This was due to be the second of three trips into Lima during our overnight stop in the Peruvian capital. As I’ve explained in the first part of this travel diary covering this city – Exploring Miraflores, Lima, Peru – getting from Lima’s port of Callao into Lima itself required transportation from the cruise line; there simply was no alternative to that. For this reason we’d picked a “free time” transportation excursion for the early part of the day and our intention was to take an evening’s excursion too followed by the late shuttle bus so we could enjoy the nightlife. We’re not really “enjoy the nightlife” people when we’re at home but when we’re away we’re completely different people. We spin around with loads of special effects and transform into Mr and Mrs Let’s Consider Enjoying Some Nightlife If It’s Not Too Hectic.
The evening’s cruise excursion was to see Lima’s fountain light show, more commonly known as the Magic Water Circuit, taking place in the Park of the Reserve. The circuit consists of over a dozen different fountains around the park which currently hold the world record for the largest fountain complex in the world. There is a thrice-nightly laser and picture show on the longest of the fountains and it is this that is the biggest draw for the crowds.
With the fountain light show excursion being one of only two organised excursions off the ship in the evening (the other being a city drive and meal) it was a pretty popular one and there were a lot of buses gathered alongside Star Princess for our 17:00 departure. We boarded and were off at a snail’s pace through the industrial port for obvious safety reasons, but once into the city we… didn’t really pick up much speed either. The Park of the Reserve is about 8 or 9 kilometres from Callao. We’d already had the sheer joy that was spending an hour each way in the morning to get to the slightly farther away district of Miraflores so our expectation was that, at most, it would take us 45 minutes to get to where we needed to be.
But no.
I don’t think I could ever recommend anyone driving in Lima. It is horrendous. Now, there was a mitigating factor for this visit as it was on the same night as a football match taking place in Estadio Nacional, Peru’s national stadium. The biggest problem there is that Estadio Nacional is right next to Parque de la Reserva. Even still, the traffic long before we hit the centre of Lima was awful.
Our excursion included driving past some important buildings with an explanation of the history behind them and this was all still done despite the clock ticking down to when the light show would start. Our bus then had to wait what seemed an eternity for the police – doing their best to direct the rolling traffic jam into free areas – to allow us to park and get out. We got to the park with ten minutes to spare before the start of the 19:15 show. That’s over two hours to get us no more than 9 kilometres from the port in case you failed GCSE maths.
But wait! There are toilets!
Yes, there is a block of toilets just inside the entrance to the park and if you’ve ever been on a cruise ship excursion then you know that any toilets mean a toilet stop for half the people on your bus. And so we waited and looked at the time and stared at the nearby fountains and listened to our guide count how many of us were gathered and try to work out how many were still in a cubicle doing whatever they needed to do that couldn’t possibly have been done on the bus in transit.
Fantasia Fountain
Fantasia Fountain (Fuente de la Fantasia) was the main fountain we’d come to see. This is the 120-metre-long fountain with jets and lights that are synchronised to the laser and picture show. We arrived directly in front of it at the split second that the show started which was a relief for us although I have to wonder whether everyone else who’d taken this cruise excursion with Princess on this night felt the same way as our bus had been one of the first to get out of the port.
The show itself was excellent. Movie projections, music, sound effects, coloured jets, lasers, the works. There were a lot of people around, as you can imagine, but I got a decent view and didn’t block anyone else as I recorded the entire light show on my phone. Indeed, an older, American couple from our bus who were right beside me watched the show on my phone as it was easier for them to see and they told me what a wonderful phone I had as the show came to an end. Yes, I replied, it’s an excellent phone. Of course, you can’t see that video because it was lost in the Great Android Phone Video Sync Foul-Up Of 2019 which we never talk about. I was not thinking how excellent my phone was when that happened.
Tunnel Fountain Of Surprises
With the main laser and video show complete our group was taken on a walk around part of the rest of the water circuit in the park, eventually reaching the Tunnel Fountain Of Surprises (Fuente Túnel de las Sorpresas). This was a long arch of water jets that you could walk through and through which many people did. The “surprise” came from the fact that if you touched a jet of water and interrupted it then the interruption would carry along down the tunnel and spray anyone else ahead of you. A more appropriate name for this fountain might be Tunnel Fountain of Just Go Ahead And Drench Everyone because that’s pretty much all that happened. Lots of laughter, lots of shrieking, lots of people dripping with water emerging from the end, and, in our case, lots of not going anywhere near it because camera equipment is expensive.
Magic Fountain
Heading back towards the park’s entrance in order to return to the bus took us to Magic Fountain (Fuente Mágica). This was probably the singularly most attractive of the fountains we saw with some very nice pulses of light and jets taking place constantly before the water pressure built to shoot a single jet 80 metres high. It was very impressive to watch and with its lighting made for some nice photographs of people silhouetted in front of it.
Return To Callao And Evening Plans
And so we headed outside to hop back on our bus. Except it wasn’t there. Our bus could not get to us because of the traffic and because the police were still routing vehicles away from where they wanted to go. A long wait ensued. Buses were turning up away from where we were standing and people occasionally headed off to see if any of them were ours before returning with heads shaking. After what seemed like a lot longer in the sultry evening climate but what may have been only 20 minutes we got a wave from our guide to follow her and we traipsed off around a corner and down a road to finally board the bus to get us back to Callao. The best thing that can be said about the drive back was that it was definitely quicker than coming out but still quite tedious and far too long for our liking. By the time we were back at Star Princess we’d spent close to five hours on buses during our day in Lima.
We had originally planned to take the free shuttle bus from the port back out to Miraflores in order to enjoy the delights that Lima after-dark had to offer (and we’d set our sights on a local brewery in the area about 15 minutes from where the bus stop would drop us) but the combination of not wanting to spend another 90 minutes of our lives (best guess) aboard a bus that day along with discovering that the last bus returning to the port would mean we’d probably only get around 45 minutes to an hour of time in the capital’s pretty district led to us quickly changing our minds. Not only that, but one of the things we really like to do is drink local ales when we visit a new place and we’d already managed that during the morning’s trip. It was disappointing but just one of those things in the grand scheme of things.
So, bad luck for our visit to coincide with major roadworks in the city and a football match in the evening too. We would love to visit Lima and other places in Peru again because it’s somewhere that not a huge amount of cruise ships visit and there is plenty to see. The country is definitely working on improving its cruise port capabilities with better access to Pisco already underway and a dedicated terminal planned in Lima too so give it a few years and I can see us looking into making a return trip. The Lima fountain light show is worth a look if you’re in the city and it’s priced very reasonably if this is something you’re doing on your own; on a cruise excursion I’d maybe check football schedules ahead of time, though, before making any firm commitments.