But most people are miserable because their plans to visit Machu Picchu have literally been washed away. According to the news reports, several people have died in the flooding and tourists are still being rescued from the area. Several new cruise passengers joined the ship this morning and were shocked to find out that their trip to Machu Picchu was cancelled. (I guess news from this part of the world doesn't make it to North America very often.) I spoke to one guy who had travelled from BC specifically to see the site. He had waited 15 years to go on this cruise and Machu Picchu was supposed to be the highlight of the trip. He didn't think that he would live long enough to return to this part of the world again. (Yet another reason to do your travelling while you are still young and healthy).
Our boat was docked in the rundown slum area of Callao and we were given plenty of warnings not to walk around the area. I boarded a tour bus and headed to downtown Lima to explore the colonial area. Lima's central square, the Plaza Mayor, has several impressive buildings surrounding it including the Palace of the Government. No, that's not the Canadian flag on the roof, it's the Peruvian flag.
A couple of blocks away is the San Francisco monastery and catacombs.
We couldn't take any pictures inside, but the catacombs under the monastery are filled with the bones of over 70,000 people. Back in the day, they didn't bury people they just tossed their bodies into pits under the church.
The Rafael Larco museum is well worth a visit because it contains the world's largest collection of pre-Columbian pottery.
It also contains one of the largest collections of ancient Peruvian porn. One look at this ancient pottery proves that porn has been around since people have been thinking about sex.
And speaking of love-making, we took a visit out to Lover's Park. This park is located in Miraflores, where the upper class lives. Lima is definitely a city divided into classes. The lower class lives down by the docks. The middle class lives in the downtown area and the posh neighbourhoods are in San Isidro and Miraflores.
A dairy company was running an artistic cow competition in the city, so there were decorated cows all over the place. (This is similar to the artistic moose competition that was held in Toronto several years ago.)
One evening, Inkamerica, a Peruvian band and dance troupe, came aboard to put on a folk show. Here you can see them performing the Leopard dance.
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