Lima

Today we toured yet another city, starting in the centre of the city which is now a dead heart. Plaza San Martin, in the centre of the old city, is surrounded by empty buildings. The area is too dangerous for people to feel safe going out at night and owners of buildings aren't prepared to spend the money to renovate old buildings when there's no guarantee of finding someone to rent them.
The Basilica of Santa Rosa, the patron saint of Lima has a beautiful cloister tiled with Spanish tiles imported at the start of the 17th century .
The Plaza de Armas is alive, with government buildings and the Cathedral around it.


As well as the Cathedral we visited the Church of San Francisco which was at one stage the city's cemetery with around 20,000 people buried in the catacombs under the church.

Finally we visited the Larco Herrera museum, a private collection of hundreds of pieces of pottery and other handiworks from various areas of Peru, dating from 1000BC to 1600 AD. The quality of these pieces was overwhelming.