Peru - The Rough Guide to South America on a Budget - page 728

9

Pueblo Libre
This upcoming neighbourhood, southwest
of the centre, hosts two world-class
museums. he Museo Nacional de
Arqueología, Antropología e Historia del
Perú (Plaza Bolívar s/n; Tues-Sat
9am-5pm, Sun 9am-4pm; S10;
E [e-mail]) has an
extensive collection of pre-Hispanic and
colonial artefacts, helpfully laid out in
chronological order. It also houses the two
most important relics from the Chavín de
Huántar site near Huaraz: the Raimondi
Stela, a 2m-tall piece of granite with
intricate carvings, and the Tello Obelisk,
which once lurked underground,
worshipped by priests of the Chavín cult.
Part of the museum is in a mansion once
inhabited by the liberators Simón Bolívar
and José de San Martín.
Follow the (sometimes worn) blue line
outside the museum for a pleasant
25-minute walk to the expensive but
excellent Museo Rafael Larco at Avenida
Bolívar 1515 (daily 9am-10pm; S30;
guided tour in English S25, reserve in
advance; T 01 461 1835, W museolarco
.org). Situated in a viceroy's mansion,
which in turn was built on a
pre-Columbian pyramid, it displays the
enormous private collection of Peruvian
archeologist Rafael Larco, which includes

textiles, jewellery, gold, silver and
ceramics. Best of all, you can explore the
vast storage rooms, packed to the rafters
with more than 45,000 pre-Columbian
objects. It's also famous for an extensive
erotic ceramics section.
These museums are close to both the
artisan stalls on blocks 6-8 of Avenida
La Marina known as the Mercado Inca
(9am-8.30pm) and the Parque de las
Leyendas at Avenida Las Leyendas 580
(daily 9am-6pm; S10; W leyendas.gob.pe),
a family-orientated zoo landscaped to
represent the three zones in Peru - coast,
mountains and jungle. The site also
contains more than thirty pre-Columbian
huacas (see box below), all in differing
stages of excavation, as well as a botanical
garden and boating lake.

ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE
BY PLANE
All flights leave and depart from Jorge Chávez Airport
( W www.lap.com.pe) in Callao, 10km northwest of the
city centre - departure and arrival taxes are included in
the price of tickets. The two main carriers serving the
rest of the country are LAN ( W lan.com) and the cheaper
StarPerú ( W starperu.com).

FROM THE AIRPORT INTO TOWN
By taxi The quickest and safest way to get into central
Lima (45min) is to take an of cial taxi from one of the

HUACAS
There are reminders of Lima's pre-Columbian past all over the capital in the form of adobe huacas
- sacred places - also referred to as pyramids. They are mostly associated with the Lima culture,
which dominated in the area from 200 to 700 AD. Two of the most impressive sit wonderfully at
odds with the modern monstrosities around them. The Huaca Pucllana , at General Borgoño
block 8, Miraflores (Wed-Mon 9am-4pm; S12; T 01 617 7138, E [e-mail]), the
larger of the two, was thought to have been a major administrative centre. It's a short walk from
Av Arequipa at block 44 (off to the right if you're coming from central Lima). Huaca Huallamarca ,
at Nicolás de Ribera 201, San Isidro (Tues-Sun 9am-5pm; S5), is three blocks from Camino Real
along Choquehuanca. It's thought to be a little older than Pucllana and pertains to the Hualla
tribe. The spaceship-like ramp can be scaled to get great views of the neighbourhood. Both tickets
include entrance to small site museums.
The most wonderful of all Lima's huacas , Pachacamac , lies just outside the city at
Km31.5 off the Antigua Panamericana Sur, Lurín (Tues-Sun 9am-5pm; S8; T 01 430 2115,
E [e-mail]). It's easily reached by public transport - you can do it
in half a day. Get there from Lima centro by catching the brown combi marked San Bartolo
from outside MALI and double-check that it's going to Lurín. Alternatively, you can get this
same combi nearer Miraflores by taking any bus marked “todo Benavides” from Miraflores to
the Panamericana; go down the steps to the busy motorway and wait at the stop under the
bridge. From here it's about 30min away and you can be dropped right outside the Museo de
Sitio (site museum).