Lima is made up of 43 different districts. Some of these are pretty safe, but some a little less so and tourists are advised to steer clear, especially after dark. We’ve been staying in San Miguel which is considered fairly safe, but we have been told not to wander around after dark. I’m not entirely sure why, as we clearly blend in well with the locals…

Miraflores is one of the safest and most touristy districts. It’s known for its beautiful parks and ocean views (they certainly beat the view from our apartment). Having explored the centre the day before with our guide taking us to various places and telling us to look but not to go any further (!), we felt we had seen a sufficient amount of that area. Instead, we decided to go and visit Miraflores.

Our taxi dropped us off in the middle of Miraflores next to a beautiful park and we wandered around aimlessly for a good fifteen minutes before Tom piped up with his plan. First, we were to go and visit Huaca Pucllana, the site of a pre-Incan temple right in Miraflores. We headed over there and paid our entry.

Huaca Pucllana is a flat-topped pyramid of seven stages. Each stage was made from adobe (the small bricks) and clay, with each adobe having been handmade from a mixture of dirt and water to make a clay then sun-baked to harden. Apparently, if you looked closely enough, you could still see finger prints or even hand prints on some of them.

We were shown the areas where the bodies of young mothers had been sacrificed to the god of fertility, the site where newborn babies had been sacrificed to show the dead how to return to after the life, the spot where sharks had been sacrificed to the god of the sea, the place where toads were sacrificed to ask for rain (Lima receives around 25mm of rain per year) and finally the live, non-sacrificed llamas, alpacas and guinea pigs.

After our tour of the ruins, we made our way back into the centre, where we stopped for some lunch before deciding on our next move. There’s a park right by the coastline called el Parque del Amor so we headed that way. There, we found a huge statue of a kissing couple and flocks of tourists admiring the scenery between locals sunbathing in the park.

Leaving the park, we found a massive supermarket where we were able to stock up on some cereal bars and things we could take with us on our tour to Machu Picchu. Having spent a little more than we’d bargained for this week, we decided we ought to have a cheap day the next day so picked up some food supplies.

Our cheap day yesterday consisted of a quick visit to the building’s gym, doing some laundry and booking our next stay for tonight – a cheap hostel in Barranco where we’ll be meeting up with our Machu Picchu group tomorrow. Having enjoyed our rather lovely Airbnb, we’ll now be moving on to digs which are more appropriate for travellers. We’ll also be heading off on our tour, so may not post for a couple of weeks, depending on the internet situation.