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We moored at Callao, the somewhat dowdy port of Lima. Our excursion was to the Museum Larco, which took an hour each way because of the traffic.
The Museo Arqueológico Rafael Larco Herrera is a privately owned museum of pre-Columbian art, in the Pueblo Libre District of Lima. The museum is housed in an 18th-century vice-royal building built over a 7th-century pre-Columbian pyramid. It showcases chronological galleries that provide a thorough overview of 4,000 years of Peruvian pre-Columbian history. It is well known for its gallery of pre-Columbian erotic pottery.
In 1925, Rafael Larco Herrera acquired a collection of vases and other archaeological pieces from his brother-in-law. There were about 600 ceramic pieces in all. The arrival of these objects ignited a collector's enthusiasm in his son, Rafael Larco Hoyle. Those pieces completed the first collection of what would become the Rafael Larco Herrera Museum. In order to guard all the archaeological relics that were continually being extracted by clandestine excavators, Larco Hoyle agreed with his uncle that they should create a museum that would carry on his father's legacy. Larco Hoyle purchased two large collections: 8,000 pieces from Roa and 6,000 pieces from Carranza. He also purchased several small collections in Chicama Valley, Trujillo, Virú, and Chimbote. Within a year, the collection had grown significantly and display cases were installed in a small house on the Chiclín estate. On July 28, 1926, Independence Day, the museum opened to the public.
You get a timed slot as a group, which is a good idea given how popular the place is. We were guided for the first half of our visit by one of the curators who was very good, then, for reasons I never understood, the guide from our bus pushed her aside when we had done half the tour. The bus guide knew as much about the museum and its exhibits, as he would have known about nuclear physics!. I wandered off by myself at this stage. I assume, but nobody actually said, that most of these exhibits, all in remarkably pristine condition, had been taken from tombs at some point before being "liberated" to the museum. But they were an incredible collection, even the stuff that was not in the main display could be viewed, and there were thousand of them, shelf after shelf.
The separate exhibition, of what was coyly called "erotic pottery", was indeed that "erotic". Quite amazing for pots that were a couple of thousand years old. Having got over the excitement of that section, we were treated to pisco sour, champagne and tapas in their restaurant
Click on any thumbnail photo to get a larger picture
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The voyage on Silversea Explorer in South America