By Bob Van Leer

  (Lima/Callao, Peru, Feb. 16, 2003) - Lima is the capital of Peru and by far the largest city. Callao, the port city, is now just a suburb of the metropolitan area with a population of 7.35 million people (1999). We arrived in the normal morning fog and took a guided tour of the city.

  Peru spreads across the Andes and our guide said 52% of the country is in the Amazon River jungle. Oil has been found in Peru and is now the number one export with fish meal, mostly going to China, second. This is not a rich country. We were told the minimum wage is $120 U.S. per month. Lima was founded by the Spanish in 1535 and was the seat of Spanish power in South America.

   Lima is a dry area with an average rainfall of only three millimeters per year. Winter temperatures only go as low as 56 degrees and summer days are normally not over the 80s. Peru has had bad inflation and has a new system of money. But residents are not too trustful and the U. S. dollar is accepted everywhere. We noticed advertising signs on the sides of buildings for appliances with prices given in U.S. dollars.

  Our guide said Peru had a 12 year period of terrorism, mainly by two organizations, Shining Path and Tupac Amaru. The terrorism seems to be under control now, but effects linger on. El Comercio, a newspaper, was a target of terrorists and when the newspaper built a new building it is like a prison with high walls surrounding the building and even guard towers. All through the city first floor windows are barred.

  There are a lot of walls around buildings and houses, some topped with electric wires and also with broken glass embedded in the tops of the walls. We received repeated warnings about pickpockets and personal safety to the point where we don't want to do any solo exploring.

  One of the stops we made on a tour was the Museum Rafael Larco Herra. It, and the next museum we visited, are privately owned. Herrera has pre-Columbian artifacts in the age range from 300 BC to 500 AD, predating the Incas, from civilizations such as Chimu and Nazca. They were masters at pottery and gold, silver and copper working. One wing of the museum was labeled "erotica" and consisted of pornography rendered in ceramics, leaving nothing to the imagination.

  Our next stop was named simply the Gold Museum. On the way we passed the U. S. embassy and there was an anti-war demonstration of 50-100 persons. Our guide said she had never seen such a demonstration before.

GOLD MUSEUM

  The Gold Museum was in two parts. In the basement entered through a vault door was an amazing display of pre-Columbian gold. The Spanish didn't get nearly all of it. The natives fashioned jewelry, clothing, crowns and many other artifacts of gold, silver and copper. For clothing, fabric was covered with thin, rectangular sheets of gold, perhaps an inch by two inches, sort of like large gold sequins.

  The first floor was a museum of firearms, the most comprehensive I have ever seen, from matchlock rifles to a Gatling gun and AK-47s. Wheellock pistols and rifles are rarities seldom seen, but here there was a case of them.

  The Incas came rather late on the scene here. The Inca nation appeared in Peru nearly 800 years ago, beginning as a small regional culture in the central highlands. Suddenly in the early 1400s, the Incas began one of the fastest and greatest expansions ever recorded, In just over 50 years the Inca domination extended as far north as Columbia and as far south as Chile.

  Resistance was severely punished, but those who cooperated were left in peace. Incas learned from each country they dominated and advanced their own culture. By the time the Spanish conquistadors, led by Francisco Pizarro, arrived in 1532, the Incas had irrigated deserts, produced bountiful crops and eliminated hunger.

  However, when the Spanish arrived the empire was in a crisis, weakened by a civil war and disease. Pizarro and his crew of only 168 men took advantage of the Incas' weakness to divide and conquer the empire. After a day and a half at Lima we left Peru and the South American continent and sailed southwest to Easter Island, 2341 miles and three days away.