Okay, groan if you like (and you should), but we enjoyed our jam packed day in Lima. We tend to be contrarians in travel. We liked Los Angeles better than San Francisco (until the most recent visit) and Rome over Florence (that’s been consistent over trips.)

So we weren’t surprised that we liked Lima, though we heard it be dismissed as a destination. It helps that we stayed in the artsy Barranco section in a particularly artsy hotel. It was built in 1914 as a home and was later turned into a boutique hotel featuring over 300 works of art. Plus they gave us a lovely anniversary cookie plate and a bottle of champagne – they had me at hello.

The city butts up against the Pacific Ocean with a long walking path (malecon) along the sea. Despite its location it’s the second driest city in the world after Cairo, but the government has invested in irrigation to keep the hills and parks green and lush.

After a morning walk and hearty breakfast we began our tour of the historic heart of the city. While I expected Spanish colonial architecture, I was surprised to see a mix of just about every type of architecture – art deco and art nouveau, brutalism, French belle époque, English country and more. Our guide said every group who came into the city just basically built what they liked. The city is now quite strict about how historic buildings are maintained.

We began our visit at the Gran Hotel Bolivar, once the required stop for presidents, movie stars and other people of renown. It’s showing its age now, but legend has it that the famous pisco sour cocktail was invented there, so we had to peek in the bar.

The downtown pedestrian walkway reminded us of many older cities, where the interesting shops have migrated to other parts of the city or the suburbs. But there were a couple restaurants that smelled delicious and would apparently be filled with people at dinner time, so it was still a lively area.

As we walked, we came upon a uniquely Peruvian sight – a long line of paraders dancing and playing music. It was like a combination of Mardi Gras and the Mummers, but it was actually a religious celebration and many of the groups held banners honoring the Blessed Mother.

October is known as El Mes Morado, The Purple Month, and is an especially religious time. Our guide told us that some people spend tens of thousands of dollars to host parties for the participants.

Religious celebrations or not, we of course had to visit the cathedral. The very first room featured a mosaic celebrating the Spanish conquistador Pizarro, who was responsible for decimating the Inca empire. I guess the winners get to write the history. His tomb, his bones and a replica of his bones were also on display. There were plenty more skulls and ossuaries throughout the church.

They also had a nice homage to Pope Leo, who famously lived among the poor in Peru for many years, and lots of beautiful altars.

We ended the day at the Larco Museum. Rafael Herrera Larco, a Peruvian archaeologist founded the museum in 1926 to preserve pre-Columbian artifacts. With his background in business and politics, his knowledge of Peruvian art, and a little help from his father, he amassed 45,000 pieces and built a home for their display.

The volume and quality is staggering. The “archive” room alone would fill many museums.

In addition to ceramics and pottery, the museum has textiles and gold and silver, tools and even mummies. It’s amazing that one man put this together.

We ended our day with dinner in restaurant highly regarded for its traditional food. I played the anniversary card to get a table and they treated us to a Pisco Sour in celebration. It was a nice way to end the day.