We spent two days in Callao, which was barely enough time to scratch the surface of the sights available in this area. The first day I took a tour showing an overview of Lima, and the second day I went on a wildlife lover's tour to photograph penguins, sea birds, and sea lions.

Lima is the capital and largest city of Peru . The Inca capital was Cuzco, high in the Andes. The Spanish wanted a capital on the coast, and the city of Rimac (which is Quechua for "the god that talks" according to the guide) not only was on the coast, but had high cliffs as protection seaward and the Andes mountains at its back. The Spaniards changed the name to Lima and made it their capital. The Spaniards built many elaborate buildings during their colonial period, and these buildings remain today. Lima has many old buildings and archaeological sites in remarkably good repair due to its climate. Because of the Humboldt Current which goes from Antarctica to Alaska and passes near the South American coast by Peru, Lima almost never gets rain except for rare brief showers. The guide said the last time it rained for a full day in Lima was in 1971 (it could be true).

Lima has many fine parks and squares. We passed one where a political rally was being held. We drove to the Plaza de Armas, which is where the President’s palace and the Municipal Building are . There is also a cathedral there that we visited. When we came out of the cathedral, a band was playing music in the front of the President’s palace. It was very festive, and many people were gathering to listen. It made it sort of difficult to keep our tour groups together, and a lot of sorting was needed. We got back on our buses and proceeded to a monastery. The monastery was in the process of being restored, but it had many wonderful works of art and religious artifacts. The monks used to be buried under the monastery in catacombs, but some president made them stop by forbidding bodies to be buried within the city limits. There was a cloister with great paintings on the upper wall that were in the process of being restored. When they took the first painting down to restore it, they found beautiful frescos underneath that no one had known were there.

After the monastery, the tour took us to Miraflores, an upper-class suburb of Lima, and a park there known as the Lover’s Park because of a statue of two lovers in the middle of the park. It is on the cliffs overlooking the ocean, and it was easy to see how difficult it would have been to attack Lima from the seaward side, as the cliffs were about 150 feet high. There were lots of people sunning themselves on the beach, which was not sand but stones about as big as baseballs. There are sand beaches, but they are about 50 kilometers (30 miles) south.

Traffic in the city of Lima is worse than any traffic I have ever seen except Manhattan. There are cars everywhere, and they are all in a hurry, so they push in wherever they can. Driving in Lima would take iron nerves and a lot of patience.