Through the grate in the cathedral floor one can see the human skull.  A few steps into the crypt and (no cameras allowed) and the stacks of arms and skulls and legs all parts of 25,000 bodies. Maybe the woman who shared her experience of history with us was more right than whimsical, she quipped, “that’s one body for every book in the convent library.

The open arms of the dressed-in-white Saint remind us why this cathedral was called Sanfrancisco of Assisi in Lima.  The cathedral was open to the unbaptized and the local poor.  The cathedral survived earthquakes, plagues and invasions.  The cathedral on the square had both towers levelled in the quake of 1746.

It took a brief encounter with a Darius inspired video game figure to highlight the difference.

In a city that has three world records for fountain performance, height, width and quantity.  Our pause next to the fountain in the city square is neither an alter nor a skull.  Our pause in a moment of shade on a warm day.