A beautiful morning for Lima Center

Casa de Correos where the Archives is.

A few days ago Julie took me to Lima center, the heart of the government, and the oldest part of the city. We were trying to go to an exhibit on gastronomía at the Mail and Telegraph museum. The museum is in a grand old mansion that Julie wanted me to see. Unfortunately, when we got there, the whole Plaza de Armas plus an extra block circumference we gated. Politically in the US we have our challenges. Well, so does Perú. There is a huge scandal that goes back decades about a conglomerate, Odebrecht, that has been bribing officials to get various public contracts and the like. The manner in which it was done was brilliant and almost undetectable. So, the day we were down there, the Peruvian President was in the US meeting with President Trump, and a planned protest was going to be marching the main plaza. We were bummed because the museum was within the cordoned off zone. So we wandered a bit and discovered the national archives and a small exhibit there on the archives themselves, and on shipping in the colonial period.

The cordoned off Plaza de Armas

It was a fun discovery. One thing I learned is the Francisco Pizarro actually was spelled Piçarro. Knowing the timeframe it really is interesting to see that orthography had not yet stabilized to what we know today.

We even got to have some fun taking pictures like we were ship captains (see below).

When we left the Archives, we were wandering a bit more and came across an old mansion. I was taking pictures of the exterior of this beautiful blue and white building. The color was unique for much of the area. The entrance was open and we were peering in only to discover it was that was the Centro Cultural Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, that houses the Academia Peruana de la Lengua (near and dear to my heart), and the Biblioteca de la Academia Nacional de Medicina.

Casa Osambela showing the Mirador

Julie was able to talk our way into this centuries old building and the man we met gave us a tour to places no one usually has access to. It was a traditional setup where we walked into a central courtyard. The stairs going up were off to the left which, according to our guide, meant that it was not a noble house. Nobles would have had stairs going off to the right. There was a small exhibit on the main level of some historical discoveries from the building including a partial fresco that was restored. There were 40+ rooms in the building when it was built. The rooms in open today are mostly used the Academía Peruana de la Lengua. The guide took us up to the mirador/cupola/tower that was built in a traditional moorish style. He showed us one of the meeting rooms for the Academía and took us out onto one of the beautiful original balconies. He pointed out that the enclosed balconies were perfect for a sitting in the afternoon but also displayed the wealth of the house because some houses only had open balconies. This was the casa de Osambela a wealthy merchant. The coat of arms is below.

When we came back down to the main level, we were showed the medical library. He actually took out a book published in 1556. He opened the book for us and showed us some of the pages that had drawings. These were medical procedures some looked like torture, a couple like the were early chiropractic treatments, and at least one that was about dentistry. It was awesome to see and touch this ancient book. I wish I could read latin better. It would be great to know what the recommendations and treatments were. I was truly blown away by seeing this book and its significance.