We spent today wandering on our own through the streets of Lima. We are staying in the Miraflores district which is fairly affluent, today our meandering took us south along the coast to Barranco, one of 43 districts in Lima.
The district is considered to be the city’s most romantic and bohemian, being the home and working place of many of Peru’s leading artists, musicians, designers and photographers. In the 19th-century, it was a very fashionable beach resort for the Limeño aristocracy, and many people used to spend the summer here and in neighboring Chorrillos. Today, Barranco’s beaches are among the most popular within the worldwide surfing community, and a marina completed in 2008 provides state-of-the-art services for its yacht club.
The name Barranco (Spanish for ravine) is descriptive of its topography, featuring homes and restaurants in and around a ravine near a cliff overlooking a sand strip which runs from the Miraflores District to Chorrillos (now flanked by a highway, Costa Verde Ave.).
We’d been told about a local landmark called The Bridge of Sighs. So we felt we had to find it. There is a beautiful walkway to the sea that runs through Barranco, called the Bajada de los Baños. Crossing over this walkway is the Puente de los Suspiros, or Bridge of Sighs. The walkway is bordered on both sides by grand houses, and the legend goes that a wealthy man’s daughter living in one of these grand houses fell in love with a lowly street sweeper. Her father forbade the union, and she lived out her days as a spinster, waiting at her window for a glimpse of her beloved. Those who walked across the bridge could hear her plaintive sighs. Its a romantic place to walk around with “the one”, dont you think?
We we did anyway.
