Today the plan is to do a walking tour of the historic section of downtown Lima and then walk to the beach in the afternoon. We had breakfast at the hotel, lazed about until about 10, and then took a cab to the Plaza de San Martin for the first stop on our walk. This plaza has lots of magnificent buildings around it, including this hotel, the Grand Hotel Bolivar, which was the first hotel in Lima. Notice it now has a KFC in it (to the left of the main entrance in photo). We're seeing a KFC about every other block in Lima. Since they all show up on my Pocket Earth app, they make great landmarks.
We walked from Plaza de San Martin down the Jiron de la Union, which has been closed off to make a pedestrian street. There were lots of neat old buildings with ornate balconies and other architectural detail, but few of them were marked with names and/or dates. Mostly the lower levels are now shoe shops or clothing stores. We did also pass our first McDonald's. We went in the Iglesia do la Merced which was built the first time in 1541 on the site where the first mass was held in Lima. All the buildings here have undergone many rebuildings, often due to earthquakes. This church has gorgeous chapels with ornate mahogany altars and other beautiful things. There was a mass going on while we were there. I was surprised to note that none of the women were covering their heads. I guess I'm behind the times.
Next we arrived at the Plaza de Armas, the main plaza of Lima. It has the Catedral de Lima (where Pizarro's remains are held although we didn't pay to go in and see them), the Palacio Arzobispal, and the Palacio del Gobierno (where the president lives). None of these buildings are very old as they have been built and re-built. The bronze fountain where I am standing was built in 1650, although even it replaced an earlier one.
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| Sandra in front of the Palacio Gobierno |
We were there a little before 11:30 and they have a changing of the guard every day at noon, so we decided to stay and watch. We thought we would have to wait until noon, but the show started about 11:30. They blocked off the sidewalk in front of the palace and we had to stand just past the curb in the street (they also closed off the street). First, two trumpeters came out and stood on the palace steps and played a trumpet call. Then, the marching band came out. They marched around the square in front of the palacio (all behind bars for us spectators) and then onto a platform where they performed about 5 numbers for us, including some Latin dance music, which was hard not to dance to. The first thing they played though was "El Condor Pasa" which you can watch the opening bars to below.
Then the band marched over to one side and at last, when the cathedral was chiming noon, two groups of marchers came onto the square (see video below), met in the middle and did a few manuevers in front of what looked like the commanding officer.
After a while, all the soldiers marched back off the square, and finally, the band marched off, too. The actual guards never changed. They were standing in front of the gates guarding.
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| Guard guarding during change of the guards |
After the guard had "changed," we went looking for a restaurant for lunch. We stopped at a place that had a menu with English descriptions outside, but when we went in, they were serving lunch, which wasn't the same thing. Still, we had a nice meal picking out things we recognized. They offered a beginning course, main course, and dessert for 13 soles each (about $4). We had causa de verduras (we're learningur "causa" is the name of the dish where they layer something between two layers of yellow potatoes).
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| Causa de verduras |
We also had chicken al horno with legumes and rice and flan for dessert. They gave us some chicha morada, which is a drink made from boiling purple corn and herbs (not alcoholic although some chichas are). It was was good, but too sweet for me.
Next we went to the Parque de la Moralla. A moralla is a city wall. This is a parque where they've excavated some parts of the original city wall of Lima (built 1684-1687). You can also see old foundations where people built buildings outside the wall right next to it (I guess that cuts construction costs by a quarter). It's a pleasant park with some fountains and gardens and has some signage about the wall, although the English translations are a bit funny.
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| Sandra and Nita in front of La Muralla |
After La Muralla, we walked past the Monasterio de San Francisco. It's a beautiful building, but we decided we didn't want to pay to go see the human bones arranged in geometric patterns in the catacombs. We walked past the Plaza Bolivar, which is in front of the congress building. But they had it closed off, so we couldn't go in. We also skipped the Museo de la Inquisition. I saw a small inquisition museum in Spain a few years ago and that was enough for me. I don't need those images in my head! We ended our walk by going past the Mercado Central and ending at the Barrio Chino. We walked a few blocks to a street that was busy, but not too busy and got a cab back to our hotel. This cab driver also did not know how to get to our hotel and had to stop and ask two different people about how to find it. But we eventually did make it back.
We rested a short while but decided if we were going to walk to the beach, we better do it before the afternoon got late. As we thought, the beach was just about 5 blocks from our hotel. Five blocks plus some really steep stairs down the bluffs to the water! The shoreline around here is flanked by bluffs so high, they use them to hang glide off.
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| This stairway is only 150 steps |
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| Second part of the stairs down |
After coming down the first part of the bluff and crossing the streets, there's that much more down, across a road, and then down a long flight down to the beach. The beach itself is rocky, so not good beach glass hunting here. Too bad. It would have been fun to add some Peruvian beach glass to our collection. There were lots of companies lined up on the beach ready to rent wet suits and boards and teach surfing. There were a lot of surfers in the water. The waves weren't very high, but some of them were able to stand up and come in. If you enlarge the photo of Sandra below, you can see surfers behind her.
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| Sandra on the beach |
Then we had to climb back up the bluff and we finally realized what we had done all those stairs in Seattle for. I'd guess there were around 300-350 stairs, almost as many as the Thistle Stairs at home (but I forgot to count til the second half). We made it with not too much huffing and puffing and only a couple of short rests. We walked back to the hotel, stopping at a shop that sells pasteles and getting a little chocolate dessert to have after dinner.
On our way to our room, we each got another Pisco Sour: Sandra got another passion fruit enfused one and I got a mango enfused one. We drank them while we waited for the hotel restaurant to open. For dinner, Sandra had gnocchi made with Peruvian yellow potatoes and I had a chicken and pasta dish. After dinner we came back to our room and ate our dessert and got most of our packing done. We leave early tomorrow to catch our plane to Cuzco.
I did manage to get some new warning signs for my warning sign photo collection. Below are some of them.
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