Lima

5/1/2022

On to Lima, where we stay at the Belmond Miraflores Park Hotel. At 8am we are given our second COVID test. A nurse visits our room and a rapid result is "negativo." Whew. This is a posh place but I would not want to be quarantined here for a week! Our expedition leader is the awesome Juila Huaman, a Lima native who describes herself as an "Incan princess." She would be our indispensable guide and coordinator for the week. There were 16 people - 7 couples and two solo travelers. We broke into two groups for the week and our guides were Romulo Delgado and Jorge Valenzuela. Our first stop is the amazing private collection known as the Museo Larco. The result of decades of private collecting and curating, the museum is home to literally thousands of artifacts and relics from the Incan civilization and the peoples who came before them. Watch the video below...

We got to see a bit of central Lima as we visited our main destinations...

After touring the museum, we walk through central Lima to visit the oldest house in the country - possibly in ALL the Americas! We visit the fabled Casa de Aliaga on Calle del Hierro Viejo. This house was established on the same day as Lima was founded, January 18 of 1535. It was part of the loot given by Francisco Pizarro to his Captain Jeronimo de Aliaga y Ramirez (1508-1569). Originally there was a pre-Colombian altar on that plot of land owned by "Curaca Tauli Chusco" (the ruller of the Rimac valley). The same family has lived in this house for 17 generations! We got a brief tour of the first floor, enjoyed an amazing ethnic music performance, had a lunch fit for royalty, and then, just before departing, we met the current owner.