LIMA, PERU

Hello from Lima, Peru,

We had an uneventful trip yesterday arriving right on schedule with our luggage. We left Gander at 5 am while our Calgary friends left at 1:30 am, which is pretty close to the same time. We passed in the air and they arrived in Montreal at almost the same time as we arrived in Toronto. We departed at almost the same time and landed in Panama within five minutes of each other. A short wait and we were on our way to Lima. Despite the perfect connections, we were still traveling for about 16 hours. But no complaints as all 6 of us were traveling on points.

We had a quick bite did some catching up before heading to bed. Truthfully, it was like we saw each other just weeks ago, not two years ago in Africa.

We spend half the day with a guide for a tour of Lima. It was nice but certainly not as charming or colourful as other Latin American countries we have visited. It is winter here now so the temperatures were cool at 15/16 degrees. Nice sightseeing temperatures and warm enough for us to sit outside and have a long lunch overlooking the ocean.

One of the coolest things we did was visit a monastery and its catacombs which housed over 25000 people at one point. We saw lots of skulls and femurs. Of course there were other bones but the smallest were destroyed by the lime in which they were buried. We were not allowed to take pictures.

There were few tourists around but tons of men in the squares who seemed to be relaxing. A few interesting characters, including the Avon guy.

We were told, however that they were planning a protest which is believable given the riot police around who Isaac befriended. We also saw the tourist police. The female uniform includes a pair of pearl earrings.

As always, there were those trying to sell whatever to tourists. The lady with the coco leaves was determined and hung around for a long time before giving up.

We watched the changing of the guards which was great but a little odd. It was small and really was more of a performance by the band who came to the gate playing a wide range of music including the Lone Ranger theme.

We sat and had an amazing lunch/dinner which was a buffet of Peruvian food. I had lots of ceviche. We were all tired so opted to take it easy. Especially since we have a 5 am rise tomorrow.

We have seen a couple plastic ladies, including this chick with what appears to be a butt lift. She looked so plastic front on and the extreme between her waist and legs looked way too extreme to be natural. The picture doesn't really capture it.

Cute gas station on the side of the road. More like a pit stop

Isaac was having a pretty great day until his phone just suddenly turned off and died, He is not pleased and I feel his pain.

Tomorrow we fly to Peurto Maldonado and take a boat ride into the Peruvian Amazon and stay at a Jungle Lodge where we will spend the next three days. You will not hear from us as we only have a few hours of electricity daily and no wifi. I will be sure and have something ready when we get back into service.

A few from the day