Adjacent to the Miraflores District of Lima is the Barranco District, considered to be Lima’s most romantic, bohemian, and artsy area of the city.  It is THE neighborhood for Peru’s leading artists, musicians, designers and photographers as well as a huge draw for surfers in search of the perfect wave.

Barranco is also known for its murals, which are a magnet for me and my camera.  I love color and photographing color— everything from hot air balloons, flowers, and tropical fish and coral (which I photographed while SCUBA diving) to murals.  Bruce enjoys murals as well, so we set off on foot via the Malecon, the long way to Barranco, but the route with the nicest views.

On the way to searching the streets for murals, we stopped at Dedalo, a beautiful old mansion-turned-gallery that hosts the work of more than 700 artists.   Eye candy!  Each of the many rooms displayed meticulously crafted items we admired and enjoyed seeing.  For anybody who appreciates beautiful crafts, this is a must-see destination if you ever visit Lima!

Since signs posted throughout the gallery invited us to “please take photos” and post them on social media, I will gladly do so here!  These are just a few:

(For all photos, click on the image for a full screen view.)

Uplifted and inspired, we continued our walk, in search of murals, enjoying the town along the way.

All the walking to and from Barranco built up our appetite, so we enjoyed dinner at Pardos Chicken in Larcomar, partly so we could enjoy the view of the surfers off in the distance.  It was another cloudy, humid day, so this picture doesn’t do justice to the incredible view we had out our booth window:

The actual tour didn’t start until the following day, but we received a call from Raul, our tour leader, just as we stepped into our hotel room to prepare to go out again.  “What are you doing this evening?” he asked.  Bruce replied, “We are going to see Circuito Magico del Agua!  Would you like to join us?”  So, off the three of us went to see the most amazing multimedia water fountain show we had ever seen!

Next up: PERU #4: LIKABLE LIMA (PART 4) – CIRCUITO MAGICO DEL AGUA