Touring the nation´s capital
Trip Start
Sep 11, 2008
1
47
70
Trip End
Jan 03, 2009
Lima, Peru
Sunday, November 2, 2008
By the time Iīd shifted my gear, it was around 10:30am, and I decided to take a walk along the cliffs and take some photos. On the way, I saw a big double-decker tourist bus that was about to do a 3 hour tour of the city, so I jumped on and did that instead. It was a bit expensive at s/50 (about AUS$25) but I enjoyed it and got to see a lot of the city, both Miraflores, the old central part, including the changing of the guard at the presidential palace, and a tour of the Monasterio de San Francisco.
The monastery was originally built in the 1600s, but parts of it were damaged in the 1970 earthquake, and a lot of it has been restored
the tour bus
. Itīs interesting because it contains a library with over 2000 books, many of which are centuries old, and underneath the church, is a maze of catacombs, where thousands of people have been buried over the years.The building itself, is of course spectacular, with wide arched cloisters, pretty courtyards, huge walls covered in beautiful ceramic tiles, all imported from Seville in Spain, intricately carved wooden ceilings, and gilded altars and other adornments. No photos are allowed inside (and unlike many Peruvians on the tour, I actually respected that rule), so youīll just have to believe that it was beautiful.
If only the money that was spent on constructing such places went instead on more useful things for the community, like I donīt know, say housing or hospitals, or education and food. Hmmm.
