Hello Lima!

We have arrived to Lima, the capital city of Peru. It seems it is the driest capital city in the world with less than one inch of rain per year. Founded in 1535 by Francisco Pizarro it has suffered from four severe earthquakes, the most recent being in 1940. Which means they have had to rebuild or reconstruct much of the old colonial town. In fact they counted 52 earthquakes in Lima during 2012 and over 200 in the entire country. We might experience a little shaking going on while we're here.

We decided to use the last of our Hilton points for our two-night stay in Lima. As it turns out, this is a brand new hotel. I mean brand spanking new. It officially opened on December 28th! And it is absolutely gorgeous. So, yes, we are enjoying the perks of a fine hotel while gazing out at the sunset over the Pacific ocean.

We took the overnight bus from Trujillo. After my article about buses, I have to say that we were pleasantly surprised to find a 'business class' type of bus service here. They have all the amenities of a business class flight including pillows, blankets, reclining seats, movies and stewardesses. They even have wifi! Mind you it is slightly more expensive, but still tons cheaper than flying. We left Trujillo at 10:30 pm and arrived to Lima at 7:30 am.

After a short nap at the hotel we set out to explore the city and started by visiting the Plaza Mayor where you have the government buildings and the Cathedral.

We made a visit to the San Francisco monastery where there are still Franciscan monks living today. The most interesting parts were the painting of the last supper and the catacombs. First the catacombs. They used to bring their dead to the church where the monks would but them in the catacombs with lye and sand or something, and today they figure they have the bones of over 75,000 people under there. We walked by several open graves where you could see the skulls and femurs, etc. Rather creepy if I must say. Anyhow... I think I might choose cremation after all.

The painting of Christ's Last Supper is sort of a local rendition on the theme. There are lots more people invited to the table including children and they are serving a local delicacy, guinea pig. Rather sweet don't you think?

The last photo is of a Christmas tree in the Plaza. Interesting how they incorporate Inca and Moche designs into a Christian celebration.