when we go to the desk it turned out the lady behind the desk was equally worried and had called the police. we watched as almost everybody who came past him checked to see if he was okay and indeed at one point she thought that he was being robbed but it turned out it was just someone who was picking up his mobile phone off pavement and putting it back in his pocket . the whole scene was rather reassuring painting the citizens of Lima in a rather kindly light . our room had a very large and comfortable bed and floor made from alternating light and dark woods creating a pleasingly striped effect . the 12th . the two highlights of the day we’re a very large shopping mall which turned out to have 1200 printing firms in it and nothing more, and the second was supper in French Peruvian style in a nunnery with a beautiful roof served by nuns from Burkina Faso and Vietnam . after sitting in an empty dining room and eating excellent quiche in the company of one priest and a boy we were encouraged to join in with a singing of Ave Maria. We are given cards with words on . after speaking French with the nuns I expected to be able to sing along but they didn’t seem to be singing what was written on the card. there was nowhere to hide .
the 13th . breakfast of buns and jam. off to the larco Museum . it was started by a rich young man who became fascinated and went on to basically Define pre-columbian archaeology . NOW I know that the Huaca and the Inca believe that that were three Worlds.the sky inhabited by birds on Gods. Earth inhabited by cats and us, and underground which has snakes and pushes up life. any decent God has elements of all three . typically owl’s eyes a cat’s teeth and mouth and a couple of snakes draped here and there . humans have an outside life and an inside life . water gets from the outside to the inside so the exchange of fluids is ceremonially important so that many vessels have two spouts. This also means that sex is a good thing. As a bloke gets rich he dresses up like a god tells everybody that he is one. he builds High pyramids and does God like stuff on top of them and hangs plaques of polished metal all over himself which reflects and shines. terrific! and clanks and rings terribly God like- well Novel at least. And
gets b******* . but it isn’t all cruising when you’re loaded. Rich Aristoes have to fight it out to rip off each other’s head dresses and grab the losers’ hair. losing really does mean losing as the loser is stripped, bound often bled to death and his blood gets passed around and about for good exchange of fluids. yay . gold equals Sun equals life equals tick. silver equals Moon equals Death equals not necessarily cross but definitely something more low-key. I have many many photos mostly of pots and their wonderful mixed imagery. the best bit was the store room which had thousands of Pots arranged by type. ducks, ducks crossed with snakes , people looking gloomy Etc . the silver and gold was wonderful for its oddness . for instance something that looked like a sweet shop to hang in front of your nose. A gold thing to transform your nose into a flying bird. Good stuff! and then there was the erotic section cheerfully graphic and straightforward lots of people laughing and some fairly memorable images.