Toy Soldiers

The church with all the gold is very close (La Compania de Jesus), and was the first place I visited today. Unfortunately you are not allowed to take photos inside it (or the cathedral where I went next), but it is baroque, and dripping with gold leaf everywhere - ceiling, columns, domes, walls... The first picture is of the front which gives you a small idea of the amount of decoration inside.

Next I visited the independence square, which has the cathedral on one side (another picture of the outside). The cathedral does have some gold leaf, and it also has a museum of vestments, which were very sumptuous.

I also visited the Casa Del Alabado, which is an extremely good museum of precolombian artifacts. There are several pictures of these, including one I took specially for Alan, as it appears to be of toy soldiers. I was taken by the earliest sculptures which were very blocky, and the later human figures which were more depictive than I expected.

The museum was near to the San Francisco church which is on an enormous block, with its own plaza. I plan to go there on Friday when it is open. In case you are wondering, there is just about a church on every corner. Under the church, there was a restaurant where I had lunch, and a handcraft shop, which is where I saw the sea lion head.