Day 5 part 1: doing the museum thing

my ever considerate friend arranged for a driver he knew to escort me around the city today. on the agenda: museo de la nacion, museo rafael larco herrera, and barrio chino.

while devouring a hearty breakfast at the hotel, marino pulled up in a weathered, blue car. i joked that marino must not be peruvian because he was actually ahead of schedule. eddie laughed then went outside to give marino instructions before coming back in to finish up the meal. we parted ways and i was off to museo de la nacion- a museum documenting peru's prehistoric civilization and heritage with extensive exhibits scattered about three floors. i was not very impressed with the museum. while there was a lot of stuff- the captions were not very informative and quite sparse and the layout of the museum did not seem to flow. efforts seemed half hearted (displays and descriptions more thorough and presentable on the first floor but quality diminished as you went up every floor). the most exciting thing was a strike that seemingly appeared out of nowhere in front of the museum. there was an ambulance truck and people shouting. after fifteen minutes it dispersed.

museo rafael larco herrera was as great as the first museum was bad. an 18th c. mansion turned into a private museum, the grounds were beautifully maintained with bright fuschia colored plants, cacti, and flowers. inside, the exhibits were impeccable. i learned about the development and evolution of pottery and ceramics in peru over the course of time- changed spurred by technological advancement, merging of civilizations, etc. walking through a huge storeroom- shelves upon shelves of ceramics in a daunting array of animals, fruits, shapes, etc- i was awestruck. even more interesting was the exhibit of pre-colombian, erotic pots that depict to a precise degree various sexual acts. yep, look close and squint and you are seeing what you think you see!!!