This city comes as a bit of a surprise, particularly when arriving overland from elsewhere in South America. I mentioned the opulence of Peru's past in an earlier post, but one walk along the sea front and modern district of Miraflores soon dispels any myth that there is no wealth here today. That doesn't go for the whole country of course, but there is probably more personal wealth in this metropolis than in any other city I have seen so far on this continent.

The Bohemian district of Barranco is more interesting, where food is very good and a steep staircase leads down to the Pacific Ocean. I also found a museum of electricity here which contained some interesting relics.

It's a huge city. The bus from Miraflores to downtown took nearly an hour - none of the wealth has spread to the public transport system, so only rickety old buses are available. In the downtown area I found the usual big plaza, but this one is has a palace on one side where I watched the entertaining changing of the guard at mid-day. There are beautiful colonial buildings with wooden balconies on two sides of the plaza, with the enormous cathedral occupying the fourth.

Underneath the Iglesia de San Francisco I took a tour of the extensive catacombs which were filled with more human skulls and bones than I have seen in my whole lifetime. But it was inside Lima's cathedral where I had an emotional confrontation with the Americas' recent history that I have always found difficult to stomach. Here lies the body of Francisco Pizarro, the man who violently overthrew the Incas and claimed this land for the Spanish Crown. He went on to become the founder of Lima which quickly replaced Cuzco as the administrative centre.

Posted from Pomabamba, March 29th, 2012