Well the bed may have been gloriously comfy and large enough that we didn't bump into each other once, but the noise from outside was unbelievable. You know you're in for a bit of noise when the hotel kindly supplies ear plugs but this was off the scale. The music sounded like an accordion and seemed to be playing the same tune (and I use the word in its loosest sense) over and over again, accompanied by howling dogs, shouting locals and banging of drums. This went on til about 02:30 but sadly the revellers continued well past that and so did the drummers. So not a lot of sleep.
We woke to at about 6:30 to glorious sunshine and this lovely view of a hill called El Panacillo (the bread roll) where an old Inca site for sun
worship was once located and where the Virgin of the Americas statue sits.
After a simple but adequate breakfast we went off for a 3 hour old city tour with Estevan and our first stop was up to the top of the hill to view the statue.
It's made of aluminium and not particularly old, but there is an interesting exhibition of the various stages of assembly and of course being up so high gave us a wonderful view of the city.
The whole city is banana shaped and stretches for some 45 kms in length/4-7 kms in width in different places and is sandwiched between two volcanic mountain ranges to its east and west.
There is a cable car operating but not something Ian would have enjoyed!
After a simple but adequate breakfast we went off for a 3 hour old city tour with Estevan and our first stop was up to the top of the hill to view the statue.
It's made of aluminium and not particularly old, but there is an interesting exhibition of the various stages of assembly and of course being up so high gave us a wonderful view of the city.
The whole city is banana shaped and stretches for some 45 kms in length/4-7 kms in width in different places and is sandwiched between two volcanic mountain ranges to its east and west.
There is a cable car operating but not something Ian would have enjoyed!
We then visited the cemetery which was quite lovely and contained many family mausoleums as well as burial walls all around the perimeter - although on first sight they looked like 1970s blocks of flats. Burial is still the preferred method for this Catholic country, although cremation is allowed it's just keeping the ashes in the house or sprinkling them somewhere which goes against the church.
From there we went to the Basilica which was a pretty amazing building, designed by a Frenchman it is supposedly a smaller version of Notre Dame.
Some of the outside decoration is still unfinished but what was interesting is instead of the usual gargoyles etc there were animals and birds of the country.
Inside is quite plain but has lovely painted, not stained, glass windows.
And it offers a great view back towards our hotel and the bread roll.
Next stop was the monastery church of San Francisco which was absolutely stunning but sadly no photos allowed. There was a service going on, one of many throughout the day as it's a very popular church. I'd like to sneak back it to try and capture its splendour ......
So a view random shots taken in the plazas and streets on the way back to our hotel.
From there we went to the Basilica which was a pretty amazing building, designed by a Frenchman it is supposedly a smaller version of Notre Dame.
Some of the outside decoration is still unfinished but what was interesting is instead of the usual gargoyles etc there were animals and birds of the country.
Inside is quite plain but has lovely painted, not stained, glass windows.
And it offers a great view back towards our hotel and the bread roll.
Next stop was the monastery church of San Francisco which was absolutely stunning but sadly no photos allowed. There was a service going on, one of many throughout the day as it's a very popular church. I'd like to sneak back it to try and capture its splendour ......
So a view random shots taken in the plazas and streets on the way back to our hotel.
