Saturday 11 February 12    Lima

Up at 06:30 followed by a good breakfast at the hotel.  Our guide Mrs Nieves and driver Hernan collected us at 09:20 and we negotiated a deal whereby they would take us around for the whole day instead of only the morning. First  a visit to a small local fish and fruit market where we met the local people and then tasted the fresh produce.  The Peruvians are really lovely people and very friendly.  there is a real gentle kindness about them.  this vist was followed by a stop at the central city markets which are huge, crowded and full of colour and local produce and goods. The local certainly display the Spanish flair for noise and drama.  I know that the travel guides all say be carefull but we never had any feelings of danger and were comfortable walking amongst the locals with our guide who is university qualified in ancient history and very knowledgeable..  Next stop to see the changing of the guard at the presidential palace.  The ceremony is very colourful and I would guess based on the American style of things.  The band and outgoing guard were navy and indistinguishable from our uniforms.  Opposite the palace is the cathedral which was build on the orders of Pizarro , the founder of Lima, in 1551.  everywhere there is gold, carvings and massive religious paintings.  Our guide then took us to the Convent of Santo Domingo which had at one time been a  unviversity and was the second oldest university in South America.  As part of our visit we climbed the bell tower from where I took some good photos.  Lima is big and poverty is wide spread, but for all that the people appera content.  The traffic is something else here and makes traffic in Rome seem like a childrens playground.  I spoke to a local who doesn,t have a licence and wouldn´t drine in Lima. As we were descending from the tower my guide dared me to ring the massive bell which is about 2 meters across - so I did and Lima was given a nice bell chorus at some strange time in the afternoon. Being tourists Nieves also took us to see the Iglesia San Francisco church which is being restored and has many beautiful art works by Ruben and his school of painters. After a good one hour tour we drove through town to the museum which has a magnificent collection of Inca and pre-Inca culture artifacts. As we also had a lovely lunch here there was really insufficient time to see the complete collection.  There was however time to see the adult collection of Inca pottery and I can tell you that there is not much that the the Incas didn´t try as they were a ¨horny bunch¨ and included their nocturnal activities in great detail in their pottery.

Photos to follow