Lima - Day 1

After an easy 6 hour flight to Lima (Long enough for two good movies) we were met in Lima and taken to our hotel. It was 10:00 at night on a Sunday, but the traffic was still bad. Glad we are not trying to drive. There will be several challenges on this trip including altitude and snorkeling. But the two daily challenges that I will have are not to drink the water (even to brush teeth) and not to send toilet paper down the toilet. That one is really tough to remember . . . I know other people have goofed up on this one, too . . . but my percentage of "rememory" is not very good right now. Anyway, maybe TMI, but that is the reality of travel. Jim and Jenni Moore are traveling with us, and they are very easy to travel with! In Lima, we snagged two of the four penthouse rooms - lucky us. The room is very nice, the A/C works well, and after we got the safe to work (glad my Spanish is still ok), we are set for two nights. After an orientation meeting, we walked to lunch where the choices were much different from anything we have experienced but they were good. I had mashed potatoes with chicken inside (on the right - the yellow round patties are the mashed potatoes), and Don had fried potatoes with yellow chile sauce. Both were not seasoned very heavily, but they were certainly easy to eat. For a diverse group like ours, having several choices was perfect.

Then I had a fish dish and Don had a beef stir-fry, and for dessert we have a small slice of apple pie with really good vanilla ice cream on top - with chips of vanilla in the ice cream. We then walked through the Miraflores district of Lima - the more affluent area, where most of the houses and apartment buildings are fortified by electric fences and alarms. Our guide, Cesar, says it is a safe area, but as we find at home, crime can hit anywhere, and it has moved into the Miraflores area. It is a very pretty housing district, however, and the stores are quite pricey. We then went to our first archeological site, Pucllana. More in the next post.

Preparing for Peru

Although we had not planned to take another trip to the Southern Hemisphere, when the tour to Machu Picchu and the Galapagos came up, we decided we had to go. So here we are again, trying to pack for 18 days into a carry-on and a backpack. We will make it . . . but it will be tight. In the meantime, we have had the cruelest weather in Wichita . . . really cold for weeks, then 71 mph winds and dust storms last week, then 75 - 80 degrees Monday and Tuesday of this week, and now snow and howling winds again. Oh my. I must say, we are looking forward to seeing what the weather is like near the Equator, in the Andes, and on the coast. It should be a fun trip . . . stay tuned!