| 2/19 and 2/20: Lima |
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| Written by Josh Seamon | |
| Monday, 23 February 2009 | |
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Hello everyone, As I mentioned yesterday our transport went very smoothly. The ride down to Boston was great and there wasn't much snow at all. By the time we got to southern New Hampshire the sun was out and there was almost no snow to be seen. We unloaded the bus and then headed to the American Airlines ticket counter where there was no wait. We got out tickets, cleared security and found that our gate was immediately on the other side. We had a couple hours to rest which the kids used to explore mingle. At 5:45pm we were seated on the flight and ready to go. I really like large planes! At 9:10pm we started our decent into the very well lit city of Miami. After a fun walk through the well decorated Miami terminal we found out gate and settled down to a nice dinner of grilled sandwiches. A couple hours later we were airborne and headed south. Not too long into the flight almost the entire group was asleep. Our first time flyer was out cold and the plane was calm. I was lucky enough to sleep the entire flight and woke up about 15 minutes before our decent. We filled out our customs forms as a group and left the plane. We cleared customs and then waited for our bag. Every single one of our bags arrived and we proceeded to clear the last security gate where we met Nevers, our tour guide. He immediately started talking to the kids and minutes later we were outside boarding our bus. A short ride later through the very large, spread out city of Lima (population 9 million), we made it to our hotel at 7:45am. We dropped our bags, had a very nice breakfast, and then head several hours to rest in the hotel. Several of the kids only need a little while to rest, but other (including the chaperones!) enjoyed the time to gather our energy. At noon we gathered to change money and have lunch at the hotel. We had a Peruvian grain based dish with lime (yum!) and a spicy sole dish that was really, really tasty. After lunch we were had a little more time to relax in our very nice hotel. At 2pm we met our guide, Kika, and our tour bus. We boarded the bus and headed about 5 minutes away to the coast where we stopped at the park of love, a gorgeous grass and flower filled park overlooking the coast from several hundred feet above the beach. The center piece of the park is a large statue of two people kissing. We were told that every day the newly married couples gather in the park as a romantic tradition. After taking some picturesque shots, we got back on the bus and headed to the Lima Cathedral. At the Lima Cathedral we enjoyed a wonderful tour by Kika. She explained all of the artwork and the great array of styles in each of the alcoves. We learned about how earthquakes had hurt the cathedral over time and got to go very high up on the front of the cathedral and see the seats for all of the people involved in the services. After a short trip to see the religious artifacts, including a library straight out of the 16th century (literally), we then went a few blocks down the street to the old Franciscan monastery. We got to see amazing artwork that is outside and a central cloister garden, all accompanies by Kika. We then went down into the crypt below the monastery which was intense! The pathways was dark and small, and just when we thought we wouldn't see too many, if any, bones, we came across open burial sites completely filled with femurs and skulls. Kika gave us a short lesson on the area, explaining that they had only opened very few of the areas of the catacombs, and that we were in fact standing on more sealed crypts. Before leaving we got to look down into a very large well shaped brick hole, circular in shape, many feet deep, completely filled with mosaic femurs and skulls. Wow. After leaving the cloister we got back on the bus. On the way we saw a group of Peruvians in traditional garb, gathering to dance in front of the cloister. After a slight detour due to intense traffic (we had a spectacular driver!), we made it to our museum stop, a private collection of thousands of examples of Peruvian art -- pots, scultures, metal work, cloth. Kika gave another brilliant tour which ended in a vault filled with worked gold and silver. We then had a 45 minute bus ride back to the city center and Karen and I had a great chance to talk to Kika about her travels and the current Peruvian government. We got back on the bus and headed straight to dinner in Miraflores, the central hub of nightlife. We had dinner sitting outside in the warm air, taking in the energy of the surrounding. Our dinner consisted of chicken soup, sliced steak, fries, and Peruvian rice. It sounds American, but it sure didn't taste that way. Nevers told us about his time growing up in north west Peru on the Amazon and how he loved to fish. I'm definitely going up to that area one day. After diner we walked about 6 blocks through the Lima nightlife back to the hotel. We got back around 8:30 and lights were out by 10pm -- although most of the kids were asleep well before 10. All of the kids are currently at breakfast. In about 30 minutes we are going back to the airport to catch our flight to Cuzco. |
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