Welcome to Peru

You can call me foolish, but I also really enjoy discovering things solo, on my own. Do I have friends that have traveled to Peru? Yes. Do I even have friends whose families are from Peru? Yes? Did I reach out and ask them where I should stay in/near Lima? No.

I don’t know, I figure that these moments of travel and discovery are one area in my life that I can truly feel like I’m connecting to God and letting Him lead me. Maybe by going with the Holy flow, something extraordinary will happen because of being precisely at the right moment at the right time. It’s happened before.

When planning my trip to Peru, I saw the journey being a few days in Lima, then flying over to Cusco to enjoy Machu Picchu, then coming back to Lima for a final day. My browsing online led me to choose a hotel in the Barranco district which is along the coastline, just south of another popular area, Miraflores. Both of these neighborhoods are about 30 minutes south (by car) from the center of Lima. A nice place to crash.

Night 1

Upon arriving and finding my hotel in Barranco, I did not waste any time exploring. I didn’t come here to hang out in the hotel. I grabbed my camera, and though it was nightfall, I hit the streets. I walked south along Av. Almirante Miguel Grau not really having any idea where I was heading. I would eventually hit Parque Municipal de Barranco. God was leading me because as soon as I entered the open space of the park, I could not help but notice a church on the corner. It was the Iglesia De La Santisima Cruz. There was even an evening mass taking place when I arrived. This church had a brilliant design that photographs aside I would not forget. The entrance was nothing more than open wooden frame work. As you’ll see in the images, one could walk directly from the street into the sanctuary uninhibited by a door. How wonderful, and what a great metaphor for what faith and a relationship with God should be: open, transparent, welcoming. (For security between services and weather protection there are massive wooden doors that do seal the church.)

Afterward, I wandered back to my hotel without much fanfare. Great opening evening to the trip:

Day 1 + 2

I gave myself two days to explore Lima before flying to Cusco, Peru. This naturally meant starting each day in Barranco and then navigating to my desire. On the first day, I would explore the historic Centro District of Lima, and the second brought very overcast skies which a little more street exploration, but a few more indoor adventures. [See: Lima Streets + Lima Streets II]

Given the distance into the heart of Lima, I found myself in a taxi a couple of times. But before hailing one, I would walk a few blocks around Barranco and Miraflores. Not too much of a narrative behind these, only feeling out the ambiance of the area. That little piggy was going to market…

Day 3

After returning from Cusco and Machu Picchu, I had that final day open to explore a little bit more of Miraflores. Overcast sky aside, the coastline was beautiful. I managed to make it to the Park of Love (it’ll be pretty obvious which images are of it), and the La Marina Lighthouse. At night, I captured a few images of the water as well as an underpass that struck me for some reason. Lastly, a statue of Mary captured my eye and when editing it later, I realized that I caught just the right angle and she was staring. right. at. me. Spooky. Well…there are no coincidences, so not spooky, divine: