Peru - Day 2

Today was on one of a few touristy days we will have. Our total group is about 35 people but 6 of us came down a day early so we could tour Lima. We all went in and hired a tour guide from Lamanite Travel (seriously). It was awesome not to have to worry about taxis and trying to figure out where to go. We were gone from about 9am to 5pm. It was a full day! It was beautiful too...blue sky, sunny, and perfect. The touristy places were actually not very crowded either.

First we went and saw come of the cool plazas around Lima. Plaza de San Martin and the Plaza de Armas. Lots of historical things surrounding each plaza. I won't give you a history lesson.

This plaza has the presidential palace, city hall, and an enormous church. (And apparently a nice green garbage can...not sure why I included that in the pic)

We went in to a couple of really old churches too. I don't know what it is about old catholic churches...we just kept whispering "CREEPY!" over and over. Then we went to the San Francisco Church and Monastery.

This place had a chapel, cathedral, and a monastery all hooked together with spooky catacombs underneath. There are signs EVERYWHERE not to take photos and videos, but what can I say, me and my sister are naughty and we took lots, minus the flash of course. We had to be sneaky and our guide was laughing at us. I know...big shocker.

Entering the catacombs with my stealth camera in my hand.

Some of the many skulls and bones. Most of the little teeny bones are all disintegrated because of the limestone so it's mostly leg bones.

We had to lag behind and take dumb pictures in the skinny tunnels so we wouldn't get caught.

This was one of my favorite rooms in the monastery...the library. It was so awesome! Loved the spiral staircases and the old books (from the 16th century). And the big book in the front has ancient music manuscript in it which of course I loved.

Afterwards we headed down to Miraflores which is a really nice, more ritzy part just south of Lima. We ate there and I think I had the best empanada ever with beef, onion, and egg...yes egg. We also tried a drink called a chincha morada which is made from boiled down purple corn, sugar, and spices like cinnamon and nutmeg. It was really different but...not disgusting. After eating we went to the beach area. The beaches are really rocky and there were tons of surfers out all wearing helmets because of the rocks. And tons of paragliders. I've seen hang gliders and parasailers but paragliders were a first. I totally want to do it!

Then we were off to check out the temple. It was so cool to see the temple so busy on a Saturday. There is a big grassy area behind where lots of kids were playing and reading, waiting for parents who were inside. Mel and I started playing with these 2 little boys who were SOOOO cute. If it wasn't illegal to adopt from Peru, I may have to just adopt one more. I mean look at this kid....ooo I could so just eat him up...

My dumb self portrait but this is the sidewalk leading up to the front door and I loved the cool round mushroom looking trees.

This was our group. 2nd from the left is Chad, he's been here 30 times over the last 10 years and his brother is on the far left, he's a newbie like me. Then Mel is in the middle and next to her is Deann who is a doctor and has been a bunch of times and then her sister, Larinda on the right who is another first timer. And that was our little tour van for the day.

So day 1...AMAZING. Tomorrow we fly out to Cusco. It is way up in the mountains about 11,000 feet. That's where we will be the rest of the time. Apparently it takes a little bit to get adjusted to the altitude and we may spend lots of tomorrow with headaches and such so I'm not really looking forward to that. We have been telling people we are headed there and they give you this sad face because I think the flood damage is pretty extensive up there. Time to get to work!