This is my second visit to Lima and I wrote a full blog about it on my first visit here. Therefore, I won't take the time to rewrite what's already written. This time I arrived at the North Plaza bus station and had originally planned on walking across the north of the city and staying in a hostel there, but I changed my mind as I was going along the route—it wasn't such a great place to stay. So, I turned south and walked to the city center. I found the hostel I had planned on staying at and asked for a room but they had nothing available except a bed in a dormitory with a shared bathroom. I left that place and went to another hostel two blocks away and they have private rooms and dormitories, but none of the rooms have private bathrooms. But, after already walking 10+ kilometers with my backpack (13 kilos/30 pounds) I decided to take a private room in that hostel.

When I was walking through the city center and that part was part of the historic district, I passed by a window and saw many guitars and keyboards, so naturally, I had to stop and investigate. What did I find? I found a mall with nothing but musical instrument stores, lots and lots of them! I was in musical instrument heaven! And it wasn't just the one building, it was the one across the street as well, and more such stores across another street. It looks like every musical instrument store in the country has congregated to this area of Lima. In all the stores I walked through I saw only student/intermediate level instruments, though. But, my gosh! So many of them! Never in my life have I seen so many such stores in one place. But I had to get going and find the hostel, it was already close to 3pm.

In the city center is a park called Magic Water Circuit Park (Circuito Mágico del Agua). This area was a regular park but was turned into a fountain park with 13 fountains, some of which are interactive. The Fantasia Fountain is 120 meters long, and in the evening there are three laser shows where they project laser images onto the spray of the fountains. You have to see it in the evening, it's incredible. They have many fountains, and there's a long section where they control the water so it's in very high sprays, then they shine lazer light shows on the mist. It is a brief overview of the history of Perú. I posted videos on my YouTube channel so be sure to check those out. The Foutains Park was inaugurated in July 2007 and by March 2008 they recorded their 2 millionth visitor. This fountain complex is listed in the Guiness Book of World Records.

Inside the city of Lima is the last remnants of an ancient city, and —Huaca Huantille is one of multiple locations in the city that are part of that ancient city. I went to Huaca Huantille location as it is only a couple of blocks from my hostel. It is a truncated pyramid structure that belonged to the Ichma culture from 900-1450 AD and was occupied by the Incas from 1450-1532 AD. This existing site is abouit 30 percent of its original size, the rest of the pyramid and structures were destroyed over the years, mostly in the twentieth century. There were four other such structures but they didn't survive the middle of the twentieth century. The city zoo is also part of a much bigger area of multiple huacas. Huacas are pyramidal structures, typically with truncated tops. As you walk throughout the zoo you also pass between the huacas. I saw a few people working on top of one when I was there.

As I wrote in my previous blog about Lima, of all the big cities I have ever visited, Lima is my favorite. Would I live here? No, because I am not a big-city guy, I prefer much smaller places. Lima has somewhere around 10 million people in the greater metropolitan area. I prefer a quarter of a million or smaller. Should you visit Lima if you visit Perú? Absolutely! The historic downtown area, the multiple archeological sites inside the city and outside, the huge number of parks, the beaches, it's a nice place to visit.