Lima City of Kings

Trip Start Dec 16, 2007
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Trip End Jul 09, 2008


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Monday, January 14, 2008

I arrived in Lima to a gloomy grey day which is apparently what most days are like here and they actually have a name for it. On my first day in the city I went to the Archeological and History museum which was absolutely fantastic. For a few extra sols which is next to nothing we got an English guide that was super informative. There were several displays of different artifacts from Pre-Incan and the Inca culture which was really neat seeing the evolution of the pottery and textiles etc. Then in the history section it covered the era from when the Spaniards arrived until present day.

Afterwards I took a city tour which was a great intro into the old part of Lima. There are so many beautiful old buildings I had no idea. I was also quite surprised by the size of them...they are huge!!! We visited some important churches...most importantly the main cathedral, and we saw the governmental palace and several other buildings, which a lot of were painted yellow in order to offset the grey weather cool artifact
cool artifact
 . Then we toured the San Francisco monestary which was just amazing. There was an incredibly old library and a really interesting Moorish styled dome. It was composed of several intricate shapes made by pieces of cedar wood fused together by pressure. Afterwards we went down into the catacomns which was really neat if not a little creepy. 

On my second day in the city I went to the Museum of the Inquisition which was informative but quite campy with several wax figured scenes depicting hearings and several methods of torture used during the time. The building itself was one that was actually used in the Inquisition so I thought that was a nice touch. Then randomly we got to see the president... because congress which was right next door was just letting out and there was a huge procession and piles of police blocking off the area. Afterward we went to the government palace to see the changing of the guard. They are super colourful here, bright red and royal blue...there was a band which played for about half an hour then the whole changing took place...and shortly thereafter the president arrived and we got to see him again.

Then in the afternoon I went to some Wari ruins outside of the city, which were also used in Inca times. Pachacamac was a religious sanctuary that people pilgrimaged to from all over. They have only uncovered 20 percent so I canīt even imagine how immense this thing mustīve been. But essentially it housed the oracle so thatīs why everyone came here. They had fully restored the moon temple and used to offer tours however the earthquake in August made it unsafe for visitors so we just got to view it from the outside...all in all Lima has been a very interesting city...I quite enjoyed it.
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