Last days in Lima
We decided to stay in a hostal in the centro district of Lima (where
it was almost 1/3 the price and a little shabbier) and we visited the Museo de la Inquisicion. Lima was the seat of the Inquisition and people were sent from other South American countries to be tried and persecuted. Luckily, people were given many chances before the torture to confess and only 40 people (I think) were killed there. Not that that was good, but compared to Spain, much more were spared. We got to see the rooms and go underground to see some tunnels and pits. It was creepy but not as much as the catacombs of San Francisco. At that church we took a tour and saw an amazing library (with spiral staircases and dust-covered, rotting books) straight out of Harry Potter, according to our guide. The catacombs were really strange. I think 35,000 people were buried there, regardless of class or wealth. In the past it used to be the burial grounds. Only until later on was it for just patrons and the monks of the cathedral. We went into one room on the main floor that had some beautiful gigantic paintings and a big hole in the floor with a staircase. We didn’t go down it because immediately at the bottom was a skull on top of a grave. Off to the side was an entire human skeleton. I thought at first how disrespectful it was to have a tourist viewing of a dead guy, but then I realized he paid big bucks to be buried in the cathedral. Maybe he was very proud to be show off his body as well, so we know he was buried there. Maybe.
The catacombs are three levels underneath the church filled with bodies. We only visited the first level, which archaeologists had been to as well. The archaeologists categorized the bones, so one room was just a pit of femurs. There were some intact skeletons, but not much because their method of burial was to put the body into a pit, cover with lime, layer with up to 4 more bodies. When they had decayed to just bones, they were moved to another pit. There was a large stone well under the center of the cathedral that was 30 meters deep, filled with bones. The top layer was arranged in an artistic swirling design of bones. Not my kind of art.
We enjoyed walking around the plazas and at one we made friends with two artisans. One of them wanted to talk politics with Matt and we must have been there for at least an hour and a half, talking about government systems. The quiet guy was a 17 year old boy from the Amazon who is learning the trade from his mother. I think we had our Spanish immersion of the day chatting with them. Everyone we meet has been so friendly and interested in why we’re here and how we like Peru.
We got to spend a few hours with Effie’s cousin one day, which was nice. She took us to the mall, which she really liked (it IS beautiful, an open air mall on a cliff overlooking the ocean). We walked around the mall a bit, got to see her condo (which is beautiful. You can have a maid for $1 a day in Lima, but she doesn’t have one, at least not right now. She does have her own personal carpenter who made all her furniture in her apartment. She says it’s cheaper to design it yourself and hire someone to make it than go to the store. That sounds good to me!) She also took us to a restaurant about a block from her condo, where Effie’s aunts like to go to when they visit. It was a good restaurant, but it had American prices for the food and very attentive service. It was very different than how we had been eating, but we wanted Ana Maria to show us her favorite things to do, and I won’t complain about good food. I got to try chicha morada, which is a juice made from purple corn. It’s really good and is good for you as well. We have been eating great non stop in Lima. There’s a street in the centro that has 3 vegetarian restaurants, which we have visited them all. I was worried that it would be hard to be vegetarian in Peru, but the main concern is getting to try everything there is.
The photo is a a random dance we saw in Lima Centro. There was a live brass band and marinera dancing, which involves “much romatic handkerchief waving.” It was fun to watch because the dancers were young and really seemed to enjoy what they were doing. There’s going to be a big marinera competition coming up, but I’m not sure exactly where or when. There was also a horse demonstration nearby as well, but they just trotted in circles. The kids loved it.