Heinblog: Lima

Lima is the capital and largest city of Peru.

Lima was founded by Francisco Pizarro in 1532. Lima Metropolitan Cathedral was under construction from 1535 to 1797 on the site of a former Inca shrine.

Pizarro is buried in the Cathedral.

He was assassinated in 1541 by supporters of his former partner Diego del Almagro.

There is a diagram next to his body detailing his wounds from the attack as seen on his remains.

A catacomb under the Cathedral.

The bodies are covered with lime to aid in decomposition and the smell.

Spooky

The Archbishop had quite the reception room.

A painting of the succession of Inca Kings and Spanish Kings painted in 1725

The Archbishop's Palace next to the Cathedral is also quite sumptuous.

Peru's president also lives next to Plaza Mayor.

Facade of the Church of Merced

The Museo Oro del Peru y Armas del Mundo is an impressive collection.

A gold rattle

A gold cat head made between 700-1350 A.D.

Pre-Columbian Peruvian culture and religion was very sexual

Lambayeque drinking vessels

The Lambayeque culture was centered in the northwest coastal region of Peru.

A cat coca bag made between 300 B.C. and 500 A.D.

A tumi knife of the Lambayeque culture with Naymlap, bringer of civilization, as the handle.

Tumi knifes were used for animal sacrifice.

A pectoral decoration

Lambayeque funeral arms

Skull and feathers crowns of the Nazca people from 100-600 A.D.

Metal plates were used by pre-Columbians after cranial surgery.

A colonial quipu, which used knots to keep track data needed to administer Inca lands. Experts are still unable to decipher them.

Pre-Columbian Peruvians were also talented weavers.

Gold nose ornaments

Anthropomorphic Chancay vases from 1300-1450 A.D. and bolases.

Stone bludgeons

A Nazca 12 tube flute with a beheaded man on it

Spondylus shells were a pre-Columbian form of currency. These silver plates show the harvesting of spondylus shells.

That's a lot of weapons.

Stirrup shoes

Quite the design.

The Larco Museum is housed in a beautiful old mansion.

A Cupisnique pot from 1250-1 B.C.

A Moche cup from 1-800 A.D. depicting the deity Ai Apec's arrival in the world of the dead.

Moche portrait vessels only portrayed men.

The Chimu people produced this pottery under Inca rule. The Inca Empire rapidly expanded in the 15th century, just before the arrival of the Spanish.

Nazca pottery from 1-800 A.D.

Warriors captured by the Moche were often sacrificed.

A Moche sacrificial knife and cup. Lambayeque knives look similar because that culture succeeded Moche culture in northwestern Peru.

A Moche lime container. Lime was mixed with coca leaves when chewed as a catalyst.

Clubs were the weapon of choice in ancient Peru.

A Huari mummy of a 4-5 year old from the 8th century.

Silver nose ornaments of the Chimu people from 1300-1532 A.D.

Silver ear ornaments

Moche gold ear ornaments

Nose ornaments

Vicus funerary attire from 1250-1 B.C.

Chimu crowns and adornments

A bird man outfit used by the Moche people in ritual race.

Chimu golden funerary offering of a lord buried in Chan Chan.

The collection is massive; Peru's history is much deeper than the Spanish and the Inca.

There's vases for everything!

Birds playing drums!

Demon vampires!

The Larco is also home to a large collection of pre-Columbian erotic pottery, including these Moche vulva drummers. The drum is supposed to sound like the heartbeat felt in a mother's uterus.

Moche anthropomorphic penises

Moche depictions of animal intercourse

These heads depict Pachamama, Mother Earth. Seminal fluid was offered to the earth in ceremonies.

Bed sharing

When the dead awaken and ascend to the world, and the deity passes from the celestial world to the underworld, anal penetration represents the reversal of order.

Propitiation of the ancestors

The tree of life grows from Ai Apec reproducing with Mother Earth.

The dead fertilized the underworld

You can buy him in the gift shop!

Parque de las Leyendas is a zoo and an archeological site.

There are many huacas scattered throughout the park.

The animals don't seem to mind.

There were some fun cohabitations in the zoo.

Sloths can get along with anything.

A different kind of lucky pond.

Hmm

An old tomb at the park

Huaca Cruz Blanca

Huaca Hullamarca is located in the heart of San Isidro district.

It was used as a religious site by the Pinazo culture between 200 B.C. and 300 A.D.

It later became a burial site.

The huaca was discovered when the site was used for construction material during a development boom in the 1950s.

Many funerary bundles were discovered there.

Huaca Pucllana is located in the Miraflores district

It was built by the Lima Culture and used primarily between 200-700 A.D.

The site was once much larger, but destroyed to make way for development.

Sacrifices and banquets took place at the pyramid.

The resident llamas

Ritual vessels were also broken there.

The Museum of Memory, Tolerance, and Social Inclusion was closed by the right-wing local government while we were in Lima. Peru's government was unstable and its history the subject of much debate. There had been an attempted coup and large protests in the country a few months before we visited.

Peru was the center of Spanish power in South America and loyalists consolidated there to resist Simon Bolivar's revolution.

Indigenous people continued to be oppressed by people of Spanish descent. Their lives were made much harder by the conflict between the Shining Path and other rural insurgent movements against wealth right-wing cities.

The Amano Pre-Columbian Textile Museum is also located in Miraflores. This is Chancay cotton gauze from 1100 A.D.

A Karwa textile fragment from 1000 B.C.

The Paracas people lived in the desert coastal region of southern Peru, and made these textiles between 800 B.C. to 100 A.D.

Huari designs

Chimu textiles

a quipu

Chancay sculptures

The Museo de Arte de Lima also houses an impressive collection. This is a Moche depiction of a sacrifice in the presence of Ai-Apaec

A Paracas mantle from 100 B.C.-100 A.D.

Nazca depictions of human sacrifices as severed heads.

Nazca bottle of a condor eating a human body

Nazca heads with mustaches

Saint James the Moor Slayer aiding in the conquest of Cuzco. I don't think this portrayal of Saint James is very popular anymore. Painted ~1800.

Saint Anthony of Padua, painted ~1750

Burial of the Bad Priest, 1860-1868

A depiction of the funeral of Saint Rose of Lima, painted in 1918

Not my favorite imperial coat of arms

The death of Simon Bolivar

El Chinito, founded by a Chinese immigrant, serves traditional Peruvian sandwiches

Santiago Queirolo serves traditional local food and pisco.

The pisco sour at the Gran Bolivar Hotel

Lima's mixed drink scene is amazing, especially in Miraflores

Carnaval has the best drinks in town.

Mayta was great as well.

A latte with algarrobina, a syrup made from the Black Carob tree

Central was memorable for its focus on the biodiversity of Peru and the ingredients found in those regions. The dish (not shown) made from a piranha-like fish (shown) that eats fruit that falls from trees into rivers was especially delicious.