| Nov 15, 2005 - Lima, Peru
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 | Lima's Plaza San Martin
| | Small statue in center, notice "llama" on her head
| | Lima's main cathedral
| | Birds in San Francisco Plaza
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 | Fountain and San Francisco Monastery
| | Last Supper painting
| | Last Supper, w/ flash
| | Me in the catacombs
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 | Skulls
| | Decorated bones & skulls
| | More of the decorated bones
| | Same area w/ skull in the wall
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 | A hole looking down on area, w/ flash
| | Same hole, w/o the flash
| | Old library
| | Old library again
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 | San Francisco Monastery exterior
| | San Francisco Monastery and plaza
| | Mountain w/ cross from Plaza de Armas
| | Dunkin Donuts stand in the Larcomar mall
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 | Lima Cathedral
| | Cathedral entrance
| | More of the cathedral
| | Still more cathedral
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 | Long shot of the cathedral
| | Lima'sPlaza de Armas
| | Plaza's central statue, w/ Peru flag
| | View of another side of the Plaza
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 | Lima's Plaza de Armas from afar
| | The Street crossing mimes
| | The pedestrian walkway mall
| | My 2 packs, for the record
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| Got into Lima around 5:30 in the morning, took a cab to a hostel in the city center, and went back to bed.
For all the bad things I heard and read about Lima along the way, it really wasn{t so bad, and I kinda enjoyed myself. Then again, I was only there for a bit more than a day. Here's what happened. When I finally got back out of bed I walked around the city center a bit. They have the main Plaza de Armas, and then another San Martin plaza just a few blocks away. These 2 are connected by a long pedestrian outdoor mall walkway type thing. Its somewhat enjoyable to stroll down, but I am not much of a shopper (in case you didn't know) and you are constantly harrased by people who want you to use their internet or change money at their place, or something like that. Also, all over Lima are these mimes in yellow shits and blue pants whose sole purpose that I can gather is to act as crossing guards. They stand there with whistles and sometimes signs, but don't say a thing, and tell you when to cross the street. I got a kick out of that. A funny note about the San Martin plaza. There is a large statue in the center of San Martin on a horse. Then beneath that on the pedestal is another smaller statue of a woman or a saint or something. According to my guide book, when they put the order in for this smaller statue they asked for a flame to be on the woman's head. Well, the word for flame in Spanish is llama, same as the animal. So if you look at my picture you will see this woman beautifully posed with a tiny llama sitting on her head. Not sure if the story is true, but though it was worth a laugh.
I also checked out the San Francisco monastery which a lot of people recommended to me. It is a nice church, but the main attraction are the catacombs that exist beneath it. You taeke a small tour of the place, and i the catacombs are well preserved bones dating back a couple centuries, I think. I'm not too sure because my tour was in Spanish, I would have had to wait 2 hours for the next English tour, so after a while I just left the tour and walked around on my own. The catacombs were eery and crazy and cool. There is one part in a round little well of a room where all these skulls and bones are arranged artistically in a nice circle. I was confused about that, but it turns out the archaeologists who established this place just decided to make a pretty design with it. So, no historical significance. Some other nice parts of the Monastery was this very old library still maintained with the original books and all that, but of course you just veiw them from behind a rope. And also a large painting of The Last Supper. However, the supper is made to have a Peruvian twist. So you will see on the table they are eating large Cuy, which, in case I haven't mentioned before, is guinea pig. Yes, its an expensive delicacy in the Andes of Peru and Ecuador, and possibly Bolivia as well. There was some other cool twists with local significance in the painting, but I can't remember it.
In the afternoon I took a bus to another part of the city called Miraflores. It is the more upscale, posh, touristy, and safer part of the city. I enjoyed walking around here and just checking out some places, and also went to the local American Airlines agency. New return date: June 6th, because that day allowed me to leave at a more reasonable time in the morning. Down on the beach, or rather on a cliff overlooking the beach, they have this very modern open air mall called the Larcomar. I looked around there for a while as well, and had some amaizing gelato from a stand there. And that was really about it. Went to bed sorta early. The next day I just relaxed in the morning, walked around a bit more, and took my bus to Ica. |
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