En El Centro de Lima–some sites
I went downtown in a taxt for $3 to tour El Centro, the historical center of Lima. First stop was the Iglesia de San Francisco (also a monastery). It´s 300-400 years old and has mighty pillars sunk deep into the ground that have helped it survive several earthquakes and tremors throughout the years. Not as long ago, they discovered the catacombs underneath, which has many levels going down into the earth filled with the bones of 30,000 people who were burried there. Now just the monks are buried there. Gross story–last time they buried one was a year or so ago, and the casket exploded due to natural spontaneous combustion of a sealed up decaying corpse–smelled horribly for at least a week.
Femurs, and tibias, and skulls, oh my! ´Twas pretty creepy and stuffy under that big ol´church. I thought to myself, what if an earthquake happened right now? Aaron said it would probably be the safest place to be, though, since it has survived all these years. The church itself is beautiflul and has a library with books that are hundreds of years old–no pictures inside, unfortunately.
Then I walked around the rest of El Centro. Through the Plaza de Armas–all barrios have their own main squares or plazas here. Past the Presidential Palace and the Old Post Office building. Over to a bridge overlooking the trickling and miserable looking River Rimac. Down the main pedestrian walking only and shopping drag to Plaza San Martin, the Argentinian who liberated Peru from the Spaniards. Past other churches and historical sites to Chinatown. Check out the photos!
And here´s my mental picture of part of Inglesia de San Francisco…
Short doors, tiled ornate walls and floors of ceramic and wood, guilded framed paintings, intricate wooden tiled ceilings, crystal chandeliers but worn and fake looking, fancy woodwork details and beams, all with a layer of chipped/cracked oldness.
