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WHEN MANUEL GARCIA opens his house door near Peru’s capital, his neighbours rest in a macabre tableau of tombs and wall crypts amid flies buzzing around freshly-dug graves.
Garcia resides in one of the two impoverished neighborhoods that share space with the sprawling, century-old Santa Rosa cemetery in Callao, outside Lima.
Some 2,000 families live in modest homes that blend with the morbid landscape of the burial site, larger than four football pitches.
A tomb marked with the remains of Zenobio Zea, who died in 1979, is in the middle of the stairs leading to one of the slums.
Residents have no choice but to look at tombs on their walks to school, the bakery or the bus stop. Children play in a park next to the dead.
Garcia’s window has a view to one the walls containing niched remains in the illegal necropolis. He has lived for two years just 15 feet away from the deceased.
“We aren’t afraid, but we haven’t gotten used to the strong smell or the flies that go into the kitchen,” Garcia said.
The municipal authorities of Callao have shuttered the cemetery due to public health concerns.
But with a skeleton budget, the mayor is left with the conundrum of what to do with 20,000 tombs and how to lock it down to prevent more burials.
“It’s a threat to public health and people run the risk of an epidemic,” said Aldo Lama, director of a Callao health agency that has asked for the cemetery’s closure for lack of health and safety standards since 1998.
Bad smell
The place smells of liquor and rubbish while dog faeces litter some paths.
Leaving flowers or notes for many of the dead requires the agility of an acrobat: some of the niche walls stack 10 tomb spaces on top of each other.
Some believe shady things are done to the bodies.
“They traffic the dead, sell them to university,” said a woman who sells candy around the cemetery, looking suspiciously to her left and right.
“Don’t ask my name. Nobody can talk here. Everybody is afraid of the bricklayers and the gravediggers.”
The cemetery has grown so much that it can be hard finding a loved one’s grave.
“They let the cemetery grow as they wish,” said a woman who was searching for her father’s tomb for a half hour to lay a flower on his birthday.
Cheap graves
The cemetery emerged in 1912 on a hill known as a La Regla. As Lima expanded, people began to occupy the empty lots around the cemetery, mixing with the crypts, which were also increasing.
For the poor, the Santa Rosa cemetery is the most affordable option. A tomb can cost between €2,750 and €4,500 at a private grave site, and up to €915 at a municipal cemetery.
A company named Taboada charges up to €230 for a final resting place at the Santa Rosa cemetery, according to the authorities.
Doyle Costa, a Callao municipal official, said the company has no permit and has been accused of public health violations.
“But nobody knows who they are,” Costa said.
Authorities have closed a chapel where a man with a Bible was charging people for funeral services.
But Santa Rosa is not the only illegal cemetery in the region. Of 50 cemeteries identified by the health ministry in Lima and Callao province, only 18 are legal.
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Like a manmade giant’s causeway of misery. Yet, strangely, I loved the colours on the tombs. And seeing tombs along a walkway like that reminded ,me of ancient Rome.
I wonder if cremation were more widespread and accepted throughout much if the world, would we be far better off generally/ Personally, I’ve opted for cremation. It’s only a few hundred quid and the ashes can be spread wherever I like. That’ll do me.
My other half, told me I’m getting cremated and buried she’s not taking any chances.
We’ll be sure to spread you at the giants causeway so.
Many miles away and I feel deeply sorry for both the dead and those living in such horrendous surroundings! Since a young person I have always said I would be cremated as I do not want to take up the space of the living, this is dramatic proof!! I am now 67yrs and I have already donated my body to medical science and when finished with my remains will be cremated!! Will have accomplished much in my death!!
Pilkington has already enlightened us to such a place, be he praised
Karl pilkington is the funniest man alive, can’t wait for his new moaning of life series
I live in Peru. Cremation is quite common in Peru. My wife wants to be cremated . She was born in Callao
This is fairly typical of life in Lima. The city expands quicker than the infrastructure -municipal government can match it. Callao is not the worst place in Lima. Its the port-Airport. Hurrican is openly dangerous for example.
What happens is over time, slowly but surely the slums improve. Comas was once as bad, now it has improved
Everyone should be cremated now.
Can we die first?
puts our own first world problems into perspective
Many years ago I visited Cairo. They estimate 400,000 people live in the Cemetery there, squatting in the tombs. Families have entered into contracts with squatters, when someone dies, they move out to allow burial. When funeral is over they move back in. Seeing is believing! Such poverty we can’t comprehend in the West. India is another story. And yet people here complain so much! We have a great little country.
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