Lima Day One

We woke up in Lima. We still had a bit of sunburn, the bit of down time at Pisco had helped, but we were still processing all the things we’d been seeing. Penguin chicks! Flamingos! Llamas! The Andes! Sea Lions! I like forests and especially wet forests, but the dry coasts were very beautiful in their way. Lima’s an oasis built on the coast against really lovely cliffs.

On our first day we wanted to go out and see the city and local culture. We decided to visit the the Catacombs in the Basilica of San Fransisco which would put us in a good part of the city to explore by foot.

The basilica was lovely, esp. the woodwork around the entry. And it had a ton of pigeons.

The tour of the catacombs had a no photography policy.

While the basilica was beautiful and very fascinating, we respected their no photos policy for the interior of the basilica or the catacombs. The basilica has got a lot of beautiful neoclassical architecture, interesting art, amazing old hymnals and ancient books that were fascinating and lovely to behold. In the center of the building was a really beautiful, heavily planted courtyard. There we saw sparrows, more pigeons, and some West Peruvian doves (Zenaida meloda) that look and act very much like white-winged doves.

The church did some English tours of the catacombs. The catacombs are full of tens of thousands of skeletons with bones presented in various, sometimes artful ways, and were really interesting to visit, though we really enjoyed the tour through the church as well. I really found the giant, ancient songbooks in medieval notation and the huge library with a huge collection of centuries old books really striking, and the place is full of some really incredible painted ceramic tile work.

After we finished with the tour we sat for a bit in the entry to rest and I wound up talking to a guy who was a translator for the courts. He knew quite a number of languages and was really interesting to talk to, and we chatted in Spanish a bit. Then we headed out.

The first thing we really noticed was the power lines – amazing.

We ate at a local place near Parque de la Muralla. Trying the ‘limonade’ it was again lime-ade and amazing. From there we wandered to the Plaza de Armas.

The Plaza de Armas is a really lovely and interesting space in the middle of the historic center.

The whole area’s wonderful to walk around and see the buildings and monuments.

We stayed there until dark, visiting the Cathedral of Lima for a bit. We love visiting old Catholic churches to see the art and architecture. (Cathedrals are the seats of bishops so they’re big and typically very interesting spaces.) From the plaza we got a ride back to the hotel and got to bed.

next: Lima Day Two, Pantanos de Villa