PARIWANA BLOG

On my third day in Lima, I decided I needed to venture out of Miraflores. The super-helpful staff at Pariwana told me it would be about 10 soles to get to Pueblo Libre, home to two of Lima’s best museums. However, feeling adventurous, I took a combi, which went through San Isidro and Jesús Maria and dropped me off just a few blocks from Plaza Bolivar.

Read more: Three Unusual Museums to Visit in Majestic Cusco City

My first stop was the Museo Nacional de Arqueología, Antropología e Historia, and I spent so much time here that I wasn’t able to go to the Museo Larco a few blocks away. This museum really does cover the archeology, anthropology, and history of Peru. I thought I had seen all the exhibits once I had learned about pre-Colobian civilazations from hall regions of Peru: Moche, Chavín de Huántar, Nazca, Pucará, Wari, and of course, Twantinsuyu, or the Inca empire.

Wrong. There’s just as much space in the museum devoted to the Spaniard’s arrival in Peru, the viceroyalty, and post-independence Peru. I had to rush through the last sections because the museum was about to close, and I didn’t see the temporary exhibitions at all.

I think Pueblo Libre is an undiscovered jewel, tourist-wise. I’ll have to make it back someday to try the anticuchos served hot off the grill in front of the church, maybe eat at Antigua Taberna Queirolo, and also discover the treasures I missed at the Museo Larco.