19th Oct. 2016
In new cities we often find that walking tours are a good way to find our bearings, so we join the Free Walking Tour, which is funded by visitors’ tips at the end of the tour. The guides are usually local students who wish to improve their English and have local knowledge that is not in guide books. True to form that was what we got along with a brief history of Lima.
At the church of Santa Rosa, we were told the history of the eponymous saint as well as Saint Martin de Porres and were shown the shrines with their skulls. We have now returned to the very ornate and rich Catholic symbolism. I am reminded of the Philippa Gregory book I am currently reading about Kateryn Parr who campaigned for the Protestant sympathisers again Rome and the Catholic Church.
We then head for the “river” Rimac which is no more than a dry bed as the water has been diverted into a parallel canal whilst a road tunnel is being constructed downstream. Not worth a photo but we learn about the Rimac district on the other bank and later Dave and I walk up the main street to the church at the end (we are still trying for our 10,000 steps a day target and today we achieve over 15,000 in total!) It was then back to the main square for the changing of the guard at the Palacio de Gobierno, along with many other tourists. Sadly the guards would not let us get right up to the railings so it was difficult to get a decent photo.
A favourite of ours is always to see railway stations and Lima has an old one which only saw a few years service. It is now a reading area but we went in to see the wall of murals depicting earlier inhabitants of Peru, very colourful and we are lead to believe painted by artists high on the drugs found in local plants!
After a few more stops it was time for the promised Pisco tasting. Not keen on the 42% proof neat version or the ultra sweet Baileys concoction. The passion fruit one was OK but you cannot beat a good old Pisco Sour.
After lunch, on the recommendation of the guide we headed back to Iglesia y Convento de San Francisco for the tour of the Catacombs and joined the English tour. Well, having done little (i.e. no) research on this we were in for many great surprises but sadly no photos are allowed inside. First we were given a tour of the Convent/Monastery which was originally built in 16th C but rebuilt a century later after the original was destroyed.
Room after room was stunning and we especially liked the library which was still full of 20,000 old musty books – it looked quite Harry Potter like and the best I can do is a photo of the postcard we bought. If you are in Lima I recommend a visit as the best(?) was still to come. The dining room was not like Harry Potter as it did not have rows of tables. However, it did have many paintings hung on the walls including at one end a large picture of the Last Supper with the table covered in Peruvian foods with a roast guinea pig having centre stage. The sacristy is also worth a mention as the walls have wooden carvings of all the monks depicting how they died so some were holding their heads, others had spears through their hearts and some held cups of poison.
We then headed under the church into the catacombs which were used as the city cemetery until 1821. The rich had their mausoleums and private vaults but the poor were just buried one on top of another. In 1947 excavations began and the bones removed and sorted by limb as the skeletons were no longer complete. It has been estimated that 25,000 bodies were buried there and the bones have been returned to the catacombs but in rows and rows of compartments sorted by bone type. It is difficult to comprehend just how many bones, including piles of skulls there are here..
There are five wells in the Catacombs as these help to stop the building above collapse during any seismic activity. These wells now house carefully arranged bones and skulls, again the best we could manage was to photograph a postcard.
After such an interesting day we just had to head for Hotel Bolivar where they serve great Pisco Sours and digest what we had experienced today. So many skulls and bones in one place. We are glad that we are revisiting Lima and staying in the Historical Centre. Four years ago, when we were last in Lima, we were not able to get into the centre due to a meeting of all the South American Heads of State shutting off the Plaza Mayor to tourists.