Peru: Lima Celebrates Its Anniversary · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

On Sunday, January 18, the City of Kings, better known as Lima, Peru celebrated the 474th anniversary of its founding by Spain. Many bloggers took this opportunity to dedicate a few words to the city or post some photos, such as Ernesto of Física 3 [es], who is currently living abroad.  He writes, “(Lima) is one's heart, the mind takes you back to its streets” or Isabel of Burbujas Recargadas [es] who writes, “Lima consumes you, but it also spoils you. Lima is… complicated.  But, it's my city.“
Not all expressed their sentimentality towards Lima, as some bloggers like Eduardo Villanueva also analyzed the city's problems in a series of posts.  In this post from his blog Casi Un Blog Mk.II [es], he lists some of the things that the city lacks:
3 – Una buena arena deportiva que también sirva para conciertos. La solución actual, el estadio nacional o el estadio de la U, sirve para algunos casos; para otros más pequeños, lo que hay como el Dibós no alcanza, y cada vez que viene alguien que puede traer 5000 personas pero no 15000 falta dónde ponerlo.
4 – Un gran parque abierto a todo el mundo pero con controles de acceso, que sirva como sitio para caminar, disfrutar y ver y hacer cultura. El Campo de Marte no está bien mantenido y lo que se ha hecho con el Parque de la Reserva es una brutalidad: podrían haberse puesto las piletitas en otro sitio si se quería “disneyficar” un espacio público.
6 – Hacer algo con el rio Rímac, que está esencialmente abandonado a su suerte, desde lo ecológico hasta lo urbano.
10 – Casi es obvio: un sistema decente de transporte público.
4 – A large park open to everyone, but with controlled access, which serves as a place to walk, for people to enjoy themselves, look around, and put on cultural events. The Campo de Marte is not well maintained, and what they did with the Reserve Park is pure brutality: they could have put the fountain in another place if they wanted to “Disney-fy” a public space.
6 – Do something with the Rímac River, which is essentially abandoned in terms of ecology and the urban space.
10. And something obvious: a decent public transportation system.
Other of Villanueva's post include: Lima Celebrations [es], Lima: Is There Something to Celebrate? [es] and Why I hate Mayor Castañeda (Lima's mayor) [es].  From a different perspective, the blogger at El Tonto de la Colina [es] writes that Lima is a wonderful city and that its history very interesting:
Lima fue la capital de un territorio que llegó a abarcar toda Sudamérica y la actual Panamá. El virrey que gobernaba desde Lima en representación del Rey de España tenía un poder casi ilimitado dentro de este territorio y poseía una corte que nada tenía que envidiar a las cortes europeas. Hoy nos cuesta pensar que desde aquí se gobernaba todo un continente.
Todas las riquezas del Nuevo Mundo salían desde el puerto de Lima hacia España. El comercio resultante hacía que la ciudad tenga un lujo escandaloso. Se tiene noticia de que en una ocasión, los comerciantes de Lima, para recibir a un virrey, mandaron pavimentar la calle que da a la plaza principal con adoquines de oro, y las dos calles siguientes con adoquines de plata. Si, pues, las calles de Lima estaban empedradas de oro.
Lima was the capital of a territory that covered all of South America and what is now Panama. The viceroy, who governed from Lima representing the King of Spain, had almost unlimited power within this territory and had a court, comparable to European courts. It's hard to believe that from here (Lima), they governed the entire continent.
All of the New World riches left from this Lima port towards Spain. The resulting commerce provided that city with a scandalous luxury. It was reported that on one occasion, the merchants of Lima, to receive a viceroy, paved the street of the plaza with cobbles of gold and the next two streets with cobbles of silver. Yes, the streets of Lima were cobbled with gold.
Other bloggers like El Pensieve of Dinorider [es] posts photos and publishes links to interesting facts about the city. El Amautacuna of Historia [es] posts some videos of old Lima.  The blog of Jota Erre [es] publishes a video collecting images of Lima today.  The blog La Mejor Cara de tu Lim@ [es] summarizes the public celebrations during the anniversary of Lima.  The blog Globalizado [es] also posts some photos.