Lima (population 10.8 million in the city, 11.5 million in the metropolitan area — the capital and largest city of Peru, the largest city on the Pacific coast of South America) is built on a desert strip between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes: the city that Francisco Pizarro founded in 1535 on the feast day of the Epiphany (he named it Ciudad de los Reyes — "City of Kings," but the Inca name "Rímac" (from the river that runs through it) survived as "Lima") quickly became the richest city in the Western Hemisphere — the capital of the Viceroyalty of Peru, through which all the silver of the Andes (primarily from Potosí (modern Bolivia), the most productive silver mine in human history) passed on its way to Spain. Today Lima is most famous for its food: Lima has been designated "the food capital of the Americas" and consistently has multiple restaurants in the World's 50 Best (Central, Maido and Kjolle have all appeared simultaneously) — the Peruvian cuisine of Lima is built on the unique convergence of Inca/pre-Columbian ingredients (the potato (Peru has 3,000 varieties), the chilli pepper, the corn, the guinea pig), Spanish colonial cooking, Chinese immigration (the chifas — the Chinese-Peruvian restaurants that are unique to Peru), and Japanese immigration (the Nikkei cuisine — the Japanese-Peruvian fusion created by the Japanese immigrants of the early 20th century that produced ceviche with yuzu, tiradito with ponzu and the unique Nikkei cooking of Lima).
Miraflores (the upscale clifftop district of Lima — the residential and restaurant neighborhood on the 80m cliffs above the Pacific Ocean: the Parque del Amor (the park with the ceramic tile mosaic bench inspired by Gaudí, overlooking the ocean, the work of Victor Delfín), the Malecón (the clifftop promenade running 5km along the Pacific coast — the most dramatic urban coastal walk in South America, above the Pacific swell), and the Larcomar shopping center (the open-air mall cut into the cliff face, with ocean-view restaurants and the paragliders launching from the clifftop directly in front of the mall — paragliding (parapente) above the Lima coast at 80m above the Pacific is available for €60 from the operators beside the Parque del Amor).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideLa Mar (Av. La Mar 770, Miraflores — the most celebrated ceviche restaurant in Lima (and thus the world): the signature ceviche at La Mar is the Ceviche Clásico (the raw fresh fish (corvina — the Pacific croaker, the classic ceviche fish of Lima) marinated in the leche de tigre (the "tiger's milk" — the curing liquid of fresh lime juice, ají amarillo (the Peruvian yellow chilli, the most important single ingredient in Peruvian cuisine), ginger, garlic and the natural juices released by the fish as the acid cooks it (ceviche is cured, not cooked by heat): the fish goes white and firms up in 3–5 minutes of marination, served with sliced red onion, choclo (the giant Andean corn kernels, much starchier and less sweet than sweet corn) and the cancha (roasted dried corn)). Also: the tiradito (the Japanese-Peruvian Nikkei style: the raw fish sliced thinly like sashimi in a sauce rather than cubed and marinated — the direct influence of the Japanese immigrants).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideHuaca Pucllana (the pre-Inca pyramid in the residential district of Miraflores — the multi-story platform mound of the Lima Culture (the pre-Inca culture that inhabited the Lima Valley from approximately 200–700 AD, before the arrival of the Wari and then Inca expansions): the pyramid (built in the "handcrafted books" technique (the special bookshelf-like brick-laying pattern with the bricks placed vertically rather than horizontally for flexibility in earthquakes)) functioned as an administrative and ceremonial center. The guided tour (the only way to visit) includes the mummies of the Lima Culture priests, the artifacts found in the huaca, and the extraordinary experience of a pre-Columbian ruin in the middle of a modern residential neighborhood with Miraflores apartment towers directly behind it.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideCentral (Av. Pedro de Osma 301, Barranco — ranked No. 1 in the World's 50 Best Restaurants 2023: the restaurant of Virgilio Martínez and Pía León (the co-chef couple who define contemporary Peruvian cuisine) whose tasting menu is organized by altitude — each course represents a different ecosystem of Peru: the ocean (ceviche tradition), the coast, the Andes at 3,000m, at 3,800m, at 4,200m, the cloud forest, the Amazon — each course uses only indigenous ingredients found at that precise altitude. The most conceptually rigorous tasting menu in the world. Book 3–6 months in advance. Alternatively: the pisco sour at the bar (the bar at Central serves the finest pisco sour in Lima — the national cocktail: the Peruvian pisco (the unaged grape brandy from the Ica and Moquegua valleys), lime juice, simple syrup, egg white and Angostura bitters, shaken hard and served in a coupe glass with 3 drops of Angostura on the foam).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Plaza Mayor de Lima (the Plaza de Armas — the main square of the "City of Kings" founded by Francisco Pizarro on January 18, 1535 (the feast of the Epiphany — the Three Kings — hence "City of Kings"): the Cathedral of Lima (begun 1535, rebuilt after the 1746 earthquake in Baroque style — Pizarro's tomb is in the cathedral, though his remains were for a long time disputed with another set of bones also claiming to be Pizarro in the same building: DNA testing in 1992 finally identified the correct tomb), the Government Palace (the Palacio de Gobierno — the presidential palace on the north side of the square, with the changing of the guard ceremony (the Guardia de Honor) on the Plaza at noon on weekdays), and the Archbishop's Palace (the Moorish-influenced wooden balcony (the balcón limeño — the carved wooden enclosed balcony overhanging the street, a uniquely Limeño architectural tradition combining Moorish mashrabiya and Spanish colonial design) on the facade is considered the finest example of the Lima balcony style).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Monastery of San Francisco (UNESCO World Heritage part of the Centro Histórico — the Franciscan monastery complex (1672) with the most ornate Baroque tile interior in Lima: the Arabic-influenced Sevillano azulejo tiles (12,500 tiles) covering the cloister walls and stairwells in a geometric pattern, the carved wood ceilings (the artesonado — the Moorish geometric carved ceiling), and the Baroque church. The catacombs (the ossuary beneath the church where the bones of approximately 70,000 people were arranged by type in the underground chambers — the arm bones in one chamber, the skulls in another, the leg bones stacked in a spiral pattern in a circular pit): the most macabre site in Lima, and a reminder that Lima was the most important colonial city in the Americas.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideMuseo Larco (Bolívar 1515, Pueblo Libre — the most important private collection of pre-Columbian art in the world: 45,000 objects from all the pre-Inca cultures (the Chimú (900–1470 AD), the Wari, the Moche (the culture of the north Peruvian coast known for the most sexually explicit art in pre-Columbian America — the erotic ceramics collection, kept in the "erotic gallery" (the cuarto erótico) which was hidden from public view for decades but is now open with explanatory context)). The garden (the most beautiful museum garden in Lima, with the colonial mansion facade). The storerooms (visible to visitors): row upon row of shelves with thousands of classified ceramic vessels — the scale of the pre-Columbian material culture of Peru is staggering.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideBarranco (the bohemian seaside district 8km south of Miraflores — the artist and intellectual neighborhood of Lima, the most atmospheric district in the city for nightlife: the Puente de los Suspiros (the "Bridge of Sighs" — the wooden pedestrian bridge over the Bajada de los Baños ravine, with the tradition of making a wish while holding your breath crossing it), the galleries and craft shops of the neighborhood, and the bar scene. Ayahuasca (Prolongación San Martín 130 — the most famous bar in Barranco, in a converted early 20th-century republican mansion: the six rooms each decorated in a different Amazonian/Andean aesthetic, the pisco cocktails and the live Afro-Peruvian music (the cajón — the wooden box drum invented in Peru by enslaved Africans who needed to conceal their percussion from the colonial authorities — now the most important percussion instrument in South America)).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuidePachacamac (the pre-Columbian sanctuary 31km south of Lima, accessible by organized tour or taxi in 1 hour: the pilgrimage center dedicated to the oracle god Pachacamac (the "Creator of the World" — the creator deity of the coastal Peruvian cultures, whose oracle was consulted by peoples from across the Andean region (the oracle was so important that the Inca, after conquering the coastal kingdoms in the 1470s, incorporated Pachacamac into their own religious system rather than destroying it): the archaeological site contains temples from the Lima Culture (200–700 AD), the Wari (700–1000 AD), the Ichma (1000–1450 AD) and the Inca (1450–1532 AD) — four successive civilizations built on the same hill above the Pacific Ocean.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideMaido (San Martín 399, Miraflores — consistently in the World's 50 Best Restaurants: the restaurant of Mitsuharu "Micha" Tsumura (the Japanese-Peruvian chef who has done more than any other to define and articulate the Nikkei (Japanese-Peruvian) cuisine tradition): the tasting menu is a dialogue between Peruvian and Japanese ingredients and techniques — the ceviche tiradito (ceviche technique with sashimi presentation in yuzu-ají amarillo leche de tigre), the Nikkei corn (the choclo in miso), the Amazon roll (the sushi roll with Amazonian ingredients) and the "experience of Micha" (the tasting menu that moves from sea to mountain to jungle through the Nikkei lens). Book 4–8 weeks in advance.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideAnticuchos (the most emblematic Lima street food — the skewered grilled beef heart (corazón de res: the beef heart is marinated in a red ají panca (the smoky, deep red Peruvian dried chilli) paste with garlic, cumin and vinegar, then grilled over wood charcoal until charred on the outside and pink inside, served with the boiled potato (papa sancochada) and the salsa criolla (the Peruvian fresh relish of sliced red onion, chilli and lime juice)). Tía Grimanesa (Ignacio Merino 466, Miraflores — the most famous anticuchera (anticucho chef/vendor) in Lima: Grimanesa Vargas began selling anticuchos from a pushcart on Parque Kennedy in the 1970s and now has a restaurant that consistently has queues outside by 7pm).
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