Downtown Lima

close-up of the San Francisco church

near the Municipal building

one sole, please...

the presidential palace

San Francisco church & catacombs

February 6

We are so thankful to have Eric back home with us! He had a very exciting and interesting trip to the rainforest. I think it is every biologist's dream to go there as it is so diverse. If you want to read more about it you can visit his blog on the Wabash website (when he gets the recent stuff posted).

We decided to go to downtown Lima this afternoon and see some of the interesting buildings and sites there. Our taxi driver dropped us off near the President's home. It was built by Pizarro for his home after he conquered this part of the world (1600's) and he lived there for many years. There was an official-looking marching band playing out in front of the gates and they marched through the gates and into the palace when they were done. An army band of sorts. We had visited this area with the first mission trip and noticed that there were many more guards with many more weapons than last time. Could be we were there on a Sunday before, or that the President was in residence. Right after we got out of the taxi we were approached by 2 girls selling pins. We kept walking and saying "no, gracias". They were so persistent and so cute and kept saying, "please, 1 sole for one or 3 for a dollar." Eric and I decided the "sandpaper treatment" was effective and I said to him that we could buy 3 from each girl. Well, the one started telling us ok these three from me and those 3 from her. Eric said now wait a minute, do you understand English? She just smiled and tried not to answer, but the cat was out of the bag. Both of the girls answered in english when we asked them -- at least they knew enough to get gringoes to buy their stuff! We walked to the San Francisco church and catacombs about 2 blocks away. It is a 17th century monastary of the Franciscan order where they had built catacombs under the church ala European custom. It was a beautiful and interesting place. We, unfortunately, were not allowed to take pictures (go to http://www.go2peru.com/Lim_foto02.htm if you want to see some). There was amazing art work all over the place and a dome ceiling made out of cedar. The tour guide, in English, told us that all of the materials were brought in from other places. The library was just incredible with a collection of 25,000 volumes all of which looked as if they would disintegrate if you touched them, which you could not. The place where they ate was so cool with a large painting of the last supper. Interestingly, the artist painted it with traditional Peruvian food on the table including potatoes and even cuy (guinea pig). Behind Judas the devil is painted breathing into his ear. Sound familiar BSF ladies? The choir room had beautifully carved seats for every monk. The catacombs were creepy. We walked down stairs and had to duck to get into the crypt area. They had some of the crypts filled with similar sized bones and one with skulls. We were told that they used to treat the bodies with lime to keep down the smell and to prevent disease. You could see up into the church as various places. They also had pits where the remains of unidentified people were thrown. Wealthy Spanish patrons bought crypts up in the main part of the monastary. It was a good tour and all of the kids (and parents) enjoyed it.