The Faces of Lima - Different Everywhere

Lima is a city with almost 10 million inhabitants and a gigantic area of over 2500 square kilometers! But even though they are all part of Lima, the 43 districts of the city differ enormously from each other.

During my trip from Surco to Cañete, I saw so many different landscapes in just 2 hours that I had never seen in Europe before. While Surco is a very developed district with wide streets, sidewalks, markets, and city gardens, just a few kilometers away, small houses crowd together in narrow alleys that are neither tarred nor paved. Just a few minutes later, a desert landscape of undeveloped sand dunes opens up right by the sea, and a few kilometers further there are green hills, farmland, and palm trees.

Especially for the so-called Provinces of Lima, the districts that are not directly near the city center, the so-called Associations are typical. Several people join together there and start building their houses on the large undeveloped areas. They often work together for over 10 years on their neighborhoods and try to establish infrastructure there, sometimes by hand. However, it is a long way until sidewalks and roads are built, and therefore these Associations are mainly characterized by sandy paths instead of streets.