6 Amazing Things to see & do in Lima – Peru

Lima is Peru’s vast, sprawling capital city that houses a whopping 33% of Peru’s entire population. While this mega-city has a stunning location, set on top of bulging cliffs that plunge down to the roaring Pacific Ocean, Lima also has some major flaws.

In fact, I’d be very surprised to hear anyone naming Lima as the Best City in the World, or even one of the top 10 cities. (Though every place in the world seems to have its die-hard resident fans, so who knows?).

Major turn-offs include Lima’s terribly gloomy, white-fog weather. Most of the city consists of ugly, non-descript urban towers and cement sprawl. Traveling through the city from one district to another can be incredibly time-consuming and frustrating, due to the heavy traffic and long traffic lights.

But Lima also has plenty to recommend it, including its long, beautiful clifftop parks & views; its stunning UNESCO-rated Historic District; several attractive upscale neighborhoods and parks; miles of beaches; and some very unusual attractions.

I’ve been exploring Lima for two weeks thus far and, despite the awful weather, I’ve had some really great & unusual experiences here. Some of them are things unique to this complex city.

Following are the most amazing things I’ve discovered in Lima, in no particular order. These are not the usual city activities like visiting museums and city parks, but considerably more unique experiences. I can’t claim that no other city in the world has these attractions, but they are pretty unusual and rare (except maybe for exploring the historic district).

I highly recommend checking them all out if you’re visiting Peru’s capital city.

1. Gauk at Human Bones in the Catacombs of San Francisco Basilica

The catacombs of San Francisco Basilica & Convent are one of Lima’s most famous (or infamous) attractions. Underneath the massive church there’s a series of narrow stone tunnels and chambers that are filled with human bones.

In fact, after excavation, organization and study of the bones, experts believe there are bones of more than 25,000 human beings down there! The cadavers accumulated below the church over several hundred years and include priests and monks from the church, major church sponsors and regular citizens.

The practice of burying people under the church was officially prohibited in the mid 1800s. However, monks and priests of San Francisco who die at the church are still buried below.

Visiting the catacombs is easy and inexpensive, but requires joining a guided tour, which takes about 45 minutes. The tour explores several interesting rooms in the vast church, as well as the beautiful interior courtyard garden and, of course, the catacombs.

I found it rather eerie walking closely past thousands and thousands of human bones and skulls, knowing that they were all real people who were buried here, some many hundreds of years before. The human bones ‘art’ displays are also pretty macabre. From my perspective, that’s a pretty weird and crazy thing to do with human bones.

In any event, the informative tour was very interesting and I was equally happy to see the spectacular church architecture, painted & tiled walls, furniture and other valuable items.

2. Walk or Cycle through miles of Clifftop Parks

Probably Lima’s absolute best attraction is its miles-long clifftop, filled with a series of beautiful, connected parks. The parks themselves are gorgeous, but they can’t beat the amazing panoramic views of the long, long coastline; the vast Pacific Ocean; and the never-ending beaches far below.

The clifftops stretch along the coast for so far that you can easily walk for two hours or more in one direction. And as long as you’re not staying really far inland (say, at the historic center) then you can reach the cliffs pretty quickly from nearly any neighborhood in the city.

If you’re lucky enough to be blessed with an afternoon of sunshine, or even a couple hours of sun, then you’ll get to see Lima at its finest.

3. Get Close to the Roaring Ocean at Lima’s Stone Beaches

Another completely different, but also exciting experience is to head down from the cliffs to the vast beaches and parklands at the base of the cliffs. There are several roads that run up-down between the cliff tops and the base. Immediately at the bottom of the cliffs there’s a fast-moving, roaring highway (great route for drivers to bypass the heavily-congested city streets), which pedestrians must cross to reach the parks and beaches.

Several pedestrian bridges cross high above the highway at key points in the city. At a few other spots, there are traffic lights with pedestrian crossings.

So pedestrians and cyclists must first figure out the best access & departure points to reach the beaches. Once there, you can walk/cycle through the parks or head out to the stone beaches to witness the roaring Pacific Ocean and/or watch the surfers try their skills on the waves.

4. Witness the Changing of the Guard at Lima’s Presidential Palace

Every day at noon there’s a grand Changing of the Guard Ceremony a the Presidential Palace in the center of Lima’s gorgeous historic district. I read about this ceremony on several websites about Lima, and planned to see it, but I had no idea just how elaborate their ceremony is here in Lima.

I’ve seen the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace in London. It’s a pretty simple, straight-forward affair. New guards come marching out. They exchange places with the current guards. The newly-discharged guards march off. Finished, sweet and simple.

I was expecting much the same in Lima. So I was completely blown away by the elaborate, music-filled, hour-long guard-changing ceremony held each day at Lima’s Presidential Palace.

It all starts with a rather large, beautifully-uniformed military marching band. They march out from the palace to the very front of the vast palace terrace, where they set off playing a professional-quality concert to the attending public audience.

Eventually they finish, march off to the side of the plaza and set up to play again. Soon a series of three more uniformed & armed marching units emerge from the palace to march around the plaza, kicking their legs high with each slow step, while the band plays rigorous music.

Meanwhile, four working guards and, presumably, a military general (or other high ranking official) stand motionless on the main grand staircase of the palace.

Two of the marching units make some elaborate patterns around the plaza, ending near the awaiting guards. One of the soon-to-take-a-break guards starts yelling loudly something indiscernable at the general, who then replies with a simple command.

After that, the military units march back inside the palace, followed by the band and then the original guards and general.

I never did see any of the guards change duties, eventhough I was watching for it. I’m sure they must have. Pretty sneaky maneauvers there!

5. Explore Lima’s stunning Historic District, preferably with a Free Walking Tour

Lima’s beautiful Historic District became a UNESCO WorldHeritage Site in . The area is centered around Plaza Mejor, which is surrounded by important historic buildings that include Lima Cathedral, Presidential Palace, Municipal Palace and others.

These huge, impressive buildings were all built on a grand scale during various centuries. The plaza itself is also huge, filled with a series of geometrical lawns and walkways.

The rest of the historic district spreads for several blocks in each direction from the plaza. There are many beautiful buildings to explore, including the grand historic train station (now serving as the center of Peruvian literature), several huge churches, several specialty museums housed in historic buildings and blocks filled with small shops, cafes and restaurants.

It’s really worth spending a few hours or whole day wandering around gazing at the gorgeous architecture (inside and out), peering inside vast churches and visiting a few museums.

If possible, join a Free Walking Tour of the area. The guides point out a lot of intriguing details on the streets and buildings that you probably wouldn’t even notice on your own, let alone know their historic details.

6. Visit Ancient Pyramids in the center of Lima

When the Spanish invaded this part of South America, they established their capital city at Lima, directly on top of previous civilizations’ cities. Excavators have discovered an ancient palace directly under the European-style Presidential Palace.

Not far away from the new Spanish city, centered around Plaza Major, were two massive ancient pyramids. Over the centuries Lima spread out to completely engulf these pyramids, which now sit smack in the middle of the city, surrounded by skyscrapers and huge homes in residential San Isidro and Miraflores.

Huaca Huallamarca and Huaca Pucllana Pyramids are situated about 2.5 km / 1.5 miles from each other, a 30-minute walk. Visitors really interested in archaeology, Pre-Hispanic cultures and/or pyramids can easily visit both pyramids in one morning or afternoon. Otherwise, it’s probably sufficient to see just one of them.

The pyramids were built for ceremonial and/or burial use by the Lima culture, who lived in the area between 200-700 A.D. That means the pyramids are up to 1500 years old!

I visited Huaca Huallamarca. It seemed crazy to be looking at that huge dusty stone pyramid in the middle of a modern city. And its dry desert-like appearance, complete with clumps of palm trees, quickly put me in mind of Egypt.

In fact, it would be easy to believe one was looking at pyramids in Cairo, if you somehow didn’t know you were in Peru!

In any event, these pyramids are a really bizarre and interesting place to visit in the middle of Lima.

Summary

I was highly impressed by all of these experiences in Lima, even after traveling the world for over 23 years. And they certainly helped perk up my view of Lima, with its depressing socked-in weather and traffic-congested bus trips.

I hope you’ll take time to explore these rather unique destinations if you’re passing through Lima. They’re all really fun and unusual.

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