1-16 Lima

1-16 Day 11 Lima, Peru

We docked in Callao (the port of Lima) around 8 am. It is a busy port town and Lima is a vast city (about 8 million people.) We had arranged to be on a tour to see the highlights of Lima – a four hour tour by coach bus.

It takes about 30 minutes to get into Lima from the port. We saw lots of poor areas and homes along the way. Our guide gave us a lot of information about the people of Lima plus some history of the country of Peru. Following are some of the more interesting facts:

Callao means little round stones. The port city was given that name because of the rocky beaches. The first settlers moved inland about 12 kilometers to protect themselves from pirates that were along the desert coast. Lima only gets 3 inches of rain annually. They don't sell umbrellas in this town! There is one river in Lima from which they get their electricity. There are two seasons: sunny summer with blue skies; cloudy winters with gray skies. To compensate for such dullness in the sky, the people of Lima used bright colors in their construction to give life to the city. Because of the lack of rain, it is extremely dusty, so people have to daily dust and clean their homes.

There are no hurricanes, but there are a lot of tremors and earthquakes. When the Spaniards first settled in the area, they did not understand how to construct buildings to withstand these tremors. Eventually, construction was done with a type of bamboo rod inside the walls to help stabilize the buildings and to protect the interiors.

Voting is considered more than just a privilege in Lima. It is a duty. When you are 18 years old, you are considered to be an adult citizen – required to vote to maintain that citizenship. If you fail to vote, you get fined. If you fail to pay your fine, your passport is taken away, you cannot get your money out of the bank, you lo longer have your job, etc. Voting always takes place on Sundays so that everyone has the opportunity to vote. Your ID card is marked to prove you voted.

Given that the country is mostly Catholic, it came as no surprise that our first stop on our excursion was to THE Cathedral. When I asked what the name of it was, our guide just said it's the cathedral of Lima. It was a large and impressive building. We were able to take lots of pictures inside. If you are interested in more details, just Google it! We also walked a few blocks to the Franciscan monastery which used to house about 300 monks and now still has 31 residents. It was a beautiful and peaceful place. I can see why being a monk would have been a peaceful life back then with the enclosed gardens and fountains. We were not allowed to take pictures of any of it. The ceilings in the corridors were made of wood brought from Nicaragua. Beautiful mural paintings were recently found – and then even more recently paintings under paintings were discovered on these walls. It was done by cutting out little squares of the first painting to reveal the one underneath. Also,I liked seeing the refectory where the monks ate in silence – beautiful wood in there as well. There were catacombs in the basement. While we were not allowed to go down into these, they had one area uncovered so we could look down and see one. As “decoration” they had a human skull on top of it – too freaky! I enjoyed the monastery as much as anything we saw.

Lima is a city of new and old; wealthy and poor. We drove through each. One of the unique things to this country in the way of architecture is the boxed balconies – very ornately carved wood. They can only be found in Peru. Saw the main square in the heart of downtown with the Government Palace. The surprising thing to us was how many police were everywhere. We saw an armored tank, about 8-10 police types looking like they were ready to do riot control with their full length shield protection, and lots of powerful guns. That evening there was to be a big celebration of something special for the city, so all the extra protection may have been for that.

One of the more fun things we saw in the Miraflores area (the nicer shopping and park areas by the water) was their traveling cow art show. Nearly life size cows all painted and decorated were everywhere along this park area. My favorite was the red cow wearing high heels! It reminded me of the pig exhibit in Venice (FL!) and the clown exhibit that had been along he bay in Sarasota. There was also a lovers' piece of art that made our sailor kiss statue in Sarasota look like nothing. Many people get their picture taken in front of this statue of an intertwined couple (we were no exception!

After a 30-40 minute ride back to the ship, we had a quick ship lunch and then explored the little shops local merchants had set up along side the ship. There were many handicrafts of all kinds. The only thing we bought was a Peru t-shirt for Doug.

That evening, we made the mistake of not going to the show – a local Peruvian folklore show brought on board ship. Guess we were bummed out by the last one from Costa Rica. We heard it was wonderful with costumes, dancing, and great native music. Fortunately they replay it on the ship TV so we have been able to see it from our room.

Tomorrow is our day to explore on our own. We canceled the “Shoppers Delight” tour when we found out the ship offered a free shuttle bus into the main part of the shopping district.