Sep. 14, 2016.  Marriott, Lima, Peru.

• Big day alone, while Len, Bruce & Che head for the fashionable part of town for some more shopping.  Hope to hit every museum & cathedral in the city, and be back by 6:30.

• Taxi to the Museo de la Inquisision, which was closed for repairs - too bad, the guidebook says it has hilariously morbid wax figures stretched on racks and flogged.  

• Next, Iglesias de Santo Domingo, pink and beautiful.  However, the skulls of San Martin and Santa Rosa, were not available for viewing: 0 for 2!

• Next, Iglesias de San Pedro, founded by the Jesuits in 1638, beautiful baroque-era architecture, with gilded altars, Moorish-style carvings, and glazed tiles.

• Next, the Museo Banco Central de Reserva del Perú.  Nice presentation of several millennia of Peruvian art.  Photos of the old, as well as modern paintings of Peruvian life, some of them by indigenous artists.

• Lunch near the Plaza San Martin: a local bar/restaurant with fish soup, ceviche, salad, juice, and even a small pisco sour, all for about $3.

• At the base of the central statue of San Martin, the liberator of Peru, there is a bronze statue of the symbolic mother of Peru.  Commissioned in Spain under instruction to give the good lady a crown of flames, nobody thought to iron out the double meaning of the word "flame" in Spanish ("llama"), so the hapless craftsman duly placed a delightful little llama on her head.  Hope the photo comes out.  There was a political rally of sorts going on, with lots of strong speechifying and cheering.  

• Next, Museo Andres del Castillo.  Amazing collection of minerals, which I photographed like mad until told photography was not allowed.  Continued photographing (on the sly) some Nazca textiles and Chancay pottery, including some of Peruvian hairless dogs.

• Next, Museo de la Cultura Peruana.  Some fun Peruvian folk art, including elaborate "retablos" (religious dioramas), pottery from Puno,and works in feathers from the Amazon.  

• Next, time running short, took a taxi to the Museo Nacional de Antropologia, Arqueologia e Historia del Peru.  Extensive collection tracing the history of Peru from way back.  Includes a 2.1 m rock carving from the Chavin culture, the Raimondi Stela.  The Chavin is one of the first Andean cultures to have a widespread, recognizable artistic style.  Lots of photos, dodging the many groups of school kids, and out just as the doors closed at 5.

• Finally, long walk to Museo Larco (open until 10), one of the largest, best-presented displays of ceramics (over 400,000 pots, according to one guidebook) from the Cupisnique, Chimu, Chancay, Nazca, and Inca cultures, and especially Moche portrait vessels.  Also Wari weaving, including one that contains 398 threads to the inch - a world's record.  But most Importantly, a separate building housing a collection of pre-Columbian erotica.  Lots of photos, of course.

• Back to the Marriott by taxi with 10 minutes to spare.  Woo woo!  

• Dinner at Restaurant Huaca Pucllana was amazing - the recommendation thanks to a relative of Che's that visits Lima often.   I had ceviche, and the portion was about four times as much as I usually get.  After dinner, tour of the adjacent Huaca Pucllana ruins, a restored adobe ceremonial center from the Lima culture that dates back to AD 400.  In 2010, an important discovery of four Wari mummies was made, untouched by looting.  The ruins, illuminated and visible from giant floor to ceiling windows of the restaurant, were magical.

• Len had decided to skip the tour, and went back to the hotel by taxi alone.  After the tour, the rest of us took a taxi as well; when we got to the Marriott, Bruce found a cellphone in the back seat.  We told the driver, who said he would deliver it back to the restaurant.  I went up to our room, and the first thing Len said was "I've lost my cellphone."  Aha!  With Bruce's help, we contacted the restaurant, who said that the taxi driver had returned it.  Len and Bruce went back to the restaurant, identified the cellphone, returned to the Marriott, and all is well with the world.