11:40 PM

City of Lima! Bustling Latin American city... great combination of old colonial flavor and the modern dynamic culture. The day started little late today, woke up at 7, got ready, packed the bags and was all set for the today's Adventure Next... Leo was preparing breakfast, and as I promised her, we all met on the breakfast table on the refreshing Monday morning. Leo has a small house from 1920's in the Miraflores district of Lima. Miraflores is one of the most recognized and safe districts in the capital city of Lima. Miraflores is a tourist district of Lima, and has modern infrastructure, shopping malls and concentrates the highest number of hotels, casinos, banks, travel agencies, restaurants, supermarkets, pubs, discos, theatres, cinemas, art galleries and an active night life. We had nice time at breakfast, it was also time to say goodbye to my roommate as she had some other plans for the day.

I took a cab to Plaza San Martin, few blocks away from the Plaza Mayor or the main square. The traffic of Lima is something that I can write a whole separate blog about... It took me around 45 minutes to reach there. Plaza San Martin is one of the main city squares, surrounded by old colonial buildings and government offices. From there I had plans to cover the important sites in the downtown Lima with a walking tour. I started with the old church 'Iglesia de la Merced'. An impressive church with nice stone work. I have the pictures of all the sites that I'm describing here, in the photo album of Lima. I had all required maps and directions on my tablet. On the way, I passed by the stock exchange, headquarters of few Peruvian banks, and other government offices. The next stop was the Basilica de San Pedro, another church in the downtown. This seemed to be rebuilt recently. Lima lies in the earthquake prone area and suffers from at least one major earthquake every 50 years. So, most of the old structures that we see today, have been destroyed and rebuild multiple times since they have been built. This church has got some nice decoration all covered with gold leaves. Just from few blocks away from here, is the Palacio Torre Tagle, an old Palace, now the tourism ministry office, is a very impressive colonial building. Lima downtown is famous for the architecture of its old buildings, and more specifically the decorated balconies of those buildings. Many buildings have 100-400 years old wooden balconies, decorated with fine designs. Among those, Palacio Torre Tagle and Archbishop's Palace are the best examples of this architectural style. After taking some clicks of these ornamented balconies, I walked further north to Convent of San Francisco. This Dominican church is a monastery, now open to public, and also has a small museum and a main attraction, 'The Catacombs'. I visited the church first and like any other old churches, this one has all wooden interior and some gold-silver work over the main Altar. Highly decorated Cedar furniture in the Coir room of the church is really beautiful. After a quick visit to the museum, I visited the secret vaults of the church (now open to public), known as Catacombs. When Catholics arrived here, they forced the new religion on the native population. Few who resisted, were killed and these catacombs now displays thousands of skulls and skeletons of those who were brutally murdered by the Spaniards. It is estimated that this Church is built on the 70,000 such skulls. There is a large collection in one of the chambers arranged in artistic way, which gives you an idea of how brutal that massacre would have been.

From the San Francisco monastery, I walked to the main square. The Cathedral, Archbishop's Palace and the Governor's Palace are the main attractions at the main square. Archbishop's Palace is famous for its balconies. The Cathedral in Lima, though it's a catholic church, has an entrance fee of 30 Soles. I did not find it that impressive though... I quickly took a walk around the museum wing of the cathedral and the main Altar and came out. It was almost 11:45 and the ceremony of 'change of guards' was about to start now. Every day at noon the guards on duty change at the Palacio De Gobierno. The Palacio De Gobierno is the home of the Peruvian president. You also get to witness live performance by the Peruvian National Band. This is really a spectacular ceremony. Guards in the 'first shift' march in the courtyard of the palace with the Peruvian national flag and hand over the duty for the rest of the day to the 'second shift' guards. It went on for almost 30 minutes. I would definitely recommend this as 'must see' in Lima. I spent some more time on the main square clicking some pics of surrounding historical buildings. The Serpost (Peruvian Postal service) head office is just few blocks away from here. I got some commemorative stamp collections published by Peruvian government that I was looking for.

It was past 1 pm, I took a cab to the next destination, Museo Larco, one of the finest collections of the artifacts from pre-Columbian south-American cultures. It has huge pottery collection from Inca and pre-Inca cultures. Also it exhibits some of the best examples of Gold jewelry from the ancient South American cultures. Surprisingly advanced museum, I would rate as 'must visit' in Lima. They also had Internet Kiosk, So quickly updated the Facebook status :-) and moved onto the next POI. Next cab route was along the Pacific Coast, known as 'Costa Verde' (green coast). It was almost 3 PM but still southern half of the city was still covered with a layer of fog. From here, you get a nice view of the Miraflores and the business districts of Lima that are along the coast. Stopped for few clicks and continued to 'Huaca Pucllana'. This is ancient place of worship, originally built by Lima tribes, but also used by Wari and Incas. It's a kind of Pyramid built with mud bricks, as high as 10 storey building right in the middle of the residential area of Miraflores. Excavation is still in progress and archeologists are still finding mummies, pottery and gold artifacts in the area.

Almost towards evening, and I realized, I skipped lunch today. I had some dry fruits and a water bottle so I did not feel hungry or tired, but still did not have regular food (ok, now that's not the exact word I meant, but you understood) I took a cab to Miraflores Kennedy park, found a small restaurant and ordered a veggie burrito. They added some beans and sweetish spices, but it was tasty. This is specialty of Lima, delicious food! It's known as gastronomical capital of Americas, and it's really true.

Sunset time @ Larcomar. Larcomar is the biggest shopping mall in Lima just on the coast, surrounded by high class hotels and million dollar apartments and mansions! Spent time till sunset there and then went to a Spa nearby, something that was very much needed after long day yesterday and today. Sandborading and stuff yesterday and city walk for miles today was absolutely exhausting. And I have 7 more days ahead, so I have to plan the things in that way. I realized that it wasn't a good decision to not to spare an hour for lunch today... I cannot afford anything that may affect the health or energy level, given the next trip plan. I also had to move out of the place where I had put up for last two days. Quickly wrapped up from there, had Chinese fried rice in dinner and feeling very sleepy now.. yawwwwwwwwwwwnig a lot already :-o ... Tomorrow I have to take the early morning flight, 5:30 to Arequipa, towards southern highlands of Peru. Different weather altogether.. From the foggy humid beaches to dry cool high altitude plains. It's going to be interesting for sure.. Cya tomo. GN..