Lima in one day: Surquillo market, a real cebichería, and Central at night

Lima

1. 9 am1

   Mercado N.º 1 de SurquilloLima

   Cross the footbridge from Miraflores at the end of Avenida Ricardo Palma. This is where the Barranco kitchens buy: the ají stall (amarillo, panca, limo, rocoto — buy the paste, it flies home), forty potato varieties, and the cebicheros' counters at the back doing a S/20 plate at nine in the morning that beats most restaurants. Go before 10:30 and bring small notes; nobody breaks a hundred sol bill.

   8 min by train or taxi · 3.5 km
2. 10:45 am2

   Bajada de Baños and the Puente de los SuspirosLima

   Walk the bridge, then go DOWN the Bajada de Baños ravine to the sea rather than standing on the bridge with everyone else — the old bathing path comes out at the pier with the whole coastline in view. Ermita church at the top, the murals of Jade Rivera on the side streets. Barranco is safe and walkable by day; keep the phone away on the malecón after dark.

   4 min walk · 250 m
3. 12:10 pm3

   Cebiche at Canta RanaLima

   A 35-year-old huarique on Génova, walls covered in football pennants, and a cebiche mixto that is the reference point. Cash preferred, no dinner service — lunch only, and it fills by 12:30, so be there at 12:10 or expect to wait. Order the cebiche and ONE hot dish (chupe de camarones or arroz con conchas) between two; portions are absurd. If it is shut, La Mar on Avenida La Mar in Miraflores is Gastón Acurio's version, no reservations, queue from 11:45.

   12 min walk · 900 m
4. 2:15 pm4

   Museo Pedro de OsmaLima

   A Belle Époque mansion of colonial Cusco School painting and Andean silver, two minutes from where you are eating tonight, and almost always empty. Closed Mondays. The garden is the right place to sit out the heaviest part of the afternoon.

   8 min walk · 600 m
5. 4 pm5

   Chilcano at Juanito de BarrancoLima

   The bodega on the plaza, a bar since 1937, wooden shelves and a ham slicer. A pisco chilcano and a sandwich de jamón del país. Uncommitted — if lunch ran long, skip it, because you do not want to arrive at tonight's booking full.

   20 min walk · 1.5 km
6. 6 pm6

   Sunset from the Barranco malecónLima

   Lima spends half the year under the garúa and you will not see a sunset at all between June and November — take it if the sky is open. The paragliders launch from Miraflores further north, so this is the quiet stretch.

   8 min by train or taxi · 1.7 km
7. 7:45 pm7

   Dinner at CentralLima

   The whole reason to give Barranco a day. Reservations open on their site roughly three months ahead and the first week goes in a morning; a two-top at 19:45 or 21:45 is far easier than 20:30. The Mundo Mater menu walks altitudes from the sea floor to 4,200 m — around S/1,100, plus a juice or wine pairing at roughly S/600, and the juice pairing is the more interesting of the two. Budget three hours and do not plan an early flight. The cheaper honest alternatives on the same night: Isolina, a taberna two streets away with shareable criollo cooking for a tenth of this, or Kjolle, Pía León's restaurant in the same building.