After our quick stop at the Love Park in Miraflores, we are to drive going to the Main Square of Lima. Along the way, there were lots of wonderful insights that my tour guide shared to me.
She told me that there’s one neighborhood where the first Italians settled in Lima thereby bringing some of those nice architectures to the country. Some buildings also were inspired by the gingerbread houses in Europe.
We drove along the Huaca Pucllana, it’s a Pre-Incan structure and a ceremonial center of Lima. It was made of adobe bricks. As per my guide, what’s unique with the Huaca Pucllana was how it’s made of. It was extra special and not one of the bricks was the same. You can notice its same size but what made the difference were the fingers making it. The original adobe bricks were handcrafted; the restoration also applied the same method in fabricating the hand-made bricks.
Moving along, we made it to San Isidro District whereby my guide told me that this district was the richest district in all of Lima. But I am impressed when we got to the Parque El Olivar or the Olive Grove Park. It was a huge park, roads were built along the park.
When I saw the first tree in the neighborhood, I was like enthralled and immediately asked my guide if that’s an olive tree and she said Yes. She started telling me things about a bit of history with their olives.
Olives were not native to Peru. They were brought by the Spanish. Only few trees were ever grown before and they had just cultivated and planted more as soon as they saw that the trees were doing well. Now, they have lots of olive trees and believe me, they were more than 400 years old.
My guide asked me if we do grow olive trees in the Philippines and I immediately told her NO. She’s wondering why we didn’t have Olives in the Philippines when in fact both Peru and Philippines were colonized in the same century. And she thought that when I identified that it was olive trees, she thought that we do have olives because I recognized the tree itself. Unfortunately, as far as I know, Philippines don’t have Olive trees.
We left Olive park and we’re heading to the Main Square. Along the way, we were stuck in traffic but not too long. We passed through several building with Spanish Influences. There were lots of it that fascinated me unfortunately I cannot remember all of them.
Lots of the colonial houses were also built with terraces. According to my guide, the City Center of Lima was strategically planned when Pizzaro built it. They have specific measurements on the blocks and the roads.
It was really a scenic drive from Miraflores to the historic Lima City Center. Until now, you can still see the beauty of Lima City Center because it was included in the UNESCO Heritage List. Preservation, conservation and restoration were of great importance.
Been here: Aug 11, 2015
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