Lima in a day and a half

After a few hours of sleep, we flew LAN from Cajamarca back to Lima. There is something special about boarding a plane by walking outside and up a flight of steps. A quick flight--we were back in Lima within an hour and a half. We had lunch in a lovely restaurant outside. Warm and some sun. It never rains in Lima. We were told there are only 2 months of days with mist and sprinkles because of a natural phenomenon. I'll have to ask Todd to explain.
Then we were off on a city tour. We first visited the beach. We had a gorgeous view from a park along the coast. There were mosaic tile benches, statues (former mayor of Lima wanted to show romance; hence the large sculpture of lovers embracing--him and his wife). We soaked in some sun and headed off to the artists district. The tour guide stopped at a beautiful store that sells goods from many different local artists--paintings, pottery, flowers, alpaca clothing, much more. She told us we had 10 minutes and it was torture. Could have spent 2 hours just in there.
Then we were off to the city center. The Plaza de Armas (main square) showed Spanish, Peruvian, and French architecture. This is where the city was born, founded by Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro and where Jose San Martin announced Peru’s independence from Spain in 1821.
For the last stop on the tour, we visited the Cathedral of Lima. It is breathtaking with elaborate statues and carvings, gilded in gold everywhere (and hidden gold under brown paint to save it from Spaniards). The many depictions of Mary showed her wearing large dresses in the shape of a triangle. The Spanish converted the "Indians" living in the area to Christianity, who had worshiped natural gods, such as mountains. Mary's clothing was shown in the shape of of a mountain and allowed them to "sneak" in their worship of the natural god.
Next door was the San Francisco Church with underground catacombs--burial sites of those wealthy enough to pay to be buried in a casket there (others were thrown outside of the city walls and went to hell, of course!) We descended into the dark stone rooms and within a minute saw piles of bones. Archaeologists dug portions of the caskets in order to count the number of bodies buried and do research. It is estimated that 75,000 bodies are buried there. By this point my camera was full unfortunately! I am not sure I could have even composed myself to take any however. I read in the brochure that "catacomb tour is not for the squeamish or the claustrophobic." Understatement.
The tour left us at the Larco Museum of ancient Peruvian treasures. The gardens were extraordinary with more bougainvillea than I've even seen. We were honored to have the curator of the museum give us a tour. Although it was extremely interesting and we learned a lot, at the end, in the erotic art exhibit we had hit our wall. We quickly visited the gift shop--never too tired to shop!
We all enjoyed a last meal near our hotel and then a few of us left to fly home. It was quite difficult to say goodbye to this group of special women. I know we'll stay in touch. Luckily I was traveling with one woman through to Atalanta. Even more lucky was that she was in business class and was able to bring a guest into the lounge. We enjoyed a glass of wine, and then I treated her to a mini massage for her birthday, which we had celebrated the night before with ice cream treats!