DAY 2: TUESDAY LIMA - SAND MUD GOLD AND SILVER

Up towards the The Temple of the Sun

Our minivan did its very best to cut through the local traffic. An hour after leaving the hotel we looked out onto a vast stretch of sand and adobe brick. This was the site of Pachacamac.

Pachacamac is an archaeological site 40 kilometres southeast of Lima, in the Valley of the Lurín River. The site was first settled around A.D. 200 and was named after the "Earth Maker" creator god, Pacha Kamaq. Source: Wikipedia

As a prelude to the walking around the site we visited the museum. This was full of exquisite pieces, textiles, ceramics and devices and tools for building. A instrument for making measures to cut the bricks for building was series of knotted cords all attached to a longer cord so as to resemble a necklace.  Just as efficient as a rule and as easy to carry.

Pachacarmac Museum; Friendly faces

This is pre-Inca Peru although the Incas did turn up eventually in 1400 AD. They came away impressed and let the locals’ get on with it. (The Inca’s of course had their hands full turning the Cuzco area into a World Heritage Site, for us to visit on Thursday.)

Pachacamac was remarkable, especially when looking towards the Sun Temple high on a ridge.

We repeated the chariot race back into the city. The route ran parallel to the coast, past swamps and low scrub and marsh, then the outskirts of Lima. By the roadside small shops, car washes and repair shops marked our way back into the city and the Larco Museum.

THE LARCO MUSEUM: THE HOUSE OF TREASURE. 

Our time at this museum was piteously short, a regret that will last. What we did see were important statutes, masks and funeral attire in textiles, silver and gold. The memory of these will outlast the regrets. These riches were created 1AD through to and including the Inca period ending 1533 with the Spanish Invasion.

A word to the wise; spend a lot of time in the Larco Museum, it is a world-class museum and is free from the rowdy crowds in the British Museum, Prado or the Louvre.