Sunday March 2nd, 2025 Callao / Lima, Peru

Well, here we are finally in “darkest” Peru and there is no sign of Paddington Bear on the dock – hardly a surprise as he was the creation of an English author in 1958; there are in fact bears in Peru – the spectacled bear, it looks nothing like Paddington. The ship has docked in Callao, pronounced “Kai-Ow”, about 30 minutes from central Lima (if there is minimal traffic). Callao is a large and busy commercial port with most of the Peruvian navy, many container ships and ore carriers. From the top deck I could see a ship loading up with ore from a covered conveyor that stretched for miles off into the countryside – and in the far distance huge plumes of dust created by massive pieces of machinery, and mountains of crushed rock, indicated an area where ore was being processed. Mineral exports represent 65% of Peru’s total with copper, gold, silver and zinc leading the way. As I watched, the ore mountains disappeared in a haze of dust like the smog on a summer’s day in Los Angeles. I only hoped that those working in such conditions were equipped with the appropriate personal protective equipment.

Today we experienced probably our longest ever shore excursion, the garnd tour of Lima was ten hours long. It was with some dread that we boarded the bus having reread the tour description last night to discover it includes 4 hours of walking. The coach was, once again, modern and very comfortable and we settled in as our guide began to tell us about the itinerary and what to expect on the tour. The young lady spoke excellent English and was extremely knowledgeable – the guides we’ve had in South America have all been very good.

Lima was founded by the Spanish in 1535, though a sizable indigenous population was in the area before then – it’s the largest city in Peru with a population of just over 10 million about 30% of the total in the country. Independence from Spain was declared in 1821. As we got beyond the industrial area of the port we could see extreme poverty, with shanties and hovels all around. Lima is a massive sprawling metropolis and as we headed south the environment changed from desperate to more civilized to quite wealthy. Lima has received a large number of refugees from Venezuela and this influx, into an already poor country, has created a place where a large number of people struggle to exist on a daily basis. Ore exports bring in about $46M per year, but the country is still poor.

After motoring for about an hour we arrived at our first destination, the gold museum – officially The Gold Museum of Peru and Arms of the World in the Monterrico district. The museum was founded by diplomat and avid hunter Miguel Mujica Gallo in the 1960s in order to display his lifelong private collection of pre-Incan gold pieces and arms of the world, owning it until 1993 when it was donated to the state. It is in a two-story building made of reinforced concrete and accessed through a vault-style entrance. There were about 5 buses on the same tour from our ship, going to the same places – I just wonder, why, when they have so many buses on the same tour they can’t do the stops on the itinerary in different order. But instead all 5 buses were unloading their eager passengers into the small museum at the same time. Patience is not one of my strong points.

The gold museum was approached by a short winding, tree-lined, path with several shops on either side selling replicas from the museum’s collection and other tourist tat. Our flag waving guide directed us to the side of the entrance, and we waited our turn to enter the museum. A line of ancient canon sat along the wall of the building – they were very heavily corroded which led me to believe they may have been recovered from the ocean, but there was no signage. I like old canon.

Presently our turn arrived, and we entered the cool interior of the museum to be overwhelmed by a brutal display of weapons; seeing the various swords and armor I was immediately reminded of the stately homes and castles we’ve visited in the UK. The weapons and arms were located on the ground floor and the gold museum was in the basement; we descended the stairs and passed through an enormously thick vault door. Several darkened rooms displayed the artifacts in large glass cases. I wound the items to be well displayed with adequate lighting and English signage, though there was no chronological order to the flow of the museum – which was a bit disappointing. Our guide was quite knowledgeable and proceeded to walk us to several of the more important pieces, on her well-rehearsed tour. I found myself listing to the guide but also drifting off to pieces she did not cover, eventually I lost track of the guide completely. There certainly was a lot of gold in the museum, all shaped into amazing functional or decorative items – the pre-Incas did not necessarily where gold because they felt it had inherent value, the way we might wear jewelry today, but more for symbolic or ceremonial purposes. Many items related to burial practices with death masks and other items designed to ensure a smooth passage to the afterlife. Remarkable golden gloves showed exquisite workmanship as if they were part of an ancient golden suit for a jousting knight. A ceramic and gold penis formed the tube portion of an ancient smoking pipe – this item got a lot of attention but was skipped over by our guide. There were also several non-gold items: corpses from burial chambers, a skull showing evidence of 2000 year old brain surgery with a metal plate skillfully inserted into a square hole cut through the bone and even 4 heads on string complete with dried skin and hair – these from defeated tribal enemies and collected to record the valor of the victor.

With just a little time left at the museum I took a very quick look through the weapons section up on the ground floor. The collection was huge and covered a vast period of time and many conflicts: Japanese samurai suits, WWI and WWII machine guns, British uniforms from the Raj period, flintlocks, swords, spears and even a case of commemorative handguns given by Fidel Castro to Peruvian officials. It was a good collection though a bit crammed in.

Back on the bus we headed north to the more affluent Miraflores district – it was out on the coast with beaches, surfing, high rise apartments and hotels. Staying on the clifftops we visited the Love Park; while I found the views out along the coast and down to the beach areas to be really good, I was not impressed with the small park and its totally kitsch molded statue of lovers in an embrace. A metal fence was practically falling over from the weight of padlocks that had been attached to it. Again with 5 buses dumping into the small area at the same time, it became overcrowded very quickly. Leaving the cliff area we caught a fleeting glimpse of Paddington Bear standing on a plinth in a park – our one and only sighting while in Peru.

Our final stop before lunch was at a tourist market, stall after stall of trinkets and tat – it was a nightmare. We found two seats in the shade and waited for 45 minutes until the bus came back. I would rather have stuck pins in my eyes than visit this place.

A nice intimate lunch for about 300 people was served at the El Bolivarian restaurant; even though the place had a small storefront, it was enormous and incredibly popular. Along with the gigantic shed-like building where we all sat at long trestle tables, there were several other rooms and another shed – all filled to capacity with locals. I’m always amazed at how these places manage to serve such large numbers of customers at the same time. Following a Pisco Sour drink we were served some “classic Peruvian” food: French fries, rice (yes, they like both on the same plate), ceviche, corn and avocado salad, shredded chicken in a rich creamy sauce, tamales and a strange cornmeal roll filled with chicken and avocado. I enjoyed it, except for the ceviche.

After lunch we were finally heading for the old colonial center of Lima. Along the way we passed the Plaza of Flags and right next to it was an ancient pre-Incan archeological site – the ruins of Huaca Pucllana which included the remains of a pyramid constructed of adobe bricks, I wished we could have stopped there.

Soon we began to see grand buildings in the style of major European cities of the 18th and 19th centuries. We passed a couple of very large plazas, but I guide kept telling us that these were not the main plaza. Eventually the bus had to stop at the edge of the historical district and our guide announced that she would now lead us on a 2 hour walk, there was aloud collective groan on the bus. Perhaps it would have been better to do the walk before lunch and before the peak of the daytime heat and humidity. At least the guide set a slow walking pace and after a couple of blocks we reached Plaza de Armas.

Plaza de Armas is perhaps the largest plaza we’ve visited on this trip. It was here in 1535 the conquistador Francisco Pizarro, have bested the Incas, founded Lima and directed that the plaza be constructed and the city built according to the rules laid down in Spain. It was also here that in 1821 Jose de San Martin proclaimed independence for Peru and the flag of the new country was paraded around. The dreaded Inquisition also held court in the plaza and executed its first heretic in1573, the first in the New World. So this was a pretty historic place, to say the least. The buildings that currently make up the outer limits of the plaza were constructed at quite different times: the Metropolitan Cathedral (1622), the Archbishops Palace (1922), the Government Palace (1938) and the Municipal Palace (1944). The plaza itself was really beautiful with a 17th century fountain at its center, four large palm trees along each edge and tiles areas interspersed with gardens. I especially liked the wooden window structures that protruded out from the walls of some of the buildings like massive window boxes. The wood was very ornately carved and the windows elegantly mullioned.

The tour continued into the Metropolitan Cathedral, a massive building. When Francisco Pizarro founded Lima, he assigned a plot of land to the church, making the Incan king renounce his assets on paper certified by a notary, so that the occupation of the site chosen for the church would not mean usurpation of ownership – that’s colonial domination at work! The floor of the cathedral was covered in black and white tiles in a diamond pattern, polished to a fine sheen; the floors contrasted with the rest of the interior with its decidedly golden palate. The vaulted ceiling was of blue-grey wood with an amazing golden mullion pattern. The alter was ablaze with gold and silver (and probably platinum), so shiny it was hard to stare directly at it. Two large fans covered the entry area and the rear pews, we sat and cooled off – taking in the magnificence of the place and wondering when the guide would return with her dedicated, but dwindling, flock.

Wandering to the center of the plaza we spotted a giant, a very tall and skinny guy dressed in what I assume was Incan garb – I think his angle was charging tourists for photos with him. At first, I thought he was on stilts, but closer examination revealed him to be genuinely about 7 feet tall – I wondered why he was not playing basketball in the US, I thought he’d make a lot more money that from his current gig.

The Government Palace occupied an entire side of the plaza; it reminded me, just a little bit, of Buckingham Palace – complete with uniformed guards standing at the entrance and a wide sweep of tall wrought iron railings to keep the riffraff out.

Leaving the main plaza and strolling down one of the adjacent avenues the guide took us to see the magnificent statue of conquistador Francisco Pizarro, founder of Lima it dates from 1935 and is one of three made by an American sculptor. Pizarro is modeled in metal atop a huge steed dressed in his best conquistador outfit brandishing his sword. I did not find the statue very impressive, something about it just did not appear to create a sense of the conquistadors at the time – it all felt a bit stiff. I later read that the hat, the sword and the horse were all not representative of the period.

Next stop on the walk was the Basilica and Convent of Our Lady of the Rosary, the original building dates back to the 1530s. This religious site was actually a complex of several buildings including the church, convent, several courtyards with cloisters and a library. For some reason we did not enter the actual church part of the complex. The front of the church faced a small plaza, a local was preaching to anyone who would listen – mostly the locals sat and ignored him. One corner of the church contained a beautiful bell tower, not the original which was destroyed by an earthquake. The current bell tower was built in 1766 in the Rococo style, its octagonal in shape but this is a bit difficult to see as it is so ornately decorated.

Entering on the side of the church through the visitor room, which had an incredible carved wooden ceiling, we soon passed to the first courtyard with amazing, tiled cloisters. Arched columns formed the cloisters and in the center of the courtyard was a large fountain surrounded by rose gardens. A second story cloister was contained by ornately carved wooded walls, I think two story cloisters are quite unusual.

The library of the complex was quite remarkable, like a scene from a movie – Harry Potter or Indiana Jones. Quite small but jammed with ancient books around the walls and central reading tables, the library had a musty smell, and I wondered what condition the books must be in as there was no controlled climate in the room – it was exposed to the heat and humidity of the environment. Some of the books dated from the 15thcentury. I didn’t appreciate the fake monks placed at a few locations within the library.

Amazingly there are three saints buried within the complex: Saint Rose, Saint Martin de Porres and Saint Juan Macias. In a nod to modern technology the church has allowed the skulls of the saints to be computer modelled and then facial reconstructions reveal how the saints actually looked. I thought this was brilliant.

A second two story cloister was not as well decorated as the first and contained life sized plastic molded models of the three saints; I thought this was not in very good taste.

Finally we were on our way to rejoin the bus and along the route the guide stopped us at a nice coffee shop and invited any in the group to purchase coffee if desired – of course we were first in line, having gone all day without caffeine. It took a while for the coffees to show up and I did not realize that only a handful in the group had actually gone for coffee – the rest stood in a crowd outside the shop glaring at us for slowing down the return to the bus. I’m always amazed at the reluctance of Cunard passengers, especially the British, to spend any money on food or drink whilst off the ship. We exited the coffee shop smiling and drinking our coffee with great relish.

We did not get back to the ship until 6:30 PM, ten hours after we left – perhaps the longest shore excursion we’ve ever done, well maybe the trip to Petra in Jordan was longer? Exhausted!