks) either. There were plenty of shaded spots, lots of places to sit, loads of interesting sculptures or designed elements to break up the area and attract attention, and the spot of greenery in the middle of busy and noisy roads was a welcome oasis in the city.

Alongside Kennedy Park was the Parroquia La Virgen Milagrosa, a Catholic church with towers in a very typical South American style of architecture, renowned for dramatic illuminations inside during services. Fenced off from the parks adjacent to the church was an area specifically for the cats with sleeping spots, sheltered areas, and bowls of water.

Café De La Paz, Miraflores

I’ve mentioned that it was very hot and you might not know this if this is your first time reading one of the fine articles present on this site (I’m not above a little self-promotion every now and then) but we don’t cope well with heat. The park had been relatively cool thanks to the shade of the trees but that just made emerging into the intense sunshine that much worse. We would typically have carried on exploring the streets in search of interest while angling around and back towards the bus stop but a waiter stepping out from Café De La Paz took one look at our beetroot-coloured faces, suggested the shade of his establishment, and we ended up breaking with tradition and going along with it.

We’re cautious with ordering food as, while we’re adventurous in many ways, we know that there are things we don’t like to eat. It’s not just external heat we don’t like; neither of us copes well with chili either and we’re aware that this particular foodstuff that inflicts pain where other edible items have evolved to have flavour instead is popular in this part of the world. So, scanning the menu for something that seemed local and translating the Spanish as best as possible in my head to avoid agony we ended up ordering Butifarra Artesanal. This is a Peruvian speciality, a sandwich made with a local type of ham, avocado, crispy bacon, and lettuce. It took a little while to arrive to be fair but this was because it was all freshly prepared and, importantly, it was absolutely gorgeous.

Of course, we needed something to quench our thirst while we were waiting for the food and Barbarian Red Ale called out to us. We always try to drink local ale if we can and this one – from Cervecería Barbarian, one of the first craft breweries in Lima – was absolutely spot on for us. We lean towards ambers and rubies when it comes to ale and this couldn’t have been more perfect for the day.

Miraflores Street Art

We had time for a gentle walk back to the bus and made every effort to spend our Peruvian Sols in the shops along the way with limited success. However, there was some attractive and generally very good quality street art along the route we took and if we’d had a little more time then I might have explored some of the side roads in order to take a closer look at it.

Arriving at the bus pick-up point with a few minutes to spare we headed down into the Larcomar shopping mall but the high end shops that were there were not really the sort of thing we were looking for and other than an odd sculpture of melting ice lollies there wasn’t anything that we found interesting.

The bus ride back to Callao where Star Princess was waiting for us took longer than the trip out with the bulk of it seemingly just at the port entrance itself thanks to several buses all coming back at once. How we didn’t hit other buses or parked cars along the roads at the port on at least two occasions during this period I’ll never know. It felt like organised chaos, light on the organisation, but did provide some amusement when we found ourselves stranded across rail tracks at one point staring at a train that some people claimed was moving towards us just to wind up fellow passengers.

In total, we spent over two hours on the bus going out and coming back and were deliriously happy to get back onto the ship. In the next post I’ll cover our evening in Lima and how our plans were changed thanks to even worse traffic conditions in Peru’s capital at night.

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