Thursday, June 5th, 2003 – Day 107
Got up at 9.00am and walked around the area for an hour. This gray cloud called the gar?a covers the city down to ground level like a tick fog. Got a taxi (20 minutes) into centro (8 Soles). Most of the taxis here are unregulated and people just put the signs on their cars. When we got close to the centre, he took his taxi signs off. Visited some of the main attractions.
La Catedral)
Click on the picture to see it in it´s original size
“Lima – Peru – Lima’s baroque cathedral, an enlargement of an earlier one from 1555, was completed in 1625. It suffered damages in earthquakes in 1687 and was decimated by the big one in 1746. Inside are several notable churrigueresque (Spanish baroque) altars and carved wooden choir stalls, but the cathedral is best known for the chapel where Francisco Pizarro lies and a small Museo de Arte Religioso (Museum of Religious Art) housed in the rear of the church.
Immediately to the right after you enter the church is a chapel decorated in magnificent Venetian mosaics and marble. In case you don’t know whose earthly remains are inside the tomb, letters in mosaic tiles over the arch of the chapel spell out francisco pizarro. The founder of Lima and killer of the Inca’s emperor was himself assassinated in the Plaza de Armas in 1541, but his remains weren’t brought to the cathedral until 1985. (They were discovered in a crypt in 1977.)”
(05-06-2003)
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Click on the picture to see it in it´s original size
Lima – Peru – Taken at the Catherdral. (05-06-2003)
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Click on the picture to see it in it´s original size
Lima – Peru – Taken at the Catherdral. (05-06-2003)
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Click on the picture to see it in it´s original size
Lima – Peru – Taken at the Catherdral. A picture of my shadow at the tomb of pizarro (05-06-2003)
I then walked 10 minutes to “Convento y Museo de San Francisco”. I paid 5 Soles to enter and got a free English guide.
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Click on the picture to see it in it´s original size
Lima – Peru – Convent of Saint Francis (05-06-2003)
“Probably the most spectacular of Lima’s colonial-era churches, the Convent of Saint Francis is a strikingly restored, yellow-and-white 17th-century complex that survived the massive earthquake in 1746. Cloisters and interiors are lined with beautiful azulejos (glazed ceramic tiles) from Seville; carved mudéjar (Moorish-style) ceilings are overhead. The mandatory guided tour takes visitors past the cloisters to a fine museum of religious art, with beautifully carved saints and a series of portraits of the apostles by the studio of Francisco Zurbar?n, the famed Spanish painter. For many, though, the most fascinating component of the visit is the descent into the catacombs, which were dug beginning in 1546 as a burial ground for priests and others. (As many as 75,000 bodies were interred here before the main cemetery was built.) File past loads of bones–it’s unknown how many levels down they go–and see a round well lined with perfectly laid skulls and femurs. Also of great interest are the church, outfitted with an impressive neoclassical altar, and a fantastic 17th-century library with 20,000 books, many of which date to the first years after Lima’s foundation. A breathtaking carved Moorish ceiling over a staircase is a reconstruction of the original from 1625.”
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Click on the picture to see it in it´s original size
Lima – Peru – Convent of Saint Francis. (05-06-2003)
I then had lunch and went to “Museo de la Inquisici?n” which is free entry. They didn’t have an English Tour until 3.50pm so I waited for about 20 minutes. There were 4 other English speakers waiting.
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Click on the picture to see it in it´s original size
Lima – Peru – Museo de la Inquisici?n “This magnificent mansion across the street from the House of Congress once belonged to the family considered the founders of Lima, but it became the tribunal for the notorious Spanish Inquisition. Today, it is a museum that soberly addresses religious intolerance from the Middle Ages through colonial times. But its unfortunate history is plainly evident in the catacombs, which served as prison cells; on view are several instruments of torture. At least 32 people died here during the Inquisition, which persisted until 1820.”(05-06-2003)
I was on a roll, it was 4.40pm and time for the Santo Domingo monestry and church.
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Click on the picture to see it in it´s original size
Lima – Peru – Santo Domingo was conceived with the city but its founder was not Pizarro; it was a friar named Tomas de San Martin, later to become Preceptor Prior of the Dominican Order. In 1730 the greater or “general” hall was built; a work of art later to form one of the city’s more unified ornamental groups. Across its walls stretches a severe pad of shingles alternating with “mensulas” and veneer conches in the vanes. The setting is complemented by beautiful carved furniture and the polychromes of a series of paintings of the Cuzco School portraying the life of Santo Tomas de Aquino. As in all convents, Santo Domingo – located between ‘jirones’ Lima and Camana – is a sort of city inside the city; and it comprises a succession of cloisters and yards which are surrounded by service areas and communal rooms. Adjacent to Santo Domingo and some time after its foundation, a church was to be built which, since 1680, only preserves the mass of its original structure. Its tower is a highly original work of art and is believed to have been designed by Viceroy Amat circa 1764. At the right hand side of the Main Altar of the church, at the foot of a “retablo”, rest the remains of Santa Rosa de Lima (St. Rose of Lima), of San Martin de Porras and those of Beatified Juan Masias. Also to be seen there is the reposing image of Saint Rose, patron saint of Lima, sculpted in 1661 by Melchor Caffa. (05-06-2003)
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Click on the picture to see it in it´s original size
Lima – Peru – Santo Domingo (05-06-2003)
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Click on the picture to see it in it´s original size
Lima – Peru – Santo Domingo (05-06-2003)
It was 6.00pm and it was time for the Matrix Reloaded. I still remember walking out of the cinema in Kilarney after watching it and I knew it was something special. I have looking forward to getting to Lima to see the movie. When I walked out of that cinema in down town Lima, I didn’t feel anything. I kept analyzing what happened, the plot, the analysis. I enjoyed the special effects and subsequent fight scenes, but there there were some gaps in the plot itself.
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Portrait C – Portrait taken in Lima – Peru – on the 5th of June.
OK, the city, so it’s a sprawling, largely unattractive, chaotic urban mess. A vast polluted metropolis of nearly eight million residents with an uninspiring climate. Situated in the middle of Peru’s desert coastline, Lima is a magnet for struggling highland villagers searching, mostly in vain, for work and a better life for their families. but I like it, Lima has plenty to offer the adventurous traveller with interesting museums, a vibrant cafe and restaurant scene, striking architecture and its genuinely friendly people. It’s practically unavoidable if you’re travelling to Peru anyway.
Watched Anti Trust
Went to the only pub is town called O MURPHYS (owned by a Galway man). Anyway a KISS cover band were playing. Face paint, the works. OK place and it was a bit of fun. At 2.00am, I left and went to a disco called TEQUILLA ROCKS on Calle Diez Canseco 146. Its handy as its only 4 minutes walk from my hotel. I only stayed an hour as it wasn’t that good. Real gringo spot.