“Too much god; not enough Inka”

Rach woke up at 5 again, thanks to the trek reprogramming her body clock. A relaxing coffee in bed, then out to explore Lima!

First stop, Paddington Bear statue.
The Uber driver was very confused at the “strange destination”, but we got out and found the little statue (Rachel exclaimed “is that it, I thought it’d be bigger!”). Gifted by the British Embassy in 2015, Paddington looks out over Miaflores and the sea.

We then decided to stroll down to the seafront, on the way down meeting Sebastian, a young surf instructor. We opted for a lesson and really enjoyed the consistent waves. Rach amazingly stood up and rode the waves like a pro; Emma was just happy kneeling/ falling off like one of the native sea lions, until the last wave when Sebastian made sure Emma rode to the shore upright - amazing feeling!
We then ascended the steps to a small crepe bar overlooking the coast, and had much needed coffee and crepes to refuel.

After a freshen up, we headed into Lima’s historic centre, which had a different vibe completely. The central square itself was cordoned off (we were later told by a taxi driver that the president was having an important dinner, which accounted for the big armed police presence - more so than usual). The atmosphere seemed a little on edge, and we had commented earlier on the trip wondering where Peru’s people with disabilities are - they were seemingly all begging in this area.

As we queued up at The Basílica and Convent of San Francisco, the smell of incense was overwhelming, and people approaching the queue selling trinkets, drinks, flowers. We were told after 10 minutes or so we were in the wrong queue, and moved to the front to buy our tickets for the Catacombs (thankfully…if we’d have stayed in the first line we’d have ended up joining mass!).

The Catacombs themselves were interesting, as were the paintings/information from the tour guide.
An interesting Inca representation of The Last Supper - depicting a round table and Peruvian food (a Spanish artist to make Christianity relatable and attempt to win over “the natives”). People were buried there until 1820, after which and to present day only monks get this opportunity.
The bones took 1-2 years to degrade with a coating of lime to speed up decomposition, leaving mainly Tibias, Fibias and Skulls on view now. The number of burials there is unknown (thought to be thousands), but it is too structurally unsafe to excavate further. Although this was really interesting, we decided afterwards it was “too much god; not enough Inka”, so we hopped in an Uber to the Larco museum to get our Inka fix. Rach was blown away by Uber, which was making sure we didn’t get ripped off zipping around the city.

At the Larco museum, Rachel loved everything, especially the erotic imagery/ pots/ sculptures on the ground floor. Em found the quipus (messenger device) most interesting, and the many animal sculptures, pots, jewellery (especially the Pumas).

We hopped in a taxi back to John’s flat via the supermarket, and planned a relaxing movie night. Chuckled away to “death at a funeral” with popcorn and Emma’s Peruvian hot chocolate concoction. Perfect end to another jam packed day.Read more