No rush this morning as we
didn't have to meet our guide, Juan, until 8:40. Had a nice breakfast at
the hotel and met our group of 23 people, 5 of them went to medical school
together in China and they had a total group of 14 traveling with them. One of the men had a U of R hat on but he said his son went
there to become a radiologist and that he and his wife lived outside of
Portland, Oregon. There are two other NY couples, one from Saratoga -
who, of course, knew of Funny Cide, and a couple from Poughkeepsie. We are
still learning names of the rest. Our local tour guide for Lima, Maribel, gave us
so many facts I'll try to share some of them here:
*Peru has 24 Departments, which are
divided into provinces and then into 43, each having a mayor with the
Mayor of Lima being the Super mayor.
*Peru has 2 seasons, winter and summer
with only 14 degrees variation in temperature. Lima is the 2nd largest
city in the world in the middle of a desert. Cairo is #1.
*It is mandatory to vote in Peru and
there are penalties if you don't. Presidential elections are held every 5
years and mayors and legislators( the Congress) are elected every 4.
*We toured many districts of Lima i.e.
Miraflores, San Isidro, Lince and Jesus Maria.
*We passed by the soccer
stadium which houses 65,000.
*Lima was founded in 1535 by Francisco
Pizarro and until 1821 was a Viceroyalty of Spain. In 1821, Jose de San
Martin, an Argentinian, issued the proclamation of independence. With
the help of Simon Bolivar, Tupac Amaru and others they finally gained
their independence.
We visited the church of St. Francis
Assisi and the monastery and catacombs. At one time there were 200
friars here. Now there are about 40. This used to be the only cemetery
in Lima and there were endless bones and skulls. The library contains
25,000 books. We also saw paintings of the apostles by Zuburan. Our next
stop was la Plaza de Armas or their main square. On one side was the
Cathedral of Lima, built on top of an Incan temple, the Presidential
Palace on another, and the City Hall on another. From there it was back
to the hotel and we grabbed a quick but tasty lunch at Rigoletos. Then a
small group of us went the Larco Herrera Museum. This is a private
museum with a stunning collection of 45000 pieces of pottery, metal
work, weaving etc. The pieces represent many different periods of
Peruvian art. Back to the hotel for orientation and then we went to
a traditional Peruvian meal and dance performance. An extremely busy day and tomorrow our wake up call is for 5:00 am. We leave for the airport to fly to Cuzco at 6:10.
 |
| Our hotel in Lima - Jose Antonio |
Views of Downtown Lima
 |
| The Church of St. Francis Assisi |
 |
| The Church of St. Francis Assisi |
 |
| The old Railroad Station - it only runs once every 6 months - now a house of literature |
 |
| La Plaza de Armas |
 |
| The Presidential Palace |
 |
| Police guarding the Palace - there was some kind of ceremony going on but we never found out what it was. |
 |
| The Cathedral of Lima |
 |
| A downtown street in Lima - notice the Spanish influence with the balcony |
 |
Another Balcony in La Plaza de Armas - This is the Mayors' office
 |
| Another example of the Spanish influence |
|
 |
A remnant of an Incan Ruin
Lunch at Rigoletos
Views from the
Larco Herrera Museum
 |
| The entrance to the Museum - They have beautiful gardens |
|
 |
| Moche Art |
 |
| Silver and Gold |
 |
| A mummy |
 |
| Ceremonial jewelry |
 |
| Just some of the thousands of pieces of Peruvian art that this museum houses |
|
|
|
|
Views from the Dance Performance
No comments:
Post a Comment