3rd Thursday

Lima has every style of architecture from Tudor to ultramodern skyscrapers. Here's a little collection of some buildings I especially like - most seen in the area of Barranco.
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Getting back to Lima for the third and final time was NOT a birthday activity I'd looked forward to.  But there was nothing for it except to take the LANPERU flight that left Trujillo at 10:00 Wednesday NIGHT. It arrived at the Lima airport at the ungainly hour of 11:00 pm & - again - we only had 'deseos de dormir' when we arrived at Second Home B&B near midnight.  After a full day touring the wonders of Trujillo, we were TIRED!

Our third and final Thursday of the trip was a very rare "free day" (We'd been cut loose by InkaTerra...ohmygod, what do we DO with ourselves all day!).  We spent it much as you might imagine:  Dic & Penny gambling & the rest of us shopping!  Unfortunately, it was a gloomy day again in Lima.  One of our guides told us that It never rains along the coast, but there's (apparently) never any sun, either!

... cut loose by InkaTerra...ohmygod...!

- a young couple, oblivious to the draw of the Larco Mar Mall (over to their right)
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In truth, one of the biggest tourist attractions in Lima appears to be their new, modern shopping mall!  I'm sure there are a lot more historically significant sites than Larco Mar Mall, but it IS spectacularly situated in tiers down to the ocean and has quite a few nice (& U.S.-like) shops.  From there you also get a CONDOR's-eye view of the restaurant where we planned to have our gala last-night dinner:  Rosa Nautica.

After lunching at the mall in a breezy (damp & chilly, if you really want to know) outdoor restaurant, Linda, Tom & I hiked out to an older, more traditional shopping area some 10 blocks east of the mall.  It was more quaint, and had some nice outdoor cafes, but the stores really didn't have much that we were interested in buying.  We then hiked back in a diagonal to our hotel - once again enjoying walking along the extensive park & garden areas clinging to the oceanside cliffs.

This is the area of shops that Tom, Linda & I checked out after seeing the big mall.
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By that time Dic, Penny , & I were actually checked out of the Second Home B&B,  but the rest were staying there one more night .  So - thank goodness - the Mexican contingent was able to "borrow" the rooms of the others to dress for dinner.  After we were decked out (me in my new baby alpaca sweater!), Patrick, our InkaTerra trip-concierge, and Natalie, our InkaTerra trip-planner, stopped by the hotel to give us some souvenir gifts & bid us farewell.  That was really nice because, per the itinerary, they had no more "responsibility" to the Comfort Class Condors at all.  Just one more indication of what  class outfit InkaTerra really is!

I shot this incredible view from our table in the Rosa Nautica. Talk about being right on the water!
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Patrick was as friendly & debonair as always, and it was a real treat to FINALLY meet Natalie, after sending her almost 100 emails over the last year or so! It is always interesting to put a REAL face on top of the one you'd been seeing in your mind's eye;  (She, incidentally, does not have a humpback, a wart, or a snaggle-tooth smile!)  "My" Natalie is younger and more beautiful than I thought!

Dinner at the Rosa Nautica was wonderful (see my review), but we could not linger too long...Kathy, Dic, & Penny had a plane to catch!

So it was another race into Second Home to change into 'planewear' then the final transfer to the airport for a 10:00pm flight, Lima Peru to Mexico City, Mexico.  WHEW!