4 Days in Peru (With a Kid): Day One – Lima

Arrival and Settling

Peru is a direct six-hour and 35-minute flight from George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) in Houston. My child, Will, was 18 months old at the time of the trip so, even though he’s a good traveler and had flown before, I still had airplane anxiety. Fortunately, that part was fine. Our flight left Houston at 3:50 pm and arrive in Lima at 11:26 pm. We checked into the Sheraton around 1 am.

Fun fact – Lima, Peru is in the same time zone as Houston – so, high fives to no jet lag!

Even though we do have a good little traveler he is still a baby so despite the short trip, we kept it low key on day one. Lots of naps. Zero pushing it too hard to try to see all the things.

Miraflores

The Sheraton is very nice, the area less so. Our room had a view of the Supreme Court of Peru and was very heavy on traffic and pollution. Despite the nearness of a few museums, it was not somewhere you want to stroll with a baby. In that spirit, we went to visit the Miraflores District. The district is safer and we made sure to return to the hotel before dark.

The hotel provided a shuttle to Larcomar a cliffside, waterfront shopping and dining destination. It was very touristy (yes, there’s Starbucks – also a Chili’s, KFC, Pinkberry, and a Nike store) but it is also very pretty and very safe (except for the driving part – definitely some of the worst driving we’ve encountered internationally). We ate at Mangos which was lovely and had a nice view of the South Pacific. It is a little odd saying that and referring to South America. Everything is Texas is Gulf related!

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Day Two: Cusco!

We also a tour of Lima, it was okay – lots of grey, lots of pollution, one little taxi driver strike (my husband was sweating a little – something about the police and machine guns seemed to bother him? whatever). Lots of colonial stuff but, if you ask Will, he will tell you the best parts were the pigeons. The pigeon pictures were taken in front of a very nice church that we also toured, but no pictures are allowed inside; and besides, when I wouldn’t let Will jump into a pit of bones in the Catacombs it got Ugly. Later, we were on one of the main plazas and they were doing some folk dance show. I watched some of it and Dave walked the baby since he was sleepy. When I came back to find them they had totally gone native. I think I am lucky we got him back on the plane home.