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Lima- 9:11 PM
I woke up at 7 but went back to sleep until my alarm went off at 8. I felt pretty good and I had laid out my clothes last night so I was ready in about 10 minutes. We went down for breakfast that was pretty good, especially the French toast.
We got down on the bus around 8:40 but we ended up having to sit in the back because all the seats were filled. A quick survey of the bus told me that the makeup of this group was very different than the previous group. There seems to be an extended family of 6 with 2 kids, 2 twenty something girls and a guy with a an older woman, a mother and son, and a few other people that I haven't yet figured out their relationship.
We met Edgard, our tour guide for the trip. He is nice and funny, but he is definitely no Josè! We also met Hernando, our local guide for the day. We started out by driving around Lima while Hernando gave us information about both Lima and Peru. Fun fact- I wasn't aware that Peru exported 22% more cocaine than Colombia. Not sure how they know that information but that's crazy!
Our first stop was to a 16th century cathedral to take pictures. We then continued on to Monasterio de San Francisco. We weren't allowed to take pictures, unfortunately. The paintings were beautiful and the painted tiles were awesome. The monastery used to house hundreds of monks but today only houses about 35-40.
We got a tour of the upper part of the monastery but then went down to the catacombs. The bones were all divided by body part. The creepiest ones were the skulls. I believe there were over 35,000 people buried there. It was pretty dark and kinda creepy.
After the church tour, we went to the Plaza Mayor where the presidential palace is located. There is a beautiful square/plaza in front with a fountain. We were there a few minutes to take pictures. A group of little kids from a school walked by and were so cute that we had to take a picture. Mimi then found a group of Mormons and started chatting them up. They were apparently on a 2 year mission in Peru.
We got back on the bus and headed back toward the hotel as Hernando gave us more info. about Lima. After the tour, we got back to the hotel and went up to our room for a while. I decided that I better get over to Citibank to get some local money out. So we went to the concierge who gave us a map and showed us how to get there.
We started walking and got a bit turned around. But after about 15 minutes we found it. I waited a few minutes in line to go to the counter only to find out I needed to go to the ATM in the lobby. I got out the money I needed and we headed to lunch.
We found a pizzeria that we had passes on our way to the bank. I got a personal cheese pizza and a Coke for about $6.50. I only ate half so I took the rest with me.
We got back to the hotel and hung out for a while again. I mainly wanted to put my pizza away before we did more exploring. We then decided to walk to the park along the water, which was close to our hotel.
We saw some para gliders as we walked. There were some sculptures in the park and beautiful tile work. We walked until we found where the para gliders were starting from. We asked about the cost and were told it was $85, cash only. It was only a 10 minute ride, too. We were a bit disappointed. Two girls from our group were there and did it and said it was awesome. We continued walking away so we wouldn't be sad about not being able to do it.
We started our walk back to the hotel. I was really impressed by the weather. It was probably in the seventies and very comfortable. The sun had even come out during the day, which apparently doesn't happen very often.
At the hotel, I had my leftover pizza while Mimi went to the Apple store to have her phone checked again because it's been having trouble charging.
At 6, we walked with our group across the street to a conference room. Our guide, Edgard, told us more about his background and how he came to Gate 1, the travel company, 3 years ago. We filled out some paperwork and he told us about the elevation changes coming tomorrow. He also recommended we don't take our altitude medication. He said it's a diuretic and we should be find if we drink lots of water and use oxygen tanks that are available everywhere. During the presentation, the three teachers from Houston, showed up. They are staying at an upgraded hotel that Judy, one of the teachers, said was awful. She has been such a complainer and one-upper this whole trip and it's been driving us nuts. She said she wouldn't tell us why she hated her hotel so we decided to leave because we didn't feel like hearing her whining again.
We went next door to buy a stock of water and got back to our hotel to shower and pack. We have a 5:30 wake up call tomorrow because we're off to Cuzco tomorrow! Bed time!
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