I am in Lima at my Peruvian friend, Luis´, casa in an area called La Estancia. Luis arranged for his friend, Agustin, to pick me up from the airport early on Sunday morning (1am). Luckily, using FB, I was connected with Agustin and had his number as I needed to call his cell. When I arrived as I was not able to spot him in the crowd. Going through customs into Lima is interesting as you walk down a lane into an open circle which is made by a low fence, the people are all outside this fence and await their family and friends. It felt like you are on a parade or in the cattle sale yards with all the buyers looking at the potential of what is in front of them.
SUNDAY
Christina picked me up from here to take me out for lunch and show me around the town. The architecture just is amazing to see.
The picture of the marching soldiers is taken in front of the president’s house, in the main square.
Christina took me into the Convento De San Francisco which is a convent that was finished around 1774. The building was started 1546 but it was all knocked down by an earthquake in 1655. The building was then constructed from scratch from 1657.
There is a library inside that took my breath away due to the age, evidently it contains books of many different religions in different languages. The large books you see here are for the monks in the choir, the ¨paper¨is actually skin from the unborn lamb.
Below the convent there are many levels of rooms which housed bones from people many centuries ago, below is a picture of an Osario.
MONDAY
Today I was picked up by another of Luis´ friend, Paola, and she took me to the playa (beach) and also to a lovely little spot that translates to the bridge of sigh, see below. This is in an old part of the city called Barranco, we had lunch here. One of the churches had an exposed wooden roof that has parts of it covered in some sort of mud similar to cement, evidently this is Inca technology and would have been built with their assistance. I did not get many photo´s as I was warned about having my camera stolen.
I have been very fortunate to have Luis´friends show me around this amazing city with a deep history.
This evening I fly to Montreal, Canada, for a wedding on Saturday then back here to Lima Monday night where I´ll meet up with Prue. We will then see some more of Lima and then travel to Cusco and out to Andahuaylas.
Travel brings me an amazing feeling of discovery, the area, the people and the self.
TRc
