April 20
This afternoon, while Dave was stuck in the hotel room writing
his report, I joined a tour of the historical downtown. The tour company specializes in small groups and thus we were a group of five women from four different countries.
The downtown is a UNESCO world heritage site with buildings
from colonial times. We walked through two main squares. One was created in
the 1920's to commemorate the centennial of independence and honour the
liberator, San Martin. The other was the Main Square with the Cathedral, City
Hall and Presidential Palace around the sides. Both were lovely gathering
places, especially on a warm sunny afternoon. I enjoyed seeing the beautiful buildings and
learning about the history from our guide.
Peru is in an earthquake zone so many of these old buildings have been
rebuilt from time to time over the centuries.
The main part of the tour was the Saint Francis Cathedral
and Monastery. It was built in the 15th
century in a Spanish baroque style.
We weren’t allowed to photograph inside but I can tell you that it
was very beautiful. We saw walls covered
in tiles from the Seville region of Spain, wood for stairs and ceilings from Central
America and many paintings, including a Last Supper painting, Peruvian
style. That is, they were sitting at a
round table, eating indigenous foods like fruit, potatoes and guinea pig.
The main tourist attraction for this building, though, is the
catacombs. It’s a weird experience to go
beneath the church to see display upon display of bones (mostly femurs) and
skulls, almost like mass graves. This
was the church cemetery for Lima up until the 1800's, and it is estimated that some
20,000 people were buried there.
To lighten things up we then wandered through the tourist
market and each of us enjoyed a churro dessert treat. It was a wonderful afternoon of
exploration.
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| Saint Francis Cathedral |
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| Archbishop's Residence |
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