Anyone have ideas to keep me busy...?

Question

I will be in Peru, Lima to be exact, for 11 days in December.

I am going with my g/f to spend the holidys and meet her family (bro & sis). There will be at least one day that she will be working (visiting clients in Lima) and I dont want to tag along to just get in the way.

Anyone know of stuff a single, non spanish speaking American can do to keep busy, but out of trouble?

Thanks alot.

Answer 1

go shoping to the department stores change the dollars to soles for exmaple if u have 100 $ they will give at lest 250 soles and go and brandname stuff

Answer 2

Johnathan is correct, you should visit some museums...

Answer 3

Take a 4 hour train to Cusco.  Lima is kinda cool, but it's just a big city.  Are you going to Machu Picchu?  Cause you can't go to Peru without going to Machu Picchu!!! Cusco and Aguas Calientes are really fun to just go and hang out in, walk around.

Answer 4

Eleven days is a long time to be in Lima.  Yes, there is a lot of shopping there.  Larco Mar, as mentioned, is a lot of fun.  Jockey Plaza is another huge mall about 30 minutes away.  But both places will make you feel like you're back home in the USA, with their Starbucks, Pizza Huts and Tony Romas.  Unless you're a shopping freak, you'll get bored after half a day of that.   Dollars are accepted everywhere at whatever the quickly-diminishing exchange rate is that day.

The other answerer said that Cuzco is a 4-hour train ride from Lima?  That's absurd.  If you could take a train between the cities it would take several days.  A bus takes 24 hours.  Flying there is the best option, but if you wanted to stay in Lima, flying to Cuzco and back in a day is a costly diversion.  

One place you might be able to see in a long day from Lima is Paracas, where the big earthquake happened in August.  I'm not sure how well they're recovered yet, but there's a beautiful national park there with marine life, and some nearby Inca ruins (Tambo Real).  The Nazca lines aren't too far from there, but unless you can arrange an expensive charter flight straight out of Lima, to see the ancient figures in the desert, you'd need to fly out of Nazca on your sightseeing tour first thing in the morning.

Lima is full of museums.   Primarily, they are dedicated to pre-Columbian artifacts, and could keep you busy for 4-5 days, but if you're like me, you'll go crazy after seeing the three-hundredth ceramic jug shaped like a giant erection and start looking for the nearest exit.

On the positive side, if you are adventurous enough to forgo the Chili's, McDonalds and KFC's, the food in Lima is outstanding.   You could take a culinary expedition to try to tackle the famous Peruvian dishes while you are there.  The area of Callao, not far from the airport, while being kind of rough and slightly dangerous, is famous for its outstanding ceviche and mussles (choros a la chalaca).  In and around Miraflores, there are a number of tonier restaurants catering to wealthy Peruvians and tourists, but the prices are still affordable for us Americans.  

Peru is famous for its regional cuisines, but you can find them all in Lima.  From the Amazon to the Andes to the coast, it's all there if you ask around.  Drinking too!  The pisco sour is the delicious national drink.  Also excellent is the algorrobina.  Try siete raices, a liquor from the jungle.  But keep your girlfriend near just in case.   Peruvian beer (Cristal, Cuzqueña, Pilsen) is pretty good, but nothing special, and all dominated by the same brewery (Backus).

If you did want to get in trouble, I could write a couple more paragraphs, but we'll leave it here.  Have fun.

Answer 5

Yes, there's a nice place in Miraflores called LarcoMar. It's like a shopping center with lots of restaurants, shops, bars, etc all built overlooking the sea on a cliff. It's a nice place to visit, hang out, etc and in december the view is great.