On to Lima

Thursday, May 05, 2011
We were our early this morning for our flight from Puno to Lima, where we were met by our guide and driver for the day, Maggie and Enrique. We rode from the airport to the old colonial center of the city, where we strolled around the Plaza de Armas, the central square. The square is lovely, bordered by the Presidential Palace, Cathedral, City Hall and other buildings, many of them painted yellow. We watched part of the daily changing of the guard at the Palace and toured the Cathedral which, like so much of Colonial Peru, was built upon Incan ruins. In addition to the main altar, the elaborately carved choir, 3,000- pipe organ, and many side altars, the Cathedral contains the tomb of Francisco Pizarro. The prominence of the tomb, as well as the intricate mosaics covering the walls of its chapel seem ironic in the face of the fact that he represented the imposition of Spanish rule, culture, and religion on native peoples.
From the Plaza, we walked a short distance to the church of St. Francis of Assisi, still an active Franciscan monastery. The lovely cloister is lined with ceramic tiles from Portugal and the library contains 25,000 volumes covering every subject, including the first translations of the Bible into the native languages. An elaborately carved choir overlooks the main church while below the church are the catacombs. We wandered through the subterranean passageways among the bones of tens of thousands of Christians from the colonial era. Sobering…
Lima is a city of nine million people, with a wide mix of architectural styles. Like those in the central square, many of the buildings are painted in a wide range off colors, none of them particularly subtle. The lack of Stop signs and traffic lights we’d observed in the much smaller cities of Cusco and Puno is taken to extreme proportions here and driving seems to be an ongoing game of chicken. Not for the faint of heart!
Leaving the center city via a freeway, we drove through the financial district of San Ysidro and then toured the upscale districts of Miraflores and Barranca, which border the Pacific Coast. We stopped to visit seaside parks, stroll through Barranca’s Plaza, and see the pre-Incan mud-brick pyramid at Pucllana, right in the middle of a residential area.
After checking in to our hotel in Miraflores, we walked down a busy commercial street to the sea and later had yet another fantastic Peruvian dinner of ceviche and causas. We enjoyed an after dinner walk through a lively park, full of people enjoying a craft market, a play in a small amphitheater, and lots of street food on this lovely night.