Lima Day 2

Today´s tour took us around the capital city of Lima.  On the bus ride, we had a chance to learn a little about Peru´s culture. Lima gained its independece from Spain on the 21st of July 1821 where the liberator José San Martín helped Peru and parts of Colombia, Chile, Bolivia and Argentina break away from Spanish rule.  Peru´s main exports are minerals (gold,sliver) and  fishing in addition to depending on tourism to help the country economically. It´s amazing how some places get their names. Our guide Efraín told us the story how when the Spanish came to Lima and asked where they were, (since the Spanish did not know), the native people to the area did not understand the Spanish language. After awhile, the person responded  Pirú which then came to be known as Perú later on.

We had a chance to visit the San Francisco Convenant. After tourning the church seeing where once the 130 choir sang, we passed the library which has more than 25,000 books which date back over 400 years. These books are written in Latin, Spanish, Portguese and Quechua with many themes covering religion, theology, medicine and Astrology. Afterwards, we went down to the basement where we saw the human bones of more than 22,000 people in the Catacombs. In order to be buried in the public cemetary, you had to have at least some Spanish blood in you and be Catholic. Aftewards we took a trip to the Santo Domingo covent  where the highlight of this beautifiul chucrch with Moorish arquetecture was the tomb of Santa Ana who was originally named Isabel and was the first Pervuian to become a Saint.

Agregar leyenda

Additionally, we had a chance to see the royal band play outside the presidential palace today, visit the Museo Rafael Larco Herrera which contains more than 40,000 ceramics which  tell the story of the Inca and Pre Incan times from times B.C.E up to the 15th century.

The kids had a tiring day yet they had a chance to see a lot, learn a lot, and have a chance to visit the local supermarket. They also had a lovely dinner at  the restaurant Huaca Pucllana which is set up next to an ararquelogical site which dates back to the year 700. There they ate a Rainbow flounder followd by the sweet dessert of suspiro de limeña.

Our time in Lima has come to an end, but we are ready to travel from 250 ft in elevation to almost 9500 ft in elevation when we fly to Cusco tomorrow.