Subdivisions
Lima is made up of thirty densely populated districts, each headed by a local mayor and the Mayor of Lima, whose authority extends to these and the thirteen outer districts of the Lima province.
The city's historic centre is located in the Cercado de Lima district, locally known as simply Lima, or as "El Centro" ("Downtown"), and it is home to most of the vestiges of Lima's colonial past, the Presidential Palace (Spanish: Palacio de Gobierno), the Metropolitan Municipality of Lima (Spanish: Consejo municipal metropolitano de Lima), and dozens of hotels, some operating and some defunct, that used to cater to the national and international elite.
The upscale San Isidro district is the city's financial center. It is home to politicians and celebrities and where the main banks of Peru and branch offices of world banks are headquartered. San Isidro has parks, including Parque El Olivar, with has olive trees that were brought from Spain during the seventeenth century.
Another upscale district is Miraflores, which has luxury hotels, shops and restaurants. Miraflores has more parks and green areas in the south of Lima than most other districts. Larcomar, a popular shopping mall and entertainment center built on cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean, featuring bars, dance clubs, movie theaters, cafes, shops, boutiques and galleries, is also located in this district. Nightlife, shopping and entertainment also center around Parque Kennedy, a park in the heart of Miraflores that is always bustling with people and live performances.
La Molina, San Borja and Santiago de Surco, home to the American Embassy and the exclusive Club Polo Lima, are the other three wealthy districts of Lima.
The most densely populated districts of Lima lie in the northern and southern ends of the city (Spanish: Cono Norte and Cono Sur, respectively), and they are mostly composed of Andean immigrants who arrived during the mid and late twentieth century looking for better living standards and economic opportunities, or as refugees of the country's internal conflict with the Shining Path during the late 1980s and early 1990s. In the case of Cono Norte (now called Lima Norte), shopping malls like Megaplaza and Royal Plaza have been built in the Independencia district, on the border with the Los Olivos district, the latter being the most residential neighborhood in the northern part of Lima. Most of the inhabitants of this area belong to the middle class or lower middle class.
Barranco, which borders Miraflores by the Pacific Ocean, is known as the city's bohemian district, home or once home of Peruvian writers and intellectuals like Mario Vargas Llosa, Chabuca Granda and Alfredo Bryce Echenique. This district has acclaimed restaurants, music venues called "peñas" featuring the traditional folk music of coastal Peru (in Spanish, "música criolla"), and beautiful Victorian-style chalets. It along with Miraflores serves as the home to the foreign nightlife scene.
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