More time in Lima

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Another cold cloudy day in Lima. I don´t think I have seen the sky once since I have been here, only clouds. We did quite a bit of exploring the city yesterday and came to the conclusion that Lima has the feel of a Euopean city despite the fog and areas of extreme poverty. A guided tour of the city brought us around central Lima and Mira Flores. We began at El parque de amor or the park of love which was created in the image of the park in Barcelona. It was beautiful on top of a cliff overlooking the pacific. Mosaic tiled walls of poems lined the walkways and a large staue titled The Kiss was in the center. From the park we drove through the wealthy neighborhood where many of the ambasadors live. The difference in social and economic class here is incredible. Crossing a single street can bring you into one of the wealthiest neighborhoods or poorest neighborhoods imaginable. In ayacucho people tended to live around eachother and the class difference wasn´t as noticable.

In central lima we saw the government buildings along with the cathedral and the San Fransisco monastery. The government buildings were beautiful, all white and black surrounding the Plaza de Armas. There was some sort of dance festival going on, which seems to be a pretty common thing here in Peru. From what we understood the people of Lake Titicaca and into Bolivia were invited to dance because of the a holiday in Bolivia. Whatever the reason was we enjoyed the bright costumes.

The monastery was probably my favorite part of the tour. The building itself was incredibly old and beautiful. Every inch of wall and ceiling was decorated some how. Most by mosaics or paintings. There was also some elaborate wood carvings where the monks sat, chanted and ate. The library was straight out of a movie. Dark wood shelves covered the walls of a rectangular room from floor to ceiling. Spiral stairs led from the ground to the second level balcony on each side of the room. crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling and illuminated manuscripts rested on tables and stands. Bascially it was one of the most beautiful libraries I have ever been in and one of the saddest. Many of those books were probably in horrible condition and the room was not controlled at all so they were being further destroyed by humidity and light. The oldest books was over 400 years old and just sitting there on a shelf. Lisa was not pleased.

Apart from the library we went down into the catacombs below the church. They were very cool, straight out of indiana Jones although with out the snakes. The tour was very interesting but you got the feeling you were really only seeing the surface of what the monastery actually had. I would have loved the chance to explore on my own and see what is really there.

After the tour we hung around the hostal, making dinner and reading. The night was thankfully quiet and today has been the same. I don´t think I will be sad to leave Lima tomorrow. It was a nice break for a few days but I´m more than ready to head into the amazon. I´m not sure what our internet chances will be at the lodge but I will try to update if I can. Otherwise it will just have to wait until we get to cuzco later in the week.

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