Hip To Be Square

Our next two stops were at the major squares of Lima.  The first one was at Plaza San Martin, which features a large statue of San Margin himself on horseback.  

Jose de San Martin is known as the liberator of Peru, Argentina, and Chile.  Not bad for a life's work.

The Plaza is part of the historic center of Lima, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  As faithful readers of this blog know my saying, "UNESCO means you must go!"  

The Plaza, built in 1921, is quite beautiful, with the statue in the middle, four water fountains, numerous flowering trees and garden beds.  It's also very large, affording good views of the large buildings that surround the square.

Close-up of the hero of Peru. 

The guy riding the hero is also

quite renowned.

The funny story about the statue is that below him is a woman with an inspirational sign.  The president of Peru at the time told the sculptor that he want flame above her head.  Apparently one word for flame in Peru is llama, which also means, well, you know, llama.  

The sculptor dutifully put a small llama on the woman's head.  It was too late to change, so, as part of this magnificent sculpture, there is a small llama, which is, if you take a minute to consider it, pretty funny.

The woman below the San Martin statue.

The authorities should name this

the Great and Powerful Llama

A selfie in front of the statue,

including our guide Maria.

This is us.

Our next square was Plaza Mayor, a stately square featuring the President's Palace.  The birthplace of Lima, the plaza is another stunner, which significant buildings all around square, several beautiful fountains, and many flower beds.  The place was bustling when we got there.

Besides the President's Palace, there is also the Cathedral, the City Palace (pretty fancy name for city hall), the Archbishop's Palace, and the Palace of the Union.  (I have no idea what the "Palace of the Union" is, and I am too lazy to Google it right now.)  Many of the buildings have beautiful carved wooden full balconies.

An example of the 

intricate wooden balconies.

The Cathedral

Us in front of the main 

fountain in Plaza Mayor.

City Hall, with the Peru

national team's jersey.  World

 Cup fever is here!

We walked a few more blocks and came to a Pisco Sour bar, where we went in for tastings.  I don't drink hard alcohol, but I tasted all the different Pisco Sours, as well as the Peruvian equivalent of moonshine.  I appreciated three of the five tastings, but one flavor of Pisco Sour and the moonshine didn't do it for me.  Carol was happy to have what I didn't drink.

Our friendly bartender at the tastings.

After that, we went to lunch at a restaurant.  The first one Maria took us to was full with a 20 minute wait, so we went to another one.  We said our farewells to Maria and then had a pretty non-descript lunch.  We know from others on the tour they've had some really good meals in Peru, but here it is three days into the trip (when I'm writing this) and the next good meal we have will be the first good meal.  

After lunch it was back through traffic to the hotel, checked-in, and slept a few hours before dinner at the hotel restaurant with Neil, Mary, Bruce, and Nancy.