Lima day tour

  Lima, Peru
Sunday, March 30, 2008

We started the day by waking up at 7AM and had a modest breakfast at the hostal.  At 9AM our tour guide picked us up from the hostal and we were surprised to discover that it would only be us.

We started by driving into downtown Lima.  Our first stop was a quick one.  We visited a square where the buildings were built in 1919 and 1921 to commemoratate the centenial of Peru´s independence.  There were numerous kids putting on traditional clothes for a parade later in the day.








Next we got back in the van and made a much longer stop at a major city square.  We visited the Presidentetial Palace which was heavily guarded.  Also in the square was the Lima Cathedral.  I was shocked to see that Francisco Pizarro was buried inside the church.  Services were ongoing at the time, but Bram and I crept around and took in the beautiful artwook all around.
We spent more time walking around and visited a post office that had once been a single residence with over 52 rooms.  We did some shopping and took in the sights.
















Next we walked to the Franciscan Church.  It was built almost 400 years ago, and underground we took a tour of the catacombs that was filled with the bones of over 25,000 body´s bones.







Our next stop was the Gold Museum. The first floor had an extensive collection of weapons from all different coountries and time periods. There was a terrific collection of samurai warrior outfits. The bottom level was the gold museum and contained gold artifacts discovered from Incan and pre-Incan times.


Finally our tour guide dropped us off at a restaurant in Miraflores.  It was a great location overlooking the beach and the Pacific Ocean.  It was a buffet so of course we made numerous visits for food.  Afterwards we walked around the four levels of shops and even had some drinks at another place.