Lima - The City of Kings

Lima is the capital and largest city of Peru – population about 9 million.  Located on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean, it is the second largest city in the world located in a desert.  The annual rainfall in Lima is 0 inches – it pretty much never rains here.  Lima was founded by the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro in 1535, as the City of Kings.  

The National Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology and History covers Peruvian civilization from prehistoric times to the colonial and republican periods – or, 8000 years of history in one hour.  The museum is housed in a 19^th-century mansion where South American heroes Jose de San Martin and Simon Bolivar once lived.   Exhibits dating back to 2800 B.C. include ceramics, carved stone figures and obelisks, metalwork and jewelry, even textiles. 

 

The Plaza de Armas, located in the historic center of Lima, is the birthplace of the city.  The square is surrounded by the Government Palace, the Cathedral of Lima, the Archbishop’s Palace, and the Palace of the Union.

The Government Palace is the official residence and office of Peru’s president.  The original palace was built by Pizarro in 1535 on the site of the home of an earlier Inca ruler.  Later, in 1821, this was the location where Jose de San Martine declared the independence of Peru from Spain. 

The Cathedral of Lima has undergone many reconstructions and transformations since it was built in 1535, but it still retains it colonial structure and façade.  It is dedicated to St. John, Apostle and Evangelist.  Within the cathedral are the ashes of Francisco Pizarro, the founder of Lima.

The Archibishop’s Palace, next door to the Cathedral, is the residence and headquarters of the Archdiocese of Lima.  The building’s elaborate façade includes ornate cedar balconies over the main doors.

The Convent of San Francisco is probably the best-preserved of the colonial-era churches in Lima.  This striking yellow and white complex – a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was built in 1674 and has survived numerous earthquakes, which destroyed other parts of the city. 

The façade is a favorite of thousands of pigeons, while the interiors are lined with beautiful glazed ceramics from Seville.  Our guided tour took us through the cloisters to a veritable museum of religious art, with beautifully carved saints and apostles on every wall. 

The most fascinating part of the visit was the descent into the catacombs, which were dug in 1546 as a burial ground for priests and important citizens.  As many as 75,000 bodies were interred here (in three levels of galleries) before the main cemetery was built.  We filed past loads of bones – nobody knows how many levels they go down – and looked into a large well lined with perfectly laid skulls and femurs.

Our last stop was the incredible 17^th-century library with over 20,000 books, many of which date to the first years after Lima’s founding. 

To wrap up our visit to Lima, an evening visit to the Magical Water Circuit was a bonus from the bus company for being late to pick us up one day.  Located in Lima’s Parque de la Reserva, the Magical Water Circuit is an amazing display of fountains, lights, and music.  There are 13 big and beautiful fountains showcasing how water can be artistically manipulated.  At 240+ feet, the Magic Fountain has the Guinness Book Record for being the tallest in a water park – and perhaps in the world.  The Fountain of Fantasy hosts a laser light show with music and project images.  The Racing Fountain and the Tunnel Fountain provide opportunities to get wet – in spite of the cool night air, plenty of folks did just that.

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Just south of Lima, Pachacamac is a massive pre-Incan archeological site inhabited over hundreds of years by several cultures that preceded the Inca empire.  Covering over 40 acres along the Pacific Ocean, this sacred city and holy place of pilgrimage includes plazas, adobe-brick palaces, and 18 pyramidal temples.

The earliest construction here dates to the 1^st century A.D., when pilgrims came to pay homage to the feared creator-god, Pachacamac.  The Incas conquered this area in the 15^th century, but found the site so powerful and popular that they didn’t tamper with it.  They allowed Pachacamac to co-exist along with their own sun god, and the site remained one of the most important shrines in the Americas during the Inca rule. 

Pizarro and his gold-hungry troops arrived in 1533 to find pyramids covered with gold and silver and painted with bright red, blue and yellow colors.  The Spaniards considered the temples barbaric. They burned and destroyed the mummies, statues, and buildings after stripping them of their gold and silver.  They took everything of value back to Spain.  It’s a wonder there’s anything left, but archeologists are finding more every day.

This is one of the older structures, a pyramid with a central ramp.  These structures served as elite residences, stages for ceremonies, public gatherings, and economic centers, and funerary structures.  The public space was used for receptions and ceremonies while the remaining part was used as a residence the local ruler.  It appears that each pyramid with a central ramp is a palace built by a ruler who lived there during his reign and then was buried inside when he died. The building was then ritually abandoned, while the successor of the dead ruler constructed his own pyramid.

At the center of the Pachacamac complex is the intersection of the two major roads that divide the city into four sectors.  This route to the temple complex is defined by tall walls of stone and adobe.

The Incas built new pyramids and temples, among them the Temple of the Sun and the House of the Chosen Women.  This building was a kind of convent for the Virgins of the Sun - young maidens or female priests who were dedicated to the service of the sun god. 

The Temple of the Sun was constructed on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean and dedicated to the Inca sun god Inti. The temple, built with stones and adobe blocks, is in the form of a staggered pyramid - hard to discern from the bottom looking up.  Near the top is a beautiful terrace and rooms dedicated to the Cult of the Sun. Along the main access to the temple, some of the original paint can still be seen on the walls.

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The shantytown known as Villa El Salvador is the home of nearly half-million people on the southern edge of Lima.   It was started in 1971 when a group of poor families living in inner-city Lima slums decided to "invade" a tract of desert land on the outskirts of the city. The government reacted violently to the land grab, sending in troops to evict the invaders. After several people were killed in the standoff, the government offered the families a massive plot of land 12 miles further south of metropolitan Lima. The land was on a large sand dune and had no water, electricity, sewers or access roads, but nearly 7,000 families relocated there.  Villa el Salvador was officially incorporated as a district of Lima in 1983.

Years of protests have resulted in running water, electricity and even some paved roads in the more established sectors of Villa el Salvador. However, in some of the newest sectors, many homes have no running water, sewer systems or electricity. In these areas, water can be purchased from a "water truck," which comes twice a week to fill whatever type of container the homeowner provides.

Houses in Villa el Salvador range from simple to downright crude. Many have dirt floors. If there is no running water, there is usually some sort of makeshift outhouse behind the house. Yards are tiny and are usually filled with trash, rocks, building materials, a clothesline and perhaps some animals, such as chickens, rabbits or guinea pigs.

Many of the roofs are pieces of thin corrugated metal or plastic that lay on top the walls. Some of the houses had only partial roofs, which is okay, because it doesn't rain in Lima. On the other hand, because of the lack of rain, there is very little green in Villa el Salvador—just a lot of dirt and dust. Landscaping does not exist here. People who can afford water use it for the necessities, and landscaping is not one of them.

Villa El Salvador served as the home base for the activist María Elena Moyano, who helped organize a women’s federation that has grown to encompass activities such as public kitchens, health committees, milk for children, and committees for basic education.  We visited one of these projects – a soup kitchen – and purchased some food items to help with the next day’s meals.

Villa el Salvador has received many accolades and is considered a model of urban social development in Latin America. Our guides made much of the ‘evolution’ of this community – certainly some people have jobs, decent homes and hope for the future, but this “model” is still a place of grinding, heartbreaking poverty.