July 25, 2018 - Lima City Tour

Our Lima City Tour started early in the morning.  The first stop was Basilica and Convent of San Pedro. The church and convent are part of the Historic Centre of Lima, which was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in1991. Aside from a church and monastery, it also contains a library and catacombs. The convent's library is world-renowned. It possesses about 25,000 antique texts, some of them predating the conquest. Some notable books are the first Spanish dictionary published by the Royal Spanish Academy and a Holy Bible edition from 1571- 1572 printed in Antwerp. The church and monastery were blessed in 1673 and completed in 1674. This church survived several earthquakes without damage in 1687 and 1746, however it suffered extensive damage in an earthquake in 1970. The church is noted for its architecture, a high example of Spanish Baroque which means the intricate shape or decorated with complex patterns. Its granite carved portal would later influence those on other churches.  

The Iglesia y Convento de San Francisco was our second stop.  The main interest here is the Catacumbas below the church. Catacumbas are human bones.  It reminded us the Chapel of Bones we visited in Portugal. 

Then we visited the Main Square of Lima where we had many photo opportunities.

We had our lunch at Museo Larco Cafe Restaurant inside the Museum Larco.  It has shops and a beautiful garden surrounding the restaurant.  We had a chance to do shopping prior to our lunch.  Then, there is an exotic exhibition room next to the restaurant and we did visit it just for fun.  

We took many photos in their beautiful garden prior to the visit of the museum.  

Museum Larco has several permanent exhibitions. The Gold and Silver Gallery showcases the largest collection of jewelry used by many notable rulers of pre-Columbina Peru. 

The Cultures Gallery exhibits 10,000 years of Peruvian pre-Columbian history. This chronology-based gallery provides visitors with a comprehensive view of cultures that existed in pre-Columbian Peru through the extant indigenous art that has survived since the 16th century Spanish conquest. 

We visited the Storage Gallery first.  There are a lot of potteries in each cabinet on different shelves.  The quantity of the collection in this Storage Gallery is the largest we ever witnessed.  

This hall is divided into four areas: North Coast, Center, South and cultures from the highlands. Other galleries include the Lithic, Vault, Ceramics, Metals, and Textiles. There are a lot of Moche (1-800AD), Chimu (800-1300AD), and Chavin (900-200BC) exhibitions.  These cultures are pre-Inca time.   

We had dinner on our own.  Originally we planned to try the Paiche fish from Amazon River served in Amaz Restaurant located in the Hilton Hotel, but it was changed by eating at La Lucha Cafe.  Some ordered chicharrón which is a dish of fried pork belly or fried pork rinds, and some of us tried pork sandwiches.