Lima and Santiago

Despite feeling bad off and on for a few days, I headed to downtown Lima on February 6. In the San Francisco Monestary, I got to visit the catacombs under the church, where you can see the bones of the thousands that were buried there sorted by type and arranged in odd patterns. I'm not sure why they went through the trouble of sorting...

I also visited a museum about the Peruvian Inquisition, which lasted from 1570 to 1820, and tried and executed people for their deviation from the faith. The court may have had a secret passageway to the catacombs at San Francisco Monestary.

Lima's Plaza de Armas

San Francisco Monestary

On February 7, I flew to Santiago, capital of Chile. Santiago is the largest city I've visited, and the most modern, feeling much like a large city in the US (For example, the hostel I was in was 9 stories tall!).

In Santiago, I visited the Museum of Human Rights, which covers the mass disappearances and exiles of political opposition during the reign of the military dictatorship from 1973-1990.

Santiago's Museum of Human Rights

View of Santiago from Santa Lucia Hill

Overnight on February 9, I am taking a bus south to Osorno, in the Lakes District, then catching another bus to visit Bariloche, Argentina for a few days.