Lima - Peru

In this sprawling city of 8 million people on the Pacific edge of South America, old and new coexist in startling proximity. The old structures, huacas, hearken back to the Incas and those before them, the people who created some of the first urban centers in the Western Hemisphere. The new construction, which Limeños have embraced in fits and starts, represents the country's next big epoch, a wave of urban development that has brought restaurants, museums and shopping malls, and a general tidying-up of the city's core.

Already, these changes have had a discernable impact on the traveler. Until recently, Lima was nothing but a stopover for tourists on their way to Cuzco and Machu Picchu, an urban nightmare that U.S. travel agents advised their customers to avoid. Now, however, especially during summer in the Southern Hemisphere, the Peruvian capital has become a destination in itself, a city of artists, museums and restaurants embracing more than 2,000 years of history. Granted, the traffic and air pollution have yet to be vanquished, but it's worth adding a couple of days here to your Peru itinerary.

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