If ever there was ever a food to be eaten in hot, dry places, it's ceviche. Several countries claim to have invented the delicious 'Latin American sushi' - made from fresh fish and seafood, marinated in lime or lemon, and sprinkled with chilli and coriander - but most people agree that Peru has made the dish its own.
I was eating a perfect ceviche - the fish was sea bass - beneath a sunshade in an al fresco restaurant that looks onto the Huaca Pucllana site in Lima's leafy Miraflores district. The ruin is a sprawling adobe-and-clay pyramid that once served as an administrative centre and ritual game arena during the period of the so-called Lima culture (between AD200 and AD700). It's a remarkable thing to see in the heart of a city suburb, and the tranquillity, the small number of travellers that seemed to be visiting the site - and, yes, that awesome ceviche - were a far cry from the hubbub of Cuzco and Machu Picchu.
Until very recently, Peru has been viewed as a place to see Inca ruins, do a few hikes and, maybe, cruise up the Amazon. As a consequence, Lima has been treated as a place merely to sleep in before boarding the plane to Cuzco and the more obvious wonders of Machu Picchu.
But the Peruvian capital is one of South America's oldest cities and a rising star. It has a beautiful historical quarter, dramatic coastal setting, a thriving gastronomic scene and a growing number of boutique and luxury hotels. Lima also has great bars and clubs - and a music scene that ranges from new takes on Andean folk music to hip-swinging cumbia and reggaeton to cool jazz. But a more subtle quality is Lima's complex, multilayered character: it has architecture from five centuries, which is unique in Latin America and - thanks to many periods of inward immigration - limenos are as likely to be of Italian, Russian or Chinese attraction as they are of Spanish or native Indian origin.
Lima's antiquity is due to its proximity to good natural harbours. For centuries, it was a trading centre for the local Quechua-speaking natives. Where much of Peru is mountain and dense jungle, the coastal plain is desert. It was easy to settle, but the people looked outwards to the sea as well as inland to the sources of fresh water and good grazing land. A handful of museums tell the story from pre-Columbian times to the present. The Museo de Oro del Peru displays some of the treasures that so excited the conquistadors and the Museo de Arte de Lima has some beautiful Cuzco school artwork on show.
The best museum in Lima, however, is the recently refurbished and privately run Museo Larco. Among its 44,000 pieces are impressive pre-Columbian pottery and eye-opening erotic objects of desire; the Moche (said to be the inventors of ceviche) and Chimu native cultures are well represented, and the museum is a reminder that the Inca story is just one of many chapters in Peru's long, indigenous narrative.
