Around Lima, Lima

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About 2 hours northeast of Lima, is a small village called Canta. You can get there by taking a cab in Carabayllo and will take you about 2 hours. The drive to get up there is great once you get in the mountains. The town itself is home to about 800 people, very nice and friendly. It can get rather cold at night, but during the day, it's just plain amazing. You can talk a walk (about 4 kilometers) to Obrajillo, down in the valley, where you will be able to do some horseback riding or just some trekking in the mountains. There are some cozy little tourist rooms for about 20-25 soles a night, but many people just bring along a tent and sleep outside. That is a perfect haven for relaxing and getting in touch with nature when you get a headache from the Lima noise and traffic....

About 2 hours northeast of Lima, is a small village called Canta. You can get there by taking a cab in Carabayllo and will take you about 2 hours. The drive to get up there is great once you get in the mountains. The town itself is home to about 800 people, very nice and friendly. It can get rather cold at night, but during the day, it's just plain amazing. You can talk a walk (about 4 kilometers) to Obrajillo, down in the valley, where you will be able to do some horseback riding or just some trekking in the mountains. There are some cozy little tourist rooms for about 20-25 soles a night, but many people just bring along a tent and sleep outside. That is a perfect haven for relaxing and getting in touch with nature when you get a headache from the Lima noise and traffic....

I had heard about Monica Tours via Virtual Tourist and contacted her via e-mail to make arrangements. I was looking for a guide/driver that could take me around Lima for the day during my layover at the Lima airport. I had 8-10 hours available before my late night flight. Monica has an hourly rate with a minimum of 6 hours for her guide/driver services.

Monica’s service was perfect for what I wanted to do while in Lima. I wanted to see a few of the historical sites and sample the food at some of the famous restaurants in Lima. She was at the airport waiting with a sign with my name on it as planned.

Given that I knew what I wanted to do, Monica quickly began following my plan for the day. She got us downtown quickly (as quickly as you can in Lima) and we proceeded to go through my list. Monica pointed out other sites of interest as we were moving from one place to another. She was happy to follow my plan and did not try and change it.

Since I only had 8 hours in the city, I did not want or need a lot of details about the places we visited. She gave me the quick highlights and kept us moving. In fact at the catacombs of San Francisco she was able to get me out of the guided tour and we avoided having to be led around in a big group. We wound up being the only ones in the catacombs, which was certainly better than being there with a group of 20.

I found her English was quite good and we had no trouble communicating. Her driving is quite safe, especially when compared to the local taxi drivers.

If you are looking for someone that can quickly help you navigate Lima on a short stay, I high recommend Monica Tours.

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For about 20 soles per person, take the bus up to San Cristobal. It is about a 20 minutes ride from the city up the mountain. On a clear day you can see all of Lima. Unfortunately, I went up in winter and the entire city was blocked by fog. It was still a great trip up, it is a very very high mountain. My ears even popped a bit going up. From the city you can see the cross that is on top. There is a few shops and a bathroom besides the cross on top, that is basically it!

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I've been to Lima several times but have not spent too much time in the coast, so doing the bike tour around the bay was a great way to see the area. We went through 3 beautiful neighborhoods and had an excellent tour guide who knew the city well and was very accomodating to us taking pictures wherever we wanted and answering all our questions. I liked all the spots we hit which I felt were important to see at least once while in Lima. I was a little weary at first of doing any type of bike tour in Lima, considering all the traffic, etc...but once we started, I felt perfectly safe and happy. I would highly recommend this bike tour to anybody!, there are different routes (downtown, night, etc.) you can choose from. Moreover, you can also rent a bike to do your own trips.

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When in Lima, you have to visit Museo Larco. It's gorgoues and the most unique place in Lima. It's been voted #1 on tripadvisor.com and has been featured in the NY times travel section. It really is a must see.

At the Museo Larco you will get a complete pre-colonial history of Peru. It helps prepare any traveler for the rest of their stay in PERU. I know someone who after visiting this museum changed his flight to stay longer.....

After wondering the amazing storage deposits, you'll want to stay for a bite at the Cafe del Museo, which was started by the famous Peruvian Chef Gaston Acurio.

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So I stumbled upon the Museo Larco during my stay in Peru. I honestly wasn't very interested in visitng the museum and then I heard about the Erotic gallery there. Of course I didn't believe it and had to check it out for myself...and it's TRUE!!!! There is an amazing collection of Erotic pottery, that's unlike anything else you'll see in Peru. There is also a storage collection that's filled with thousands of objects that you can walk into. Not to mention the great cafe that they have in the museum's garden.

This place was my favorite thing in Peru!

I think this is a good zoo. There is a waterfall, sloths, monkeys, wild squirrels, huge cacti that look like trees, and so on. It's a fairly large zoo but it doesn't get too crowded. The zoo food wasn;t so great being the only negative.