On our first full day in Peru, we had a city tour of Lima in the morning. We grabbed breakfast at the hotel first, which was served buffet style. The selection wasn’t extensive but we managed to find some more interesting things to try, like a steamed tamale and a crepe with strawberry sauce and chocolate sauce. My favorite part was the salchichas, which are little sausages that taste like hot dogs. These make up half of one of my favorite dishes, salchipapas, or hot dogs mixed with french fries.
Omelet, croissant, crepe with strawberry and chocolate sauces, roasted carrot, salchichas, bacon, tamale
We got on a bus with about a half dozen other people and drove around to various sites. We had a guide that accompanied us everywhere, explaining the history behind each place. Our first stop was the Park of Love, which is in the Miraflores district, right on the cliff and overlooks the Pacific Ocean.
Cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean and La Rosa Nautica, a famous restaurant on a pier
Unfortunately it was very hazy that day so we couldn’t see very far, but the park itself was very pretty with lots of flowers all around (Miraflores literally means “look at the flowers”). There was a huge statue in the middle of a couple kissing quite passionately.
El Beso - "The Kiss"
The nicest feature of the park, in my opinion, was the bench that ran around the perimeter and looked like it was created by Gaudi. The bench was covered in multicolor mosaic tiles that created beautiful designs. It was almost like being back at Parc Guell in Barcelona, though on a much smaller scale. What I liked was that there were names of couples written on the tiles, which made it seem a bit more personal.
Colorful mosaics
After leaving the park, we drove to the upscale San Isidro district to The Temple of Huallamarca, a small pyramid right in the center of the city.
Templo de Huallamarca
The structure was not built by the Incas, but by an unknown culture. Various artifacts have been uncovered from the structure, including a mummy that is displayed in the small museum that is part of the site. That freaked me out a bit!
An artifact discovered with the mummy (I told Josh he wasn't allowed to take a picture of the mummy itself!)
The pyramid was constructed out of mud bricks, and there’s a path that leads to the top. While the structure itself is not super huge, the view of the city from the top of the pyramid was quite nice.
The view from the top
After leaving Huallamarca, we drove closer to the city’s historical center and visited the convent of Santo Domingo. There was lovely wood and tile work in the convent, as well as a beautiful Spanish-style courtyard.
Spanish style courtyard
Then we walked over to the Plaza Mayor, the main square in Lima. It was a very lively place, with tons of people walking around and hanging out. The square is surrounded by some government buildings and the main cathedral.
Plaza Mayor
Cathedral
There was also a procession going on outside of the cathedral, with a group of men carrying a religious icon of some sort on a litter.
Religious procession
Josh and I laughed hysterically at what was following the procession, a guy riding a giant vacuum cleaner to suck up all the confetti that was being thrown…
Giant ride-on vacuum cleaner
After leaving the plaza, we made our way over to the San Francisco Convent. This is one of the most famous sites in Lima, and while the convent itself was beautiful (with a lovely Moorish style wood dome and a historic library with a fascinating collection of old books), the main feature of the convent is the catacombs.
San Francisco Basilica and Convent
And this is where things went way downhill for me. Basically the catacombs are just full of bones. Tens of thousands of human skeletons, all arranged in piles according to type (ie., skulls, femurs, etc.), or arranged in decorative patterns. Or at least that was what I’m told. You see, I kept my eyes closed or stared at my feet the whole time we were down in the catacombs. I maneuvered by clinging to Josh’s arm, and it was really hard not to look where I was going because the paths pretty narrow and uneven in some places. The worst part was near the end, when we were surrounded by bins and bins of bones, and the path wasn’t wide enough for people to walk side by side. Basically I just walked directly behind Josh and buried my face into his shoulder. I consider it a huge feat that I managed to walk through the whole thing without seeing any bones, except for maybe a sliver of a femur out of the corner of my eye. Even just thinking about it now gives me the chills! Luckily they don’t allow pictures inside, although if you do a search on the internet you can see some of the patterns they made out of the bones. [This is Josh interrupting the post to provide a helpful link so you don’t have to do the search. It is quite a weird place, I’m not sure how it became a tourist attraction.] It’s sort of interesting, yet very morbid at the same time.
So on that very creepy note, our city tour ended. They dropped us back at our hotel where we made a short pit stop, then headed out to a ceviche restaurant, Alfresco, for lunch. On our way we walked through Kennedy Park, which is named in honor of John F. Kennedy.
Bust of JFK in Kennedy Park
The ceviche was fabulous, and with our bellies full, we walked to the other end of Miraflores to see Huaca Pucllana, a much larger pyramid than we saw in the morning. It’s also right in the center of the city, and we walked around it most of the way before finding the entrance. We couldn’t see from one end to the other, that’s how big it was.
Just a small portion of Huaca Pucllana
Our entrance fee included a guided group tour and we were joined by another pair of New Yorkers, two of the few Americans we met on our trip. The pyramid structure was a religious and administrative center for the people who lived in the area. They were not Incas, but were part of the Lima culture. The bricks were made out of mud, enforced with smashed seashells. There were also many mummies found at this site, and I’m glad that we didn’t see any.
The mud bricks were stacked like books on a bookshelf
There are life-sized “dioramas” at the site as well that depict what a certain spot may have been used for, like for religious ceremonies.
Life-sized mannequins depicting a religious ceremony
There was also a small garden at the site where they grow indigenous plants, and a small “zoo” with llamas, alpacas, ducks, and guinea pigs. It was a pretty educational tour, well worth the entrance fee (you’re not allowed to walk around the site by yourself).
Llama
Before our dinner at La Rosa Nautica, we took another long walk to the Barranco district, where there is a lot of colonial architecture. It was pretty dark by the time we got there though, so we weren’t able to see much. There was a bright yellow church and the Bridge of Sighs.
Bright yellow church
The Bridge of Sighs
We took a cab back to the hotel, since it was a long walk to get out there, and rested for a bit before heading to dinner. We enjoyed a leisurely meal before returning to the hotel for the evening. It was long day but we got to see a lot of neat stuff, and we felt like we had “done” Lima, since it was our only day in this particular city. Overall I think it was a tiring but successful day.