We had two days in Central Lima before picking up our next overland trip and were pleasantly surprised to see how the City Centre has developed since our last visit back to Peru in 2011.  The Plaza Mayor, where the cathedral and government palace is located has been extensively spruced up, with all the surrounding buildings painted in an orange ochre colour and creates a nice symmetry to the religious and government buildings on the other two sides of the square.

The gardens in the main square are beautifully maintained and the flower beds are full of marigold flowers which blend beautifully in with the yellow ochre buildings.  Peru’s newly elected president this year was forced to resign for corruption, linked to payments from the same Brazilian corporations that caught ex President Lula of Brazil.  As a result there is a bit of a political edge to Peru at the moment, with regular demonstrations.  Riot police lurk all around the city centre and particular the main square managing the flow of people.  In particular demonstrations are not allowed in the main square, and indeed at any hint of a demonstration the main square itself but not the surrounding pavements is closed.

The Main Cathedral and the Archbishops Palace next door contain a massive collection of wealth, with enormous amounts of gold and silver collected from the Spanish Empire.  Also such is the power of the Catholic Church a number of the shrines contain more recent donations of silver and other valuables.

Nearby the Plaza Mayor is the old Railway Station and another impressively wealthy church run by the San Franciscans.  Some of the pieces in the alcoves displayed even more conspicuous wealth than the main Cathedral.

Linking to the other main square Plaza San Martin is the main pedestrianized shopping street Jirón de la Union. The street is full of clothing, mobile phone shops and in common with most of South America lots of pharmacies.  However while the shops are nothing special, some of the architecture above the shop fronts is quite interesting, with a surprising amount of Art Deco designs.

Plaza San Martin, named after the General that led the independence movement in South America and seems to have a plaza in every city, is another complete square, this time the buildings all complement each other in white stonework and again well maintained gardens surrounding the statue of San Martin on horseback.

Date: 16/05/2018 to 18/05/2018