Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
tion was particularly intense during the 1980s, when armed conflicts in the Andes dis-
placed many people. Shantytowns mushroomed, crime soared and the city fell into a peri-
od of steep decay. In 1992, the terrorist group Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) detonated
deadly truck bombs in middle -class Miraflores, marking one of Lima's darkest hours.
Today's Lima has been rebuilt to an astonishing degree. A robust economy and a vast
array of municipal improvement efforts have repaved the streets, refurbished parks and
created safer public areas to bring back a thriving cultural and culinary life.
LAY OF THE LAND
With over 30 municipalities, Lima's historic heart is Lima Centro (Central Lima). Av Arequipa, one of the city's
principal thoroughfares, plunges southeast toward well-to-do San Isidro, the contemporary seaside neighborhood
of Miraflores, and Barranco to the south.
The principal bus routes connecting Central Lima with San Isidro and Miraflores run along broad avenues such
as Tacna, Garcilaso de la Vega and Av Arequipa . These neighborhoods are also connected by the short highway
Paseo de la República or Vía Expresa, known informally as
el zanjón
(the ditch).
Sights
The city's historic heart, Lima Centro (Central Lima) is a grid of crowded streets laid out
in the 16th-century days of Francisco Pizarro, and home to most of the city's surviving co-
lonial architecture. Well-to-do San Isidro is Lima's banking center and one of its most af-
fluent settlements. It borders the contiguous, seaside neighborhood of Miraflores, which
serves as Lima's contemporary core, bustling with commerce, restaurants and nightlife.
Immediately to the south lies Barranco, a former resort community transformed into a hip
bohemian center with hopping bars and nice areas to stroll.
