Today started as programmed, the tour company was prompt so by 9:30 AM I was out on the bus. Pachacamac Ruins are south of Lima so we had to cross 5 Lima districts to get there. Yesterday's tour was to the north and center of Lima and it was very nice, upscale and clean, well today's ride showed the poor side of Lima, the slums if you wish. One can say the same about any city in the world so Lima is no exception.
Pachacamac means in Quechua, which is the language of the Inca, pacha= earth and camac=energy so putting things together Pachacamac means the earth's energy. There are lots of pyramids on the site but only few are excavated the rest are still buried in the ground. The biggest attraction of the site is the well-known Temple of the Sun, which sits on the highest point of the site. The rituals performed at the flat top of the temple used to be sacrifices to the gods and more specifically girls were the ones sacrificed and not just any girls but the beautiful and intelligent ones!! There is a school for girls near the temple where they used to teach them many skills and from this school the girls to be sacrificed were chosen.
Here are few pictures from today's tour... Enjoy
As my short stay in Lima draws to a close, I have to say that Lima has impressed me by its cleanliness, amazingly good and diverse gastronomy and the safety. There are many more sites that I have not visited in this trip but I have seen a good cross section of what Lima has to offer. Tourists are safe here in Lima thanks to the very severe penalties that a Peruvian can face if they attempt to harm a tourist; four years in jail for robbing a tourist against just one year for robbing another Peruvian !! I have walked nearly 50 city blocks around my hotel located in the San Isidro district and have felt completely safe... Most hotels are located in the Miraflores or San Isidro districts which are the recommended ones for tourists. So all the fear of pick-pocketing in Lima is overblown at least in the places I visited....
Even though it is winter time in the Southern Hemisphere, the temperatures are more fall-like from a Huntsville Alabama stand point. Skies are gray most of the time especially right along the pacific coast. It does not rain much in Lima and when it does it is just in the form of mist!!! Lima gets its water from rivers and ground water... Different districts of Lima pay different taxes and some can afford watering their plants and lawns and some others can't....
Inca girls' school seen in the distance (it is closed to tourists because of some damage)
Temple of the sun
Looking down the valley from the temple of the sun
Excavation site in the foreground and a slum in a distance which sits on the Pachacamac grounds!!!
Inca road from Lima to Cusco
An excavated pyramid in Pachacamac
A beautiful view if the pacific coast
An art district of Lima
A church in the center of the art district
An Inca Totem in a museum, notice the two faces; one looking to the past ( back) and the other to the future (front)
Even though it is winter time in the Southern Hemisphere, the temperatures are more fall-like from a Huntsville Alabama stand point. Skies are gray most of the time especially right along the pacific coast. It does not rain much in Lima and when it does it is just in the form of mist!!! Lima gets its water from rivers and ground water... Different districts of Lima pay different taxes and some can afford watering their plants and lawns and some others can't....
