Lima Centro
Trip Start
May 03, 2005
1
13
35
Trip End
Oct 31, 2005
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Lima, Peru
Sunday, June 26, 2005
Headed to the Valle Verde on Thursday with Marita and Renée (any excuse to get out of the office). They were hand delivering invitations to a workshop on the environment (they don't have post delivered there) and we stopped off at a few schools to have a look along the way. I was greeted by a volume of wolf whistles at one school, which was more than a little disconcerting, then again, these teenagers have probably never seen a white person with blue eyes and red hair before (except on TV). I think I'm getting used to people staring at me now - I'm like a freak show! LOL! En route we also stopped off at a small yogurt manufacturer - the yogurt was amasing!!! Who cares if it wasn't pasteurised. It was surprisingly much cleaner than I was expecting.
On Friday night I went to dinner at a friend of Beto's and we had a giggle looking at old photos of Fernando, Rafael and Beto. On Saturday I headed to my usual haunt, the Bio Feria before going to the Valle Verde for the workshop with Renée and Marita. Marita's workshop was about the rights of women and offered counselling and advice to the local women and men in the Lurin Valley. Unfortunately women are still treated as second class citizens in many rural areas of Peru and the project is aimed at raising awareness of the problem in general and advising women of their rights and how they should expect to be treated. I was pleased to know that at least one woman, who was experiencing problems, was helped on Saturday.
On Sunday I went into Lima Centro for some sight seeing. We headed to the Plaza Mayor, where Pizarro built his palace on a sacred Incan site when he arrived in Lima. Founded by Francisco Pizarro on January 18, 1535, it is surrounded by the principal buildings dating from the colonial period.
A little bit of history on the Conquisitors:
Francisco Pizarro had travelled to Panama initially and, after coming across a raft boat on the coast of Columbia filled with fine crafts, he sought out Peru. Unfortunately for the locals, they also brought smallpox, which ravaged through the country killing even the Inca king (Sapa Inca - Son of the Sun God) in 1527-8. Pizarro then returned to Spain and showed King Charles V Peruvian pottery, metal vessels, fine clothing, embroideries, and small worked pieces of gold. The queen of Spain granted Pizarro a license "to discover and conquer Peru," which was described as "a rich and fertile land, inhabited by people more reasonable than any other which has so far been discovered." The terms of the grant gave Pizarro the governorship of Peru, with the rights to explore and exploit the land on behalf of the Crown.
A year later, Pizarro returned to Tumbes to find it in ruins - a burned-out, ransacked victim of the civil war raging in the empire. The sons of the Inca King were at war with each other for the position of King. As the Spanish only had 160 men, they were not perceived as great a threat by the brothers as their sibling. Unfortunately, they underestimated their weapons. The Spanish were welcomed and offered accomodation and food as was the custom of the Incas. It soon became apparent that the Spanish had an obsession with the gold that they used to adorn their buildings and bodies. For the Incas, the Spanish desire for gold was both curious and fascinating. For them, gold had an aesthetic rather than a monetary value. They found the Spanish obsession with gold as a commodity uncouth and even uncivilized.
Atahuallpa, one of the feuding brothers was shown the bible and he held the book next to his ear trying to listen to its pages. At last he asked: "Why doesn't the book say anything to me?" And he threw it on to the ground with a haughty and disdainful gesture. Father Vicente shouted that the Indians were against the Christian faith and gave the order to attack. The Spanish emerged with their guns from the porticoes around the square and fired in to the massed crowds of unarmed people. Once he was taken prisoner, Atahualpa quickly offered history's largest ransom to his captors. For a promise to free him, Atahualpa offered to deliver enough gold to fill a room 22 feet long by 17 feet wide, to a height of over 8 feet. Pizarro agreed.
Atahualpa sent his messengers out to announce that the Spanish were to be given all the gold and silver they desired, along with freedom to travel across the empire. The Spanish fanned out and stripped the Inca temples and pyramids of all their wealth until seven tons of gold and 13 tons of silver were delivered. It took one month to melt this all down into ingots to take back to Spain.
When it was time to release Atahualpa from his eight month captivity, Pizarro broke his promise, claiming that Atahualpa was plotting against him. Realizing that Cuzco was still out of his power 1,000 miles away, Pizarro probably decided that he couldn't let the Inca go free and still conquer the Inca Empire. Pizarro arranged an (unfair) trial in which Atahualpa was accused of the murder of Huascar(his brother), incitement to insurrection, misuse of the revenues of the crown by giving treasures to his family and friends after the conquest, adultery because he had many wives, and worshipping idols. Atahualpa was found guilty (we don't know of which crimes) and sentenced to death by burning at the stake. Since it is part of Inca culture and religion to preserve the body after death, Atahualpa did not want to die by burning at the stake - so he agreed to be baptized in exchange for death by strangulation. Lovely, eh? So much for Christianity.
So there you have it. Pizarro himself was later assasinated in his palace as a result of a power struggle for the control of Peru.
Check out the photos.
