DAY 1
Lima, Peru
Hola! Today we spent a full day exploring Lima. Its a wonderful city. Coming in from the airport it is exactly what you anticipate of most Latin America countries; Huge colorful Spanish Language billboards towering over cement block stores and crumbling houses lining dirty streets. But, as you pull nearer to the city it becomes quite charming. We are staying in an area called MiraFlores (quite obviously the place to be) and it is great fun. Tons of quite little side streets lined with antique shops, cafes, and silver shops. We spent the morning walking around, had excellent arepas (CORN SANDWICHES) for lunch and most of all enjoyed the best coffee of our lives.
With the the essence of time in mind (we only have one day here)in the afternoon we joined an Australian couple for a city tour which turned out to be excellent. We drove around getting out to view the ocean, the parks, and the colonial style government buildings. We all laughed as our guide pointed out the "expensive" section of town where a two bedroom condo sells as high as $50K US.
By far the highlight was the Convento De Sanfrancisco, a monastary built in the 16th century. We spend about two hours there wandering the halls, stunned by the glorious woodwork, paintings, frescos, golden alters, and tile work. We saw one of the worlds oldest libraries where they retain 20,000 of the original hand painted books drawn by the Monks. We were pleasured most by Bryce´s reaction to it. We thought he would be bored, but instead he stared wide eyed at each and every piece of art with silent and intense appreciation. He loved it! Perhaps the most shocking thing about it all was that all of this is out in the open! The paintings, frescos, books, etc...line open courtyards exposed to the elements. In an American or European Museums they would be garded behind security, glass and protective shields, but here they sit decaying in the humidity. Our guide said they are working to protect them but as we have heard over and over here "The government has no money".
We also went into the Catacumbas. As we decended we were warned the Catacombs held 25,000 bodies. Of course, I expected them to be in coffins, or behind stone markers burried in the walls.....NOT SO! They were right there in piles! Bones and skulls piled in small ditches close enough to fall into! She said one of there main problems is people stealing body parts as surveniers! A bit Freaky.....but Bryce thought it was cool.
Anyhow...tonight dinner and a local folkdancing show.
Tomorrow a 4am wake up call for our trup to Cusco!
Travel Tips;
We are staying at the Farona Grand Hotel. Nice, Holiday Inn style and decent for the money, but not fancy. Good service, incredible coffee, and an excellent location. Its a bit chilly for the outdoor pool, but the roof top deck is nice.
Lunch; We ate at The Columbian Cafe on Av. La Paz. The owner Juan Carlos spreaks excellent English. Service and food were great. When Bryce asked for his grilled cheese on wheat bread instead of corn tortilla...instead of saying no...he just ran to the store to buy bread! Nice people in this city.
P.S. Sorry everyone....we are still trying to figure out how to post photos. All the directions come up in Spanish!!!!!!
Dawn....if you are out there...maybe you could send me some directions.
Thanks Babe!
Lima, Peru
Hola! Today we spent a full day exploring Lima. Its a wonderful city. Coming in from the airport it is exactly what you anticipate of most Latin America countries; Huge colorful Spanish Language billboards towering over cement block stores and crumbling houses lining dirty streets. But, as you pull nearer to the city it becomes quite charming. We are staying in an area called MiraFlores (quite obviously the place to be) and it is great fun. Tons of quite little side streets lined with antique shops, cafes, and silver shops. We spent the morning walking around, had excellent arepas (CORN SANDWICHES) for lunch and most of all enjoyed the best coffee of our lives.
With the the essence of time in mind (we only have one day here)in the afternoon we joined an Australian couple for a city tour which turned out to be excellent. We drove around getting out to view the ocean, the parks, and the colonial style government buildings. We all laughed as our guide pointed out the "expensive" section of town where a two bedroom condo sells as high as $50K US.
By far the highlight was the Convento De Sanfrancisco, a monastary built in the 16th century. We spend about two hours there wandering the halls, stunned by the glorious woodwork, paintings, frescos, golden alters, and tile work. We saw one of the worlds oldest libraries where they retain 20,000 of the original hand painted books drawn by the Monks. We were pleasured most by Bryce´s reaction to it. We thought he would be bored, but instead he stared wide eyed at each and every piece of art with silent and intense appreciation. He loved it! Perhaps the most shocking thing about it all was that all of this is out in the open! The paintings, frescos, books, etc...line open courtyards exposed to the elements. In an American or European Museums they would be garded behind security, glass and protective shields, but here they sit decaying in the humidity. Our guide said they are working to protect them but as we have heard over and over here "The government has no money".
We also went into the Catacumbas. As we decended we were warned the Catacombs held 25,000 bodies. Of course, I expected them to be in coffins, or behind stone markers burried in the walls.....NOT SO! They were right there in piles! Bones and skulls piled in small ditches close enough to fall into! She said one of there main problems is people stealing body parts as surveniers! A bit Freaky.....but Bryce thought it was cool.
Anyhow...tonight dinner and a local folkdancing show.
Tomorrow a 4am wake up call for our trup to Cusco!
Travel Tips;
We are staying at the Farona Grand Hotel. Nice, Holiday Inn style and decent for the money, but not fancy. Good service, incredible coffee, and an excellent location. Its a bit chilly for the outdoor pool, but the roof top deck is nice.
Lunch; We ate at The Columbian Cafe on Av. La Paz. The owner Juan Carlos spreaks excellent English. Service and food were great. When Bryce asked for his grilled cheese on wheat bread instead of corn tortilla...instead of saying no...he just ran to the store to buy bread! Nice people in this city.
P.S. Sorry everyone....we are still trying to figure out how to post photos. All the directions come up in Spanish!!!!!!
Dawn....if you are out there...maybe you could send me some directions.
Thanks Babe!
posted by The Herald Family at 3:15 PM
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