Lima Peru, the Dry City of the World

As our bus traversed along the coastal road in Lima, I was confronted with steep hill slope perched with high rise buildings built literally at the edge of the hill slope. I could imagine that it took both great engineering ingenuity and gut to make such engineering decision!

We were told by the local guide that millions of years ago, mud flow occurred from the inner highland toward the ocean. Then over time, waves and currents at the seafront eroded the front portion of the consolidated mud formation. That erosion created the steep slope as we see today. Peru has a unique topography and climatic condition. The coastal western strip is desert and inner eastern portion is lust jungles interspersed with numerous rivers. In between these two regions lies the famous Andes mountain range. The annual rainfall of Lima which is at the coast of the dessert region is only 16 mm. This is an extreme contrast compared with the 3,000 mm of rainfall in my home region. The water need of Lima is met by underground water plus water delivered by pipes all the way from dams and reservoirs at the inland forested regions.

Lima being a desert region, hence, the chance of rainwater saturating and destabilizing the hill slope is thus very minimal. With this climatic condition, it is understandable why Peruvian engineers dare erect high rise structures by the edge of the steep slope! Still, Lima's engineers are gutsy considering that Peru is a seismic active country! On 15 August 2007, an earthquake of 8.0 magnitude struck at a location 100 miles south of Lima killing over 500 people.

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Yet, ignoring the risks, the top of the hill slope provides some of the most spectacular views of Lima coastline and the Pacific Ocean. Our lunch at one of the restaurants at Tanta de Larcoma was one of the best we had throughout our SA tour. It's the great varieties of dishes and freshness of the food combined with awesome views that distinguishes this particular gastronomic experience from the rest!

Tanta de Larcoma perched high on the slope provides
awesome view of the coastline and the Pacific Ocean!

The restaurant on cantilever structure "hanging"
hundreds of meters precariously over the steep slope.

Overlooking the Pacific Ocean.