11.09.09 - 12.09.09 Lima, Hotel Kamana

The centre of Lima is an impressive grid of authentic colonial streets punctuated by and plazas with fountains and bronze statues. It's very busy at street level being home to more than 8 million Peruvians. Anyone can be a taxi driver in Lima but it seems you need not to be able to drive safely or in the right lane at any time! We visit Miraflores, the expensive end of town, to a myriad of 'Inca' markets selling pretty much the same stuff as all the others.

The following day we explore the San Francisco monastery including the catacumbs underground where 24,000 Catholics chose to be buried encased in lime mortar and whose bones have been excavated and are piled up to view. It is odd that their skeletons have been sorted into femurs, arms, skulls and miscellaneous!