I was in Lima for a few days at the end of June, as the last leg of my Easter Island + Peru trip. I spent the time entirely on foot, mostly around the Plaza Mayor, which has the cathedral and presidential residence.
Here’s a shot of the Plaza Mayor with the presidential residence in the background. I think the fountain is the oldest thing in the square, from 1651. The World Cup was in progress the entire time I was travelling, and the second shot is folks watching the World Cup in the Plaza.
Here’s the main facade outside, and the altar + choir inside, the Cathedral. I don’t remember ever seeing a church’s altar inside the choir, so that was interesting.
Francisco Pizarro, the Spaniard who conquered the Incas and founded Lima, is inside the cathedral. The pics are his casket and one of a series of posters giving (I think) the evidence that the body is indeed Pizarro's.
Street performers on the Jiron de la Union, a pedestrian street leading to the Plaza.
The San Francisco church, which also includes a convent and catacombs with some old skeletons, is a few blocks from the Plaza When I arrived the place seemed closed, but they opened it (?) for this little girl banging on the giant iron clanger. The crush inside was around the patron saint of impossible causes.
The Museo de Arte de Lima is a little farther afield - it’s in the Exhibition Palace built for the Lima International Exhibition of 1872.
It had a lot of interesting things I hadn’t seen before, like this depiction of the trinity as three identical characters.
A second art museum, the Museo Central, is in the old Central Reserve Bank building. Some of the exhibits were in the old teller stations and basement vault.
