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We squeezed in quite a bit this day. The national museum, the Museo del Larco, the national cathedral and finally, the Monasterio de San Francisco with its catacombs. Here’s a run down . . .

First, the national museum with its various treasures including the idol of Pachacamac and a fabulous gold and turquoise mask that if we interpreted the signs correctly, was only recently recovered. It had an armed guard and was in a separate dark room, so we didn’t get a picture of this fabulous piece.  We did get a shot of the idol though, and some other exhibits. Since they specifically requested we not photograph the textiles (they had some exquisite antique ones), we got most of those shots at the next museum.

The idol of Pachacamac.

Another exhibit at the national museum that David got a great zoom shot of.

Second, the Museo del Larco.

 

This place has an enormous collection of pots, and will even allow you to view its massive storage area. (David snapped some video here. We’ll post it as soon as we find an internet cafe that can handle the file uploads.)

They also have an erotic ceramic art exhibit featuring people and animals in various states of activity . . . interesting.

Here’s one of the more masculine erotic pots. We included one of the female ones below. When we get the slide show produced and posted online, you’ll be able to see all of the animal ones as well.

For textile enthusiasts, they had some very excellent examples here, many on par with the collection at the national museum.

One in particular was a fragment of hand-woven cloth that featured 398 threads per linear inch, a world record according to the museum. (See the picture below.)

Third, the national cathedral and its religious art museum in downtown Lima, housing the remains of Francisco Pizarro, and a reasonably impressive Christian art collection. Some pictures are below for your enjoyment. 

Pizzaro’s tomb.

Outside shot of the national cathedral in Lima.

Inside shot of the main alter at the cathedral.

Last but not least, we toured the Monasterio de San Francisco and its catacombs. Unfortunately, they did not allow photographs, but David did get a shot or two of the outside.

After a full day of sight seeing, picture taking and walking, we made our way back to the hotel and picnicked on Italian Parmesan, fruit, sandwiches and red Peruvian wine, while making plans for the journey to Cuzco, the sacred valley, and Machu Picchu.

Posted on January 26th, 2007 by Myscha Theriault
Filed under: Trips and Destinations