When Jack and I first started planning our trip to Peru, the one obvious must-see on our list was Machu Picchu. This breathtaking site of Incan ruins draws over a million visitors annually, and for good reason – it is like no other place in the world, full of rich history and incredible beauty. Many of these visitors do a quick stopover in the capital city of Lima to check some old churches off their list, then continue on to Cusco, the closest major city to the ruins. But Jack and I had heard great things about the food scene in Lima, and we quickly discovered that we would need several days there to eat our way through what is often described as “The Culinary Capital of South America.”
We planned our visit for July, which is the ideal time to visit Machu Picchu: drier/cooler weather, lower chance of rainy day park closures. However, Lima is on the west coast of the continent and has drastically different weather than the mountains; it is sunny and warm during the summer (December-March), and cool and foggy the rest of the year. When we were there the daytime high was ~65°F, and we were in sweatshirts/jackets the whole time. The fog wasn’t as chilly as in San Francisco, but it also didn’t lift at all (we saw no sun the entire time we were in Lima). One interesting fact about Lima is that it is the second driest capital in the world after Cairo (average rainfall is 0.3 inches/year). You will hear people say “it doesn’t rain in Lima;” this isn’t entirely true, as the heavy fog resulted in some drizzles while we were there, but you don’t have to worry about a downpour. The cool, foggy weather didn’t prevent us from doing the activities we wanted to do on this trip, but I would love to return to Lima some day in the summer months (I want to stay at the Miraflores Park Hotel and swim in the rooftop infinity pool!)