We took a tour in Costa Rica but unfortunately it was not very good and not as described so I am not going to write about it. The port is in an area where it is pretty much required to take a tour to see anything and we just chose the wrong one. That means we will have to fly down some day and check out what we missed.
In between Costa Rica and Lima, we stopped at Salaverry Port near Trujillo City. We didn’t get off the ship so nothing to write home about from there either.
The tour in Lima made up for not seeing much at the last two stops.The ship docked in Callao, about 10 miles from Lima but really the two cities just blend together and have a combined population of about 10 million. There is so very much to see here that I wished we could have had several days. It is also the place where those passengers going to Machu Picchu began their 3 day journey with a flight to Cusco before rejoining the ship three days later in Arica, Chile.
Along the way to the city center we passed an area with buildings built in a French architecture style
Many of the buildings have been neglected for years and very slowly, the city is restoring them one by one.
The bus stopped in the Plaza Mayor, also known as Plaza de Armas of Lima, a world heritage UNESCO site and let us off for a walking tour.
Construction of The Basilica Cathedral of Lima began in 1535
Someone asked our Peruvian guide if people could get married in this cathedral. He said yes but you have to be very important and that the last wedding here was 9 years ago between a Peruvian singer and an ostrich model. Oopla! He meant to say Austrian model.
There are 14 separate chapels along the sides of the pews.
Each one was more ornate than the last. I could show you pictures all day long of this cathedral it is so fantastic.
The first chapel on the right as we entered is the burial chapel of the city’s founder, Francisco Pizarro. The walls and floor of this entire chapel is done in a Venetian mosaics style. In other words, the murals you see here were not painted, they are made of little squares of tile.
Here you can see a close up of the tiles in Pizarro’s chapel.
Next, we walked across the plaza to the Palacio del Gobierno (Presidential Palace) and luckily for us it was noon and the changing of the guard. This meant a military band and nicely uniformed soldiers.
This is a popular event and all I could do was zoom my camera in and then crop, crop, crop.
I don’t know what this was called but we walked through here to get to the 17th century Monastery of San Francisco.
A courtyard at the monastery designed in the Moorish style
Beautiful tiles on the walls
The bus picked us up at the convent and this smiling little lady was motioning me through the window to buy whatever it was she had in her hand.
Now we are on our way to Miraflores, an upscale residential and shopping district south of downtown.
Miraflores is newer and more modern than the rest of the city
El Beso (the kiss) is a famous statue in the Love Park along the ocean. Our guide said there are contests here to find out who can kiss the longest.
La Rosa Nautica restaurant on a pier
Lima has some beautiful areas but most of it looks like this
And this….getting close to the port. Not that bad really, compared to Mexico.
Leaving for Arica, Chile
Very cool! Love your pics and your updates! Hope you’re having fun along the way!
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Yes we are but it would have been even more fun with you along!
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Lima!!! what a wonderful town … I appreciate your pictures, most of all the chapels … so beautiful … have a good time and many thanks for your cruise-reports … I also like cruising, it allows you to see so much and in between the sightseeing tours you have time to relax … just wonderful (hope my English is not too bad, sorry)
bye Edith
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Edith, I wished my German was half as good as your Austrian! I like cruising for the same reasons. It is an economical way to get an overview of many places. Thank you dear cousin for your nice comments!
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Lima is generally a way too big and too polluted, but the old town centre is beautiful and is the Miraflores area. Beautiful images.
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Coming from a world traveling professional photographer, your compliment is quite special!
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I am madly trying to catch up on your posts. I am only just considering a cruise for the first time ever, and am eager to learn about the pros and cons from others. Thanks for sharing your experiences.
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Where do you think you might cruise to? We have nine cruises under our belts and each one was so different with different levels of enjoyment. I have blogged about several of them but not sure if I was diligent in putting them all in the Cruising category. There were 3 between Sep-Dec 2014 and one in Feb 2016.
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We’re just thinking that we might try cruising, if we can find a short one (I can’t see longer than 7 nights for starters), maybe from Aukland to Sydney? maybe round trip Sydney? Aukland to Brisbane would be ideal, but I haven’t seen anything of the sort.
I’m watching the websites for deals. If it happens, great. If not, maybe another time.
Wow! You sure are a cruiser!! So many people seem to get hooked, once they try it.
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