Lima, city of kings and virreyes, were from always a luck of oasis of culture in the American Indians. From their foundation, some decades were only necessary to locate it at the same time as Mexico like the most important metropolis of Spanish America.
Baroque and Renaissance temples, mansions and small palaces, universities, archbishoprics and an intense cultural activity characterized to this city from the dawn of century XVII, when as soon as it had 25 thousand inhabitants.
The old valley of the Rímac river, indigenous word that means “talkative”, was originally populated by a town with fishermen and collectors governed by Funny the Tauli cacique. It was there where, the 18 of January of 1535, the conqueror Francisco Pizarro founded the city of Lima, had to a large extent to the strategic location of his port in center of the Peruvian and South American coast. In less than seven decades it got to concentrate the power and the wealth of all the commercial and cultural activities of the Virreinato: one had become the most important city of America.
Century XVIII, essentially because of the creation of the Virreinato of the River of the Silver, that absorbed the handling of the great mines of Potosí in the Peru Stop (today Bolivia), Lima entered a process of decay and instability that culminated in 1821 with the proclamation of the Independence of the Republic. At the beginning of century XX, during the Belle Époque (1915-1930), the city again occupied a place of vanguard between the most modern cities of the continent.
As of the decade of the Forties, with the intensification of the migrations from the field to the city, Lima went transforming into a luck of Peru in small until becoming a crucible of people and cultures that, with more than 7 million inhabitants, lodge today to 25% of the population of the country and almost two thirds of its economic and industrial activity.
In almost the five centuries passed from its Spanish foundation, Lima has been synonymous of a mestization that surprises legos and connoisseurs and that constitutes one of his greater values.
Examples of him abound in their polished and innovating cooking art, to which the understood ones locate between the main ones of the world; in its monumental architecture, that engrosa the Cultural Patrimony of the Humanity; and in his people, it would itch and skillful, really expert in adapting to the changes.
In addition, excellent Lima offers to the tourist museums and theater galleries of art, presentations, cultural exhibitions of high level and modern commercial centers and of relaxation, except for important attractive archaeological and natural.
• Altitude: 154 msnm
• Climate: The season of greater humidity is the winter, that is to say of May to September. The summer, of October to April, characterizes by heat strong and rain absence. Temperature annual average of 19°C (maximum of 25° and minim of 13°).
• Access: Lima, to the being the capital of Peru, is communicated by land by the Pan-American Highway with all the cities of the coast, the same that arrives until Ecuador at the north and Chile in South direction. It is communicated with the cities of the mountain range and forest by the Main highway, Marginal and the routes of Penetration. Aerial route, is communicated with the main cities of the world, as well as with the main cities of the rear area. The airplanes leave and arrive to the Airport the International Jorge Chávez who is in the Constitutional Province of the Pebble, main port of Peru.
• Minimum demurrage: 3 days if it is wanted to visit the city and its environs.
• Attractive tourist more outstanding: Greater place, emphasizes its bronze sink that dates from 1650; Cathedral, whose first stone was put by Francisco Pizarro in 1535; Church and convent of San Francisco, famous by its catacombs; Sanctuary Santa Rosa of Lima, located in the place where Santa lived.
• Districts of Lima:
- San Isidro: Garden” of Lima is the district “, by its green areas and exclusive residential districts. In spite of the uncontrollable advance of modernity, it still conserves something of that one solemnity of suburb of luxury characterized that it since the beginning of century, of which is faithful proves the zone of the Olive grove.
- Miraflores: It is a district of beautiful parks, gardens of flowers and visited beaches more (Green Coast). It is a district of coffees, pubs, restaurants and of cultural events which congregate to thousand of Limeans every Sunday attracted by the painting, the music and the flea markets.
- Barranco and Chorrillos: Famous by its Bohemian Spas, districts, his picanterías and restaurants. They are characterized for being fashionable place of the Limean aristocracy in its time, conserving still its large houses and parks Republican style, today recovered again and embellished.
- Santiago de Surco: District where one will find friendship, a good wine and that to see and to enjoy much. Furrow is without a doubt one of the most progressive districts of Lima than it counts on modern constructions and commercial centers without leaving his past back historical.
- Free Town: The district “where it is pleasant to live”, is leader in the matter of order, security, cleaning, ornato and respect to the environment. One has become one of the main historical-tourist centers of Lima due to the museums that show the different stages from their history.
• Celebrations: The most important celebration is in October, with the “Month of the Gentleman of the Miracles”.
• Gastronomy: A great variety of restaurants of national and international kitchen exists. It emphasizes: the “dish of marinaded raw fish” (fillet of cold fish decorated with lemon and red pepper), “the Cause” (it grazes of stuffed and ripened yellow Pope), “Parihuela” (soup of fish and seafood), “Red pepper of Hen” and dessert the “mulberry Mazmorra” (sweet of mulberry maize flour).
• Crafts: In Lima it is possible to acquire crafts of excellent quality. The main markets are in the Av. Petit Thouars (Miraflores), Av. Navy (Free Town) and in center.