Lima is a curious city, I love the way it is located among the Andes, the desert, and the ocean. Sometimes can be a cold city with a grey color sky, and then turns sunny with a rainbow color sky, it can be so beautiful and complex with its many different realities and colors, all within the same place.
Most of foreingners think of Lima as a gigantic city build on the desert, that is true but it is much more than that. Lima has mountains that are in fact the foothills of the Andes pretty close where a different climate, flora, and fauna used to develop until the arrival of squatters since the 1940s Lima has marshlands with a diversity of species coexisting with the nearby communities built recently, Lima has ocean, the Pacific with its cold waters and full of life, now endangered by human presence…we are converting this amazing oasis of life into an arid city… we can’t forget that.
From the city level, Lima looks like any other big city, busy, congested, even colorful sometimes depending on where you are, divided into 43 parts we call districts each one with a different reality and therefore appearance, some can be more or less safe, others can have more or fewer parks, These facts will always depend on how expensive the district is, and that in Lima as in anywhere depends on location.
The best way to get the real feeling of this diversity and contrast is from above, going up gives you perspective, so the best location for a view is at the Morro Solar of Chorrillos*.
*We recommend only to go on daylight and weekends when guardians and locals go, fridays, saturdays and sundays from 12 till 5 pm. come by car, it is not recommendable to go by bike or walking.
Morro Solar is a natural promontory located on the south extreme of the bay of Lima, remembered as a battlefield during the war of the Pacific, battalions of Peruvian and Chilean soldiers fought and died there on January 13th, 1881. The invasion of Lima for over 2 years by the enemy destroyed the districts of Chorrillos, Barranco, Miraflores and even the historical center, Lima was never the same after that.
The morro solar is open for anyone all week but is better to visit on weekends, the best hours are from 12 to 5 pm before dark. the reason is the lack of police presence and its proximity to a zone od squatters. Nobody lives up there, that why it turns too desolated most of the time.
The view is beyond words, although you can’t see all the city from there (it is now too big) it gives you a great idea about the geography of this part of the country. Sumer is the best time to come over due to the good visibility and beautiful blue sky.
There are 4 official stops and viewpoints, The Cross of Pope Jhon Paul II located close to the chapel of the virgin of Chorrillos and the planetarium, Monument of the unknown soldier, Monument of General Miguel Iglesias, and Christ of the Pacific, similar to the famous monument of Rio de Janeiro. All of them are great look-outs of the city and you can get different perspectives and views of Lima from them.
Christ of the Pacific, and how close to the hill is a community of squatters
Is not a mystery that Lima remains gray usually from May till November, but visibility can be good enough from Morro Solar most of the year, with an elevation of 250 masl and right next to the Pacific ocean, this place is a sort of in-between look-out, in one side the rich and exclusive districts, on the other the new and poor, the lowlands and the foothills of the Andes very close one to the other, and on the other side the ocean and the continent touching each others in a picture to be remembered.
Learn more about our tours in Lima and Peru starting by clicking below
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