The Gwinners: Another Sunday in Lima

As noted in earlier blogs, Sunday is a great day to be out and about in Lima. There's much less vehicular traffic. The streets are more calm. Yet, shops and restaurants stay open, people are out wandering and having late, long lunches with family. It's lively and in many ways a way to see Lima at it's best.

Having out-of-town visitors is also a great excuse to go wandering and exploring in Lima. My brother is visiting currently. Sunday, we meandered through the old colonial center of Lima, charming in its own shabby and formerly glorious way. Until recently, this section of the city was considered to be quite seedy and dangerous. But much has been done to clean it up and make it more attractive to locals and visitors alike. There are pedestrian streets, a very visible police presence, and numerous festivities on a fairly regular basis. The Plaza del Armas, the city's central square, features the cathedral, the presidential palace, and lots of parades or events, including a daily changing of the guard at noon.

Behind the presidential palace is an esplanade, which runs along the right bank of the Rimac River. This esplanade seems to constantly feature some sort of gastronic festivity, artisanal exhibit, or other activity. Sure enough, last Sunday, there were food stands, places to buy local products, and a stage with a (not very interesting) mime performance. There is a large pedestrian bridge across the river, which leads to a neighborhood of Lima called Rimac. This is where the bullfighting ring is located. It also features a nice, broad pedestrian street that leads from the bridge for several blocks to a church. The street is lined with cheap shops, mainly featuring pirated movies and CDs. Now, Rimac is considered to be a very tough neighborhood. It doesn't show up in your typical guidebook - nor even the ones directed at your off-the-beaten-path type of traveler. We've never ventured beyond the first few blocks of the central pedestrian street. What was interesting yesterday was that the locals were fairly insistent that we should not go beyond the bridge or into the Rimac neighborhood. And they became more insistent as we went along, even though there were all sorts of people out and about. So we took their advice and turned back.

Then we made our way to another new area - Lima's Chinatown. This area has a Chinese gate and lots of Chifas (Chinese restaurants). Peru has a sizable Chinese population, dating from the 19th century when Chinese workers were brought in to work on the railroads. However, the Chinese presence in Chinatown seemed to be mostly limited to shop signs and restaurants.

We eventually made our way past Lima's central market. Here there is a sign that says the markets maximum capacity is 4,400 people. Do you suppose they close the doors at 4,399? Who's counting anyway?

Finally, we crossed a big avenue to a park, where a big crowd had gathered to watch a Michael Jackson-wannabe strut his stuff. There was a big build up to his act, but he had only barely gotten started when his sound system seemed to fail. We didn't stick around to see the rest.