Lima, Peru: A Quick Tour

A humming bird in the garden.

The beginning of our trip to Peru was a brief tour in Lima, where we had lunch in the beautiful garden of the Museo Larco. We enjoyed three courses: a vegetable appetizer, a dish of ravioli, and a mousse of an exotic fruit for dessert. It was our introduction to Peruvian flavors, which continued during our cruise on the Amazon during the following week.

Museo Larco, a private museum, owns a magnificent collection of pre-Columbian art, representing a number of early Peruvian native groups from several regions of the country, spanning 4000 years of history.

While the formal displays in the museum are impressive and well-presented, I especially liked the area where hundreds
of ceramic vessels are stored on shelves -- the vastness of the collection illustrates the richness of pre-Columbian art.

I believe these vases are in the shape of cocoa pods, from which chocolate is extracted.

Ceramic pots decorated with corn motifs. Other ceramics represented
foods, animals, and other themes. Somehow I'm more impressed by these
than even by the overwhelming gold jewelry in the more formal rooms.

A necklace from one of the coastal peoples of Peru before 800 AD.

A textile fragment, one of many on display in the fascinating museum.

In the gift shop: Paddington Bear, who came from "darkest Peru."

From the web page of the museum.

Before visiting the exhibits and having lunch at the museum, our tour spent a bit of time in downtown Lima. The Candelaria holiday had attracted hundreds of groups from towns and villages in the high Andes. Wearing elaborate and colorful costumes and headdresses, they participate in parades and dancing in the streets in the main square of the city.

In the main square.

We also visited an impressive colonial mansion that's been owned by
the same family for hundreds of years. After the tour our bus took us to
the airport for our departure for the Amazon on the other side of the Andes.