Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Today, our classes were cut short to go on a Lima adventure! We met outside of El Sol to catch the public bus to downtown Lima. What an upgrade from the T! I asked my host family about the public transit and they told me it was only six months old. We got off the bus and walked to Lima’s Plaza de Armas, where we toured El Palacio de Gobierno. This was essentially the Peruvian White House. The inside was covered in Italian marble and was beautifully decorated. My favorite room was the Gold Room, which was covered in gold and mirrors and had a very high ceiling adorned with detailed murals. This room is where government officials are sworn in and where important press conferences are held. The next room was an enormous dining room with a V-shaped table that we all sat at and took pictures. I felt a little weird sitting at the table, though. I suppose I think of our White House as a museum with strict “look but don’t touch” policies. At the other end of the dining room, there was a fireplace with a large painting of Tupac Amaru and other elements that represented Peru. As we were touring the dining room, we could hear the beginnings of the changing of the guard. We went outside to watch the ceremony and it was quite interesting as they incorporated live music. What was especially neat about watching the ceremony was that we were right next to the action as we were already inside the palace gates.

Next we toured San Francisco Church. I love old churches. This one in particular housed one of the world’s oldest and most extensive libraries. We could only peer in the room because it was entirely blocked off. It was so amazing to look at. I felt like if I sneezed, the books would disintegrate! Our guide told us that due to lack of funding, it was very difficult for the church to preserve its contents. She mentioned that only three years ago, there was a new roof installed above the library to help protect the books from the damaging humidity. My favorite part of the tour was by far the catacombs under the church. Over 25,000 people were buried there. Femurs and skulls were displayed, sometimes in decorative patterns. The ceilings kept getting lower and lower the deeper we went in to the catacombs. Super creepy, super awesome!

After San Francisco Church, we toured the congressional building. Peru only has congress (no senate) and they meet once a week. I was especially excited for this given the approaching elections. We took the bus back to Benavides and split off for dinner. That night, we met up at an Irish Pub called Murphy’s to celebrate Dana’s 19th birthday.