Barranco

On Saturday we walked through the outskirts of Miraflores – a modern suburb to the south of Lima, to find an organic Farmer’s Market which had some great produce such as black maize, coffee, dried yellow beans, Peruvian Rainforest Organic Fairtrade Chocolate and lúcuma fruit ice cream (lúcuma is a rainforest fruit with a very dry texture and possesses a lovely unique flavor of nuts, maple and sweet potato.)


We then caught a bus out to Barranco – another suburb further south which was already a seaside resort by the end of the 17th century. Nowadays a number of artists have their workshops here and there are also a few galleries. Evidently it comes alive at night in the bars around the main plaza. We had lunch on a deck high above the coast, overlooking the sea – it was a very hot and sunny day, rather unusual for Lima because even though it is only 12 degrees south of the equator, it can be very hot and humid but it frequently has a garúa (Scotch mist) that hangs around for much of the day making it very grey.


After lunch we went with David and Sharon to the Museo de Arte Colonial Pedro de Osma which hosts one of the best collections of colonial art and is itself one of Barranco's best kept examples of late-19th century architectural style with beautiful ceilings and stained glass windows as well a delightful and well-kept garden where we saw humming birds and butterflies.
In the evening we went to Astrid y Gaston, one of the best restaurants in Lima, and had a really wonderful meal.