Catacombs

Today we took Ian to the centre of town to show him the tourist highlights (there are not many!!) We had some traditional Peruvian food by the main square (which bizarrely had squad police guarding every entrance and a armed tank nearby because of an impending demonstration) and then went off to see the catacombs.

The catacombs are based in a Franciscan monastry and are weird to say the least - lots of piles of bones all organised in pretty patterns by the excavators a few decades ago when the decided to count how many people were buried in the city's main cemetry. (apparently over 25,000). I found them a bit weird and eerie to be honest and the boiled cabbage smell wasn't particularly welcoming either.

Anyway, which I did find fascinating about the trip was an original rendition of The Last Supper done in the Peruvian Inca Capital of Cuzco by a Belgian painter. Not only is it represented on a round table (which I thought was a very interesting idea) but it also contains the traditional incan foods of guinea-pig, chilli, papaya and yucca, washed down with Chicha morada, an Incan drink! Apparently it was an attempt by the early catholics to get the Incan people to identify with the Catholic religion!