If you’re coming to Peru to see Machu Picchu or just passing through Lima for other reasons you might be considering a visit to the site of the Pachecamac Ruins and Museum. Being within Lima, the site is not difficult to access. But if you’re short on time or there are other activities competing for your interest you might be wondering if the site is worth your time. Let’s take a closer look at what a trip here entails.
Where’s the Money? This site may contain affiliate links. Many travel sites include such links to earn a commission at no cost to readers.
The tour I took of the Pachecamac Ruins can be found on Viator under the headline Tour to the Archaeological Sanctuary of Pachecamac (small group). At the time of booking it was among the least expensive or possibly the least expensive tour of Pachecamac coming in at $55 US.
A round trip Uber and two tickets to the museum is going to price out right around $50 if you go on your own. With the difference being so little the convenience of a group tour was a no brainer for me.
Pachecamac Ruins Location
The Pachecamac Ruins are at the southern edge of Lima City. Being 16 miles from Miraflores it’s about a 40 minute drive from Kennedy Park, which is where most tours of the site will begin with local hotel pickups.
If you’re staying in Barranco a tour group can most likely pick you up there as well. We passed through that area via surface streets.
Once you arrive at the site it’s not hard to see why even ancient people would have been drawn to it. It’s a place where the desert mountains give way to a small area of flat ground near the sea. There’s a river running down from the mountains and meeting the sea near the temple sites. The site of the temple of the Sun God specifically is very close to the sea but not so high as to present undue difficulty climbing.
Pachecamac Ruins Museum
An attractive and modernist building houses the museum, which blends nicely into the landscape of the archaeological site. Our guide bought the tickets, which were included in the tour price. Unfortunately he also ushered us through the museum as a group, which was not the optimal experience.
Our tour guide was a fine tour guide. But he’s not a professional museum docent. He also didn’t give the impression of being a history grad student or someone who was particularly wrapped up with the history of the site. I would have preferred to be given a set amount of time inside the museum to read the exhibit descriptions independently, and spend more time with the artifacts that drew particular interest.
It’s not an overly large museum and there aren’t multiple levels to it. A small group of 10-12 could easily be let to explore independently. For those who want a spiel, the guide can do that too.
There’s a cafe on site at the museum where you can get coffee and pastries. There’s also a native plant garden that was interesting and some small animal exhibits, primarily guinea pigs. The tour passed over these pretty quickly.
Pachecamac Ruins Site Tour
Being part of a group has an advantage because the site is quite large, being comprised of almost 1500 acres. We did a fair amount of driving within the site, from pyramid to pyramid, seeing other visitors passing on foot.
The ruins are often referred to as “pyramids.” I’m sure they were pyramids at one point in time but if your mind is picturing Chichen Itza… it’s not that. These are just the bases and don’t rise far above ground level.
Our guide gave a fair overview of the history, with a lot of emphasis on the Spanish and how they interacted with the site once they arrived. But if you really want to get into depth on the history it’s going to be important to do your own research before visiting the site.
The tour ends after a brief hike up to a platform near the Temple of the Sun God. It’s a very scenic point and ideal for taking photos, which the guide can help you with. From there we piled back into the van and headed back toward Miraflores. The driver can drop you off at an area restaurant if you prefer that over your hotel.
Bottom Line
I wanted to book a tour that was easy to do and didn’t take too long. This Pachecamac Ruins tour definitely fit the bill for that and came in right around the same price as seeing the site independently, so in my mind it’s a winner. I would recommend it to other travelers.
Particularly if you’re visiting in South American Winter like I did, you should check out the Pachecamac Ruins and book this tour if it works for you. You won’t need to be hauling gallons of water and sunscreen with you, and other popular tours like swimming with sea lions are less appealing during the winter months.
