Lima Peru Tuesday and Wednesday January 21-22

After another sea day we arrived at Callao, Peru on Tuesday morning. Callao is an industrial port town about 10 miles from Lima. It is a very busy port and is said to be not the safest area in Peru and as such Princess had shuttle busses that took us into the city area of Lima both days we were in port.

Some of our neighbors at the port.  

On Tuesday morning we took the shuttle into Lima and arranged for a city tour of some of the historical areas and then to Miraflores an upscale area of Peru and back to the shuttle pickup. 

The amount of cars in this city is staggering. Congestion abounds. The police presence was very apparent around the tourist areas but we saw no problems nor did we encounter anything unusual throughout the entire day. The following pictures were taken as we drove to Plaza Mayor. The palace and the cathedral in the plaza are the main historical buildings and are still in use. The plaza has no auto traffic anymore so it was a pleasant area to walk around although as you can see from the pictures there were many tourist.

  Our next stop was El Parque del Amor, inaugurated on February 14 (Valentine’s Day), 1993, Lima’s “Love Park” was built to celebrate love in all its forms. This is most clearly represented by the park’s central sculpture, El Beso (The Kiss). Created by Peruvian artist Victor Delfín, El Beso shows a man and a woman wrapped in each other’s arms, locked in a passionate kiss.

The park is said to be inspired, at least in part, by Parc Güell in Barcelona, which was designed by Antoni Gaudí and opened to the public in 1926. Lima’s Parque del Amor is much smaller and far more modest, but it’s easy to see why the colorful mosaics along the undulating walls and benches are often compared to Gaudí’s mosaics in Barcelona.

Amor es solo un pájaro que deambula" (Love is only a bird that wanders) - Rocío Romina Bances

Love lines from poems are part of the mosaics.

The park sits high up on the cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean and while it was warm the fog hung around much of the day.

And of course our selfie in the park in front of el Beso.

We then wandered into in very local restaurant and ordered lunch. 

Alfresco was the name of the restaurant and this is what they brought to the table before we even ordered. It is corn kernels and you mix it with the sauces. Very interesting and quite tasty.

Steve of course goes with the unusual and orders octopus. It was delicious and probably the freshest and least chewy he has ever had.

Look at those happy faces.

Mine was much less interesting but equally as good. Fresh fish sliders with homemade vegetable chips.

We got back to the shuttle and back on board for a quiet night in port. I will post about our second day in Lima tomorrow. Another fun day.