Peru Day 1 - Lima

Sept 13th, 2007

I had no idea Lima was so big. Over 8 million people live there! It is a big city, with no subway, one freeway to speak of, lots of old cars and trucks, and LOTS of smog!

So I finally met Jenni in person, I liked her right away. We are a lot alike, but she is completely fearless. She's my idol, I want to be like her when I grow up (even though we're only 2 years apart LOL). I also met Washington our guide for the tour. He is a native Peruvian, 25 years old from Ollantaytambo in the Sacred Valley. He has so much pride for his people and his country, it's awe inspiring. He also has vision for it and plans on being mayor of his town next election (3 years) and president of Peru in 15 years. With his ambition and personality and what he's overcome in his own life to get where he is - I have NO doubt he will do it and I'll be visiting him in the presidential palace in 2022!

Breakfast at Hostal el Patio consisted of one piece of white bread (round bun), one piece of fruit and coffee or tea. I used my Sunrider foods to keep me fed and took the fruit to go. This is the hostal in the daytime. It is a very cute little place with a great courtyard. My first room overlooked the courtyard.

This is the view from my window.

Oh, did I mention I was freezing in Lima every minute I was there!? I had so many layers of clothes on, slept with a sweater and hood on, wool socks - I could barely move. It was about 15c during the day and about 5-7c at night - BUT - they don't have heat indoors! I got extra blankets and a heater on the second night after I learned it was available. The heater itself was a bit scary - propane! Only got it for an hour then it got taken away.

The day staff spoke good English though. This is us with one of the desk girls Janice.

(Me, Diana Love, Janice, Jenni Lund)

Okay, so the money changer guy came and I got some Soles (3 for every US dollar), stored my passport in their safe - and off we went to lunch.

This is about 5 blocks from our hotel. This street is all restaurants, no traffic. The area of Lima we're in is called Miraflores. It is a relatively safe, touristy area close to the ocean.

This is Washington (we call him Washi) and we all love him to pieces.
How can you not with that smile?!

My first Peruvian beer! Salut!

This guy came and played for us while we ate. We gave him tips
of course. I found out later, he comes every day. Saw him many times.

Beginning of great food in Peru. This is Diana's salad. The avacados there are totally amazing and huge! I was told was safe to eat salad in Lima. We did and didn't get sick so there you go.


This is my first lunch - ceviche, which is raw fish marinated in chili and lime juice.

That is giant corn on top. I thought I'd get something with it like rice, or veggies - guess not. But as I soon discovered, we all love to share our food and try new things - so I got some of that salad and Washi got to eat what I didn't.

After lunch we had a driver take us downtown to Cathedral de San Francisco. It is in the heart of Lima, very Spanish looking. We had some fun with pigeons outside, then we went in to see the catacombs. There are 3 levels of them under the cathedral and over 25,000 people buried there in the 1500's. It the 1850's or so it was discovered and they wanted to try to count how many bodies were there. So they started arranging the bones in groups.

Washi took about 17 shots like this of us! He loves photography and had camera envy of mine. He loved when I let him use it.

Amazingly enough, none of us got "shat upon" shall we say!

Is that a bit creepy or what?!

Lima architecture, very Spanish.

The presidential palace, guards with guns and all.

Plaza des Armas in Lima


Traffic in Lima - going back at 5pm was NOT a good idea!
Took us 20 minutes to go like 5 blocks.


Hostal el Patio at night.


That's my room open on the left. At least for one more night.

After that we went to dinner on that same street as we had lunch and Michelle was supposed to arrive that night but had travel issues and didn't get in. Diana was trying to reach Washi to tell him not to go to the airport and was back and forth to the internet cafe and using my cell phone. In the mean time - Jenni and I went salsa dancing at this place.

I don't have a lot of photos at night cause my camera is too big and obviously expensive I left it in my room most of the time for safety reasons. I have some from everyone else's photos and we have to compile them all together yet.

Tomorrow - Jenni flies to Cusco, Diana and I go shopping.