Plaza San Martín

The Plaza San Martín is a grand, large square with fountains at its centre. It's recently been renovated and mime artists, clowns and soap box politicos frequently attract a small circle of interested faces, while shoe-shine boys and old men with box cameras on wooden legs try to win your attention. The Plaza San Martin has seen most of Lima's political rallies this century and the sight of rioting office workers and attendant police with water cannons and tear gas is still a possibility. Ideologically the Plaza San Martin represents the sophisticated, egalitarian and European intellectual liberators like San Martin himself, while remaining well and truly within the commercial world.

The wide Avenida Nicolas de Pierola (also known as La Colmena) leads off the plaza, west towards the Plaza Dos de Mayo , which sits on the site of an old gate dividing Lima from the road to Callao and hosts a great street market where some fascinating bargains can be found. Built to commemorate the repulse of the Spanish fleet in 1866 (Spain's last attempt to regain a foothold in South America), the plaza is probably one of the most polluted spots in Lima and is markedly busier, dirtier and less friendly than Plaza San Martin. East of Plaza San Martin, Avenida Nicolas de Pierola runs towards the Parque Universitario , site of South America's first university, San Marcos. Nowadays it is no longer even an important annexe for the university and the park itself is the base for numerous colectivo companies and street hawkers, and is almost permanently engulfed in crowds of cars and rushing pedestrians.

South of Plaza San Martin, Jirón Belén leads down to the Paseo de la República and the shady Parque Neptuno , home to the pleasant Museum of Italian Art , Paseo de la República 250 (Mon-Fri 9am-4pm; $1). Located inside an unusual Renaissance building, the museum exhibits contemporary Peruvian art as well as reproductions of the Italian masters and offers a very welcome respite from the hectic modern Lima outside. Just south of here at Paseo Colón 125 is the Museo de Arte (Tues-Sun 10am-5pm; $1.5), housed in the former International Exhibition Palace built in 1869. It contains interesting, small collections of colonial art and many fine crafts from pre-Columbian times, as well as hosting frequent temporary exhibitions of modern photography and other art forms. Film shows and lectures are also offered on some weekday evenings (for details check posters at the museum lobby). Walk 50m or so west from the museum along Paseo Colón and you'll come to the large Parque de la Exposición , which stretches down to Avenida 28 de Julio. Created for the International Exhibition of 1868, the park has long been neglected and seems mainly to attract courting couples who have nowhere else to go in the evenings or on Sundays.

LIMA INFO 2008
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