For many, Lima serves as the arrival point for onward journeys to the ruins of Machu Picchu. But authorities hope to position Lima as a regional hub not only for leisure tourism, but business. It placed eighth on a 2016 study from AmericaEconomia Intelligence on the best cities in Latin America for business, thanks to its strong social and political framework, environmental sustainability and low unemployment.

Almost all people travelling to Peru for business will come to Lima – with 9.9 million people, it’s home to roughly a third of the country’s population. It also is home to 7,000 factories and nearly all of Peru’s multinationals (like Spanish telecommunications company Telefonica and multinational banking group BBVA). Foreign investment is pouring in for mining, hydrocarbon and major infrastructure projects – a second line of the Metro light rail is just one example.

But strong economic growth has turned it, like many South American capitals, into a city of haves and have-nots. While the haves enjoy Pacific Ocean views from glistening apartment complexes along the coastal cliffs, the have-nots live in massive slums that dot the interior hills (most of which ballooned during Peru’s internal conflict in the 1980s and ’90s).