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Saturday, 3 January, Callao/Lima, Peru Gail still is not feeling very well, but we had breakfast and went on our all day tour of Lima. Callao is the port of Lima, and the two actually run together so you don't know where one starts and the other ends. The city has over eight million residents, making it one of the world's larger cities. We saw a great deal of history, as well as many modern and expensive areas, but also a great deal of poverty. We saw the Cathedral on the main square downtown, but it isn't open for visitors on Saturdays. We went instead to a Franciscan Monastery (they call it a Convent, apparently a gender neutral term). It was very large and had well over a hundred rooms, and several chapels. We visited one of the chapels and saw a great deal of art. We were intrigued with the importance of the Virgin Mary in their art, as she's much more important in their branch of the Church than in the American Catholic Church. We went to a marketplace where we naturally bought a few things to take home, and then to lunch at an excellent restaurant. It was all Peruvian food, so there were some similarities to Mexican food (some things had a lot of chili in them), but a lot of differences as well. Except for the historical buildings in the central plaza area, Lima is like a great many other large cities, with lots of new development, often right next to areas of extreme poverty. We stopped for a while at an overlook on the top of a cliff in the Miraflores area. There was an intriguing large statue and large flower beds, as well as a nice view of the beach and ocean. Our last stop was at the Gold Museum, which is actually a gigantic underground vault with display cases showing many of the 8000 pieces in the collection. The museum also had an interesting display of armor, old military uniforms, and old weapons of all sorts. At the shops at the gold museum I bought Gail a nice pink baby alpaca scarf and a typical knit hat with earflaps for myself. Should be useful back in the cold country eventually. After a full day around the city, Gail was completely exhausted. Back to itinerary (trip home page)
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