Miraflores is a rather upscale district of Lima. Cosmoplitan, chic and safe to walk. It’s south of downtown Lima and safe to walk. I went for a walk using the straightest path to the coast which led me to the Larcomar mall which I couldn’t resist checking out. It’ right along the cliffs where a long pedestrian and bike path runs up/down the coast. The cliffs run high and for miles.

Larcomar mall is set down from the street level. You’re required to wear a mask and show your vaccination card to enter. This is true for many public places. Sitting for a bit while I find my vaccine card (which I have on my phone) I’m approached by several people selling jewelry.

I window shopped then bought a new colorful top and black pants. My hunger was growing so I looked for something along the cliff with a nice view. The Tanta restaurant caught my eye. I was seated with a nice coastal view and had a delicious Lomo Saltado with some white sangria. Inka Grill was a restaurant I frequented in Southern California and this saltado at Tanta was so much tastier. After exploring more of this area some I saw so many other potential places to eat.

Spying a jetty/pier with more restaurants I thought about hanging around till dinner and checkout restaurants on the pier. Google maps didn’t quite understand the coastline cliff situation and directions had me walking off the cliff to get to the pier. So I’ll just have to walk until I find a way down there.

I walked down the path and saw a nice crepe restaurant along the cliff with great views. I’m thinking I’m still so full from lunch. Too many nice looking places to chose for food and views. I found a valley where the path turns inland. Then I could see steps going down into the valley. This must be the way to the beach.

Going down the steps there’s some wall art and an artist painting. Later I photograph the finished art and see different artist signatures.

Continuing under the bridge then you find more steps down. I can see the beach now and my course to the beach.

Once you get down to the beachside you can see there’s no sand but a smooth rocks beach. There’s a statue at the base of the steps of a surfer. You can see many surfers out in the water. There was a throwback retro vibe here.

What you cant see in the pictures is that the cliffs are covered with netting to encourage plant growth.

Seeing paragliders along the cliff side and so close to the buildings fascinated me. I watched for sometime not knowing that later I would actually try paragliding via a Selina hotel activity.

I walked along the path over to the pier to check it out and it had some cute shops which I was sure was high priced but I found this lovely crescent moon necklace for $23 USD and had to buy it.

Realizing I was not getting hungry enough to have another meal on the pier I walked further down the beach wondering where the next pedestrian steps up would be. I figured out the next set was too far off. It would be better to turn around and go back up the way I came was shorter since it was approaching sunset.

The sun is setting and some surfers are making their way back up the long steps.

A decision was made to have a meal at the Selina Miraflores after all. Later on I went to the grocery store to buy some budget food. The Vivanda grocery store across the street was handy and rewarding.

I bought 2 beef empanadas (delicious), 2 large tamales (good), 1 large flan (really good), 1 banana, box of cereal, quart of almond milk for $13.75.

Figuring out that I hadn’t bought anything to drink for hydration I looked for fruit juice. Seeing pictures of fruit on a bottle label I bought this Chicha Morada drink. I liked it though it had a bit of savory to flavor more than fruity. So I looked it up on the internet and found out it’s made from purple corn boiled with pineapple rind, pieces of quince, sugar, dashes of cinnamon.  You can even see the bottle is dimpled like an ear of corn. This drink originated in the Andean regions of Perú but is actually consumed at a national level.

I don’t know my mileage but I had 19,000 steps. That was the end of my first actual ‘day’ in Lima.