Last Updated on January 24, 2024 by Tori Pines
Every great trip sadly must come to an end and today is our last day exploring the great country of Peru. Today we spend our last day back in the capital city exploring some of the more unique places like Kennedy Park in Lima, Peru.
If you haven’t already read my Peru Journals from days 1-9, start there. We explored the desert oasis of Huacachina and the coastal town of Paracas. Then we joined our G Adventures tour and flew inland where we explored the city of Cusco before we explored the Sacred Valley to Ollantaytambo. From there we hopped on the Inca Trail for a 4 day magical hiking experience through the Andes Mountains and the Amazon Cloud Forest. We ended the hike when we reached the Sun Gate at the magical lost city of Machu Picchu to see one of the seven wonders of the world. It’s been quite the adventure, and G Adventures made this the best vacation yet. Thanks G Adventure!!! So start there and then come back to read all about day ten as we explore Lima and visit some furry friends at Kennedy Park.
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We woke up early this morning in Cusco at the Hotel Prisma, checked out and left around five in the morning to head off to the airport. Of the 3 locally run hotels we stayed at during this trip, Hotel Prisma was definitely our favorite. It was clean, beautiful, comfortable and had hot water. I definitely recommend that you stay here while in Cusco!
We are off to Lima again this morning for one day until we head home tomorrow. Last night we asked the hotel to schedule a taxi for us to be ready at 5, and when we made it down to the lobby the taxi was there waiting for us. We were impressed!
It was a 15 minute taxi ride to the Cusco Airport where we found a line of people waiting outside. We were there so early that the airport hadn’t even opened yet. Eventually it opened, we got through security, got on our LATAM flight and were on our way to Lima.
One thing to note, flights from Cusco to Lima and from Lima to Cusco run constantly. There’s a flight about every 30 minutes. This makes it extremely flexible to pick a flight at any time of the day that works best for your schedule. The flights are usually about $50 or so, but we actually bought ours just yesterday, so they were about $150 each. We didn’t know what our plans would be, so that’s why we waited so long. Still not bad for the day before!
Once we arrived in Lima, we took a taxi to Miraflores where we would be staying at the AC Marriott Hotel, right on the ocean. The hotel is amazing, super centrally located with beautiful views over the Pacific Ocean. The room is extremely modern and large and they brought us a little dessert platter as a gift.
This is also the hotel with the rooftop restaurant, Insumo. I ate here the very first night of our trip for probably the best meal I’ve had in Peru. Read my Peru day 1 journal to hear all about that delicious experience.
We settled into our room, changed and headed out to find lunch. At this point, we wanted comfort food, not Peruvian food, as we have had so much of it the last nine days! The Peruvian dishes are incredible and you must try them a lot while you’re here! There’s so much to learn about Peruvian food so read all the Peru Food Facts before you leave.
Across the street from our hotel was a little café where we had simple sandwiches and fries and it was exactly what we needed. After lunch we decided to walk around town and explore.
This is when we finally had the chance to visit Kennedy Park Lima, Peru. It is a park in Miraflores, very centrally located and easy to walk to. The park is a large green space in the middle of a bustling city, but the park is bustling too. Many people hangout here, exercise and relax. They hold art shows and markets on select days as well.
But the best part, and reason the park is so famous are the resident cats. Tons of cats call Kennedy Park in Lima, Peru home and are so much fun to see. You enter the park and can immediately spot several of them. They’re wandering around, sleeping and even climbing trees. Children run around looking for them and many of the cats are friendly and like to be pet.
Ally and I are both cat lovers so we enjoyed meeting the sweet kitties and wandering around Kennedy Park Lima, Peru, but eventually we decided to leave and check out the next spot on our walk through the city.
After a while, we made it to the pre-Incan ruins called Huaca Pucllana. Almost 2,000 years old, these ruins were built before the time of the Incan people. The ruins sit right in the middle of the city. It’s so wild to see it sitting there in the middle of a modern city! But, it makes them super easy to get to and see.
If you want to tour the ruins, be sure to book in advance. We were not sure what we would want to do today after a long trip of adventures, so we did not book a tour. We tried to just walk in but sadly they were sold out.
Alternatively, you can book reservations at the restaurant and eat looking out over the ruins! You’ll enjoy traditional Peruvian cuisine and a really neat view.
After checking out the ruins we wandered back to Larcomar, the mall located on the ocean in Miraflores. They were holding a market so we walked around admiring the hand-made local goods.
After a long day of travel and walking the city, we were exhausted and ready for an easy dinner and bed. A French restaurant in Larcomar is where we shared a few more comfort food items and then headed off to the hotel for the night.
We would be back at the airport bright and early for our seven hour flight back to Atlanta.
Exhausted from the long trip we are ready to go home. But I’m also so ready to return here soon. It was genuinely the trip of a lifetime and can not be fully explained how magical it was.
Overall, the food was incredible. Everything was super high quality, the ingredients were so fresh. Most meals were very healthy and light which is a bonus when you’re traveling! The best Peruvian dishes in my opinion were ceviche, causa and lomo saltado, but it was all so good.
The Inca Trail was the highlight. It was so difficult but so beautiful, fun and life changing. We learned so much about ourselves on that journey. The sights along the trail were mind blowing and the history really sets the scene of what life was like in the ruins back in the day. You feel like such a tiny piece of this huge magical story.
We also absolutely adored sandboarding in Huacachina. It was beautiful, and so picture-perfect. The sandboarding and dune buggies were exhilarating, slightly terrifying and SO much fun! We adored the desert, the oasis town and all of the people we met on our tour that day. It gave us the most amazing first impression of the Peruvian people.
The people were the best part. Every single Peruvian person we met was kind and polite and helpful. They all seemed genuinely happy to have us there and to get to know us. And then there were our new friends we met on our tour! It was so much fun to get to know them and spend this adventure with them. Doing a group tour really allows you to meet so many people you wouldn’t get to otherwise. We were so lucky to meet so many incredible people.
We will miss you Peru, but don’t worry, we will be back!
