I arrived to Lima, a big extense city with beautiful parks and an elegant modern district, but then during the city tour we visited a pre-Inka "huaca" (shrine.- not to confuse with "huaco"= pottery) and after that, we drove to the "Plaza de Armas" (Main square), with the baroque Cathedral (and Pizarro's tomb inside ), the Bishop's Palace with its beautifully carved wooden windows, the government Palace and then we also visited the church and convent of La Merced, also dating from colonial times.
Next morning, I had to wake up very early to fly to Cusco. There are small, poor houses in the suburbs, (Just as we also have here in Argentina ) but the historical centre is really beautiful and well kept, sorrounded by colonial buildings with their wooden balconies. It's a crowded area ( specially in the evening, not so much early in the morning) and there you can see native people with their typical clothes along with young backpackers and tourists from eveywhere. Everything is mixed: restaurants offering typical cuisine, global ATMs where you can draw money from your account at home, jewelry stores (Peruvians make beautiful silver and gold jewels) together with cyber cafes, souvenir shops (with colourful alpaca wool quilts and sweaters and hats) and pizza bars.
I had a city tour in the afternoon and saw the splendid Cathedral with its gold trimmed altar and the crypt with the tomb of the Peruvian writer, Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, son of a Spaniard and a noble Inka lady and his chronicles about the Inkas ("Los comentarios reales") are still one of the sources for historians interested in Inka culture. We also visited the remains of the Sun's temple at the "Koricancha" (Golden Square), now under Santo Domngo's church ( sigh!) Later we went to Sacsayhuaman, an Inka fortress and ritual centre just outside Cusco. The stone walls are really impressive: each stone weighs 4-5 tons, with the biggest one reaching 20 tons, all of them so carefully carved and adjusted, that they even withstood earthquakes.
viernes, 1 de febrero de 2008
Around Lima
Huaca Huallamarca (a Pre-Inka shrine)
Plaza de Armas (Main Square) of Lima
The Cathedral of Lima
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