?Look at the flowers,? Ana Cecilia Vidal told me when I arrived at her hotel, the Aloft Lima Miraflores, in Peru.
?Yes, I?ve been admiring,? I assured her. After a drab Winter in New York, the upscale neighborhood of Miraflores, with its landscaped plazas, ice cream shops, flea markets, stone fountains and palm trees, seemed even more teeming with life than Manhattan. I soaked in the colors. I even put on a flowery skirt.
?It?s what Miraflores means,? she replied, ?look at the flowers.?
That small conversation became a primer for how I would see this part of Lima, Peru over the next week. Miraflores, the region bordered by Barranco in the South and the Pacific Ocean in the West, is perhaps one of the affluent neighborhoods in Lima, Peru. But the reason you should visit Miraflores isn?t because it?s wealthy, its parks so trimmed: this Ciudad Heroica or ?Heroic City,? a designation it earned during the War of the Pacific, is where 8.7 million people reside beside ancient ruins, modern boardwalks, open-air food courts, a park for romantics, and even the 8th best restaurant in the world.
WHERE TO VISIT
Musicians draw an enthusiastic crowd here at Parque Kennedy in Miraflores. Photo by Cullen Fairchild.
At the epicenter of Miraflores is Parque Kennedy, a well-placed public space with a playground that attracts local families and a multitude of benches for elderly men and women to gather and people watch.
The park is famous for its resident cat population, but it?s also a place ...