Peru – Lima – Treasures

Sometimes guide books hype an attraction and the reality disappoints, but sometimes the words don’t do it justice, as was the case at Museo Larco.  Click  on photos to enlarge.

We enter through high walls covered in bougainvilla in every shade from orange through deepest purple, and ascend the walkway  to an exquisite 18th century viceroy’s mansion.  It is now a private museum housing Rafael Larco Hoyle’s collection of pre-Colombian artifacts from Peru’s many ancient cultures, some dating back 10,000 years.  The Incas were late comers!

The museum’s displays are works of art in themselves, perfectly lighted, with clear explanations as to period, culture, and use.  Pottery dominates,
but there are astounding weavings as well.  One surviving sample holds the world record at 325 threads per inch.

The exhibit concludes with displays of silver and gold ornamentation whose colors and gleam were used by rulers to establish their links with the moon and sun gods worshipped by their subjects.

As impressive as the museum itself is the series of storerooms, open to the public, where the remainder of the 50,000 piece collection is stored.

Decending a broad walkway from the museum, we enter a  garden filled with plants, exotic enough to have escaped from dreams.

The garden is enclosed by a serene restaurant, draped in ferns, where we enjoy yummy individual quiches and fresh limeades.

One delight after another.