LIMA COLONIAL LIFESTYLE – 9K

Description

This tour will take us on a journey into the past. We will warm up while we pass next to Peru’s National Stadium, home to our local football team. A few blocks from the stadium we will arrive at Parque de la Exposición; this was the southern edge of the walls of the city, which were demolished in the 1870’s. Inside the park we will pass by MALI: Lima’s Art Museum, of which all the constructions have a European Neo-Renaissance style. Entering Lima’s downtown, we will go through Paseo de los Heroes Navales, where the Justice Palace is located; its design was inspired by Brussel’s Justice Palace and inaugurated in 1939. Following our route, Plaza San Martin will greet us with its beautiful architecture and connect us to the Main Plaza through Jirón de la Unión. This narrow pedestrian street was the city’s most important boulevard, where the tapadas (covered women) used to walk around. With time, this boulevard lost its aristocratic character and now it is full of shops. Keeping the mix between colonial and contemporary styles, we will move around downtown admiring beautiful buildings and how people manage to survive doing all kinds of odd jobs! Our main attraction lies a few meters from here, the Main Square. In 1523, King Charles I of Spain ordered the construction of the City. The procedures indicated that after the main buildings were located, growth should follow a grid around the plaza. Finishing our tour, before heading to our starting point, we will pass by the San Francisco Monastery. Under its construction there is a complete set of paths which were used as a cemetery, called catacombs, and the paths were also used as escape routes. Several important people from colonial times were buried there.