Lima

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This morning we embarked on a Lima city tour at 09:00. We were the first on the ‘bus and by the time we had finished the round of the hotels it was 09:50. In fairness, there was a slight delay due to a suicide - an individual had apparently flung himself or herself to their intended death from a high-rise block in a busy side street.

We started at the slightly tacky Huaca Huallamarca - a Maranga adobe pyramid describing the history of Lima 200 BC to 500 AD together with some mummified corpses. We moved on swiftly to the city centre where we saw some magnificent balconied Spanish colonial buildings until we got to the Cathedral. The forerunners of this magnificent building had been destroyed by earthquakes and the current edifice dates from 1755, although tremors have caused subsequent damage.

We could see the Government Palace, the residence of the President of the Republic from the cathedral steps and, as we descended the cathedral steps the Plaza Mayor was cleared of traffic in preparation for the changing of the guard. Whilst our whistle-stop tour did not allow us to wait for the ceremony, sight of the marching band and goose-stepping guards in full dress uniform was impressive and the music wasn’t too bad either.

Finally, the church and convent of San Francisco is an interesting seventeenth century monastery and includes the chapels of the Solitude and the Miracle. The network of underground galleries and catacombs were visited only briefly and were a cemetery at the colonial time. The skulls and femurs of the dead make an attractive display...

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