The Hilton Miraflores, Lima.

Hotel Review

The Hilton Miraflores, Lima Peru

• Location - Avenida La Paz 1099, Lima, Peru
• Quality - Excellent
• Service - Great. Almost all the staff spoke English
• Highlight - The excellent lunches in the Executive Floor Lounge
• Bedding and bathrooms - Fantastic 
• Would I recommend this hotel - Absolutely! We stayed in a suite but the rooms looked pretty good too.
• My tip - Stay in a suite or on the Executive Floor so you get access to the Executive Lounge with its stunning (free) breakfasts, lunches, afternoon teas and light suppers. Not a place to stay if you are watching your waistline.

Where we stayed - what we thought - Hotel Reviews - Argentina/Chile/Peru

So far, with a couple of exceptions, I have avoided making recommendations for accommodation or restaurants in this blog. I am conscious that what David and I think is a great experience might be someone else's idea of purgatory. However lately I have realised that's a bit silly - most of you can probably figure out whether our idea of good service and value is likely to work for you.

Lima, Peru - But is it safe?

'Don't take a cab from the airport.
Don't flag a taxi in the street.
Don't walk anywhere after dark.
Don't wander into the wrong neighbourhood.
Drive a car in Peru! Are you insane?'

Pachacamac: looking into the eyes of a God.

When the Spanish Conquistador Hernando Pizarro arrived at The Temple of the Sun, near present day Lima in Peru, he was disappointed to discover that the Temple's God and Oracle was nothing more than a wooden idol. He expected solid gold. I know how he felt. One of the pitfalls of independent travel is that sometimes you miss things - and this miss was bigger than most. We missed the opportunity to look into the eyes of a God.

Oracle, Creator of the World and God of Earthquakes, Pachacamac was feared and honoured by both the Incas and the Ichma culture which preceded them. Today he dwells in a museum attached to the pyramid and temple complex which bears his name; half an hour's drive south of Lima. The museum is small, only a couple of rooms and there are no more than a dozen or so objects on display. The God/Oracle is one of them. We must have walked straight past it. We probably looked at it, but failing to recognize its significance our eyes slid seamlessly to the next item on display. I have no recollection of seeing the God and no photographs.

Drive a car in Lima! Are you crazy?

David is in his element - never happier than when he is behind the wheel of a rental car in a city in which no sane tourist would ever consider driving.  Yesterday we wandered the streets of Miraflores by foot. An easy, stress-free day after our exhausting flight and arrival in Lima. Today we have hired a car. It is Saturday and the theory is that Lima's traffic will be less chaotic on the weekend.

Peru without Machu Picchu

We must be the only Australians EVER to come to Lima in Peru and not go to Machu Picchu. David, as regular readers will know, detests tours. Since the only practical way of seeing Machu Picchu is on a tour, in the company of crowds of other tourists, David point blank refuses to go.