April 28, 2019
We landed in Peru last night and stayed in the Miraflores neighborhood of Lima, Peru on a beautiful Sunday. In the morning we took a tour of the John F. Kennedy Park
We were able to attend mass The Miraculous Virgin in Kennedy Park, Miraflores. The inside ceiling of this church reminded us of the Pantheon, which we saw last April in Italy. I love the backlighting behind the altar. After mass the participants rushed toward the altar where the priest blessed everyone with holy water. Peru is 98% Catholic.
Saw some open air galleries throughout the park.
We went to The Huaca Pucllana ruins–AMAZING! The bookend bricks you see where all made by hand by what is known as the Lima culture sometime between 200 AD and 650 AD. There are 7 layers to this sacred space that was shaped like a pyramid.
Huaca Pucllana was originally a sacred site. Many food remains have been discovered in the Huaca Pucllana, including llama, alpaca, guinea pigs, mollusks and other crustations. This proves that such foods were not typical of the working class, but of the priestly elite and were probably consumed as part of complex rituals in honor of the land and sea. Our tour included viewing “typical” animals of the time period.You can see that the archeologists are still uncovering layers of this site. Around 750 AD, after the Lima Culture abandoned this site for over a century, the top of the great pyramid was converted into a sacred space where deceased members of the Wari society’s elite were interred.
The Ychsma culture (1100 AD to 1450 AD) also used the site as a burial place for their dead and left offering associated with ancestor worship. This included frogs as a symbol of life-giving water.
This is a view of the surfers on Playa Makaha as seen from the amazing outdoor mall, Larcomar. This was only a 10 minute walk from our hotel. It has a lovely park on the top level and 5 other levels of shops, library, theatre, etc. In South America they are getting ready for winter….. it seems so strange to us.
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