Lima

Lima is a huge city, spread over a large area on the Pacific coast. We stayed in Miraflores which is a pretty upmarket area south of the centre. On Saturday we walked down to the sea, visited a very posh shopping mall, then returned via the central square, the Ovalo, where it was party time with lots of people doing the tango.

At night we went to a restaurant recommended by our hotel, which had a fantastic floor show of Peruvian dancing, not to mention some pretty good Peruvian food served buffet-style. The camera battery ran out before the end but this should give you the idea.

On Sunday we took a taxi uptown to the Museu de la Nacion, but it was closed for renovations, so we diverted to another museum. In the afternoon we walked to another archaeological site just a couple of blocks from our hotel. This one was apparently a burial site for one of the pre-Inca cultures. It`s a huge structure built entirely of adobe or mud-bricks. According to the guide it never rains in Lima, so that`s why mud bricks survive so well!

Of course there had to be one final visit to the markets near the Ovalo. We are just coming to the end of five days in Buenos Aires now. It`s on to Madrid and the last leg tonight.