Lima Peru as a 'Happier Abroad' destination

[yick]

I was in Lima in the southern hemisphere summer of January-February and I spent two weeks there and two weeks in the southern coast beach town of Mollendo. So, in this post I am going to talk about Lima as an expat destination and would it be a good place to be 'Happier Abroad'?

Lima is a city of two economic contrasts, from the Costa Verde to the historic centre is upper middle class, prosperous, clean and bustling and could be a city on its own accord if taking in the size of that part - its big - it's easy to see why expats congregate around Miraflores and Barranco - these are coastal parts of the city where the rich and famous of Peruvian society live - a similar part of Sydney which also nestles on the same Pacific Ocean as Lima does - somewhere like Bondi or Cronulla or Manly - an apartment would set you back a million dollars at least whereas in Lima - you can get a new apartment for about 200000 dollars in Miraflores - so Lima is still affordable and Lima has a better dining culture than Sydney - is Sydney overall the better city and I wouldn't argue that it is but can most people afford beachside living in Sydney and the answer is 'no' whereas in Lima you have a chance.

But the great thing about Lima is that there are quite a lot of affordable parts of the city that are safe that aren't all that far away from Miraflores - parts of the city such as Magdalena, Jesus Maria, Lince, San Miguel and Pueblo Libre have all the amenities and you won't be paying an arm and a leg like you would in Miraflores where you can have a nice life. Of course there's crime there but you need to be sensible about where you go and how you go about it. The city west of the historic centre IS dangerous but it is gentrifying at a good rate of knots and these places have huge malls and a steadily growing middle class - Peru and especially Lima is becoming richer and prosperous as the years go by.

Women - there are beautiful women all over the world and Lima is no exception - there are women from all over Latin America in Lima, Venezuelans, Argentinians, Colombians and of course Peruvians - I read nonsense on here about the 'ugliness' of Peruvian women and of course, beauty is subjective but I preferred Peruvian women over Colombians to be honest but there are women of every stripe in Lima. Like in most if not all parts of Latin America, to date there you need Spanish, you need to dress and look something like the monied types of Lima if you want the nice looking ones with an education - you'll get back what you put out like everything else in life

Advantages of Peru is that it is relatively easy to get PR and citizenship in comparison to Thailand or the Philippines, it is a western culture and society, the cost of living is affordable if you have dollars or euros or pounds or whatever and the people are friendly and helpful for the most part.

If big city life is not for you - well, you are in luck - just outside Lima, they are building little beach towns from South of Lima all the way to a beach called 'Asia' loads of new condos and apartments are being built as we speak and though they won't have the amenities yet of small towns, they soon will and for a beachside apartment where the Pacific Ocean is on your doorstep - going for a song.

So, would I recommend Lima as a 'Happier Abroad' destination and the answer is 'yes'.

[MrPeabody]

I agree that Peru is an interesting destination. I flew to Pucullpa to live in the Amazon. Pucullpa looked more like the Philippines than a Western country. One problem, is they recently had a coup where they arrested their president and there were demonstrations that shut down the country. So, I don't know how stable the government is.

[yick]

I agree that Peru is an interesting destination. I flew to Pucullpa to live in the Amazon. Pucullpa looked more like the Philippines than a Western country. One problem, is they recently had a coup where they arrested their president and there were demonstrations that shut down the country. So, I don't know how stable the government is.

It is now a lot more stable than it was in the beginning of the year when they were blocking the roads and rioting but the powers that be need to stop doing stupid, bush league shit like that.

How did you find Pucallpa? I think with Peru, whatever you want - jungle, mountains or urban living - it's there for you.

[MrPeabody]

I agree that Peru is an interesting destination. I flew to Pucullpa to live in the Amazon. Pucullpa looked more like the Philippines than a Western country. One problem, is they recently had a coup where they arrested their president and there were demonstrations that shut down the country. So, I don't know how stable the government is.

It is now a lot more stable than it was in the beginning of the year when they were blocking the roads and rioting but the powers that be need to stop doing stupid, bush league shit like that.

How did you find Pucallpa? I think with Peru, whatever you want - jungle, mountains or urban living - it's there for you.

I was in Pucullpa for only one day and spent most of my time in the jungle with a shaman. It reminded me of east asia – there were more tuc tucs on the roads than cars. The central market place was exotic – you could buy live worms to eat as snacks or play with the snakes.