Peru Day 2 – More of Lima

This probably won´t be too long as I´m on a funky keyboard, its late, and we have to be up at 5am to catch a bus.

First some updates. I forgot to mention yesterday that when we stopped for water I didn’t check and bought WITH bubbles and had to go back and purchase ‘sin gas´.  Ooops

Second, in my delight in telling you about the big mall area where we had dinner Tim reminded me I forgot to mention how lost we got in getting there.  We walked to where they told us and the entire place looked empty and as we were about to give up we noticed an entrance to this vast underground cliff-side complex and realized we were idiots.

Today we booked our bus to Nazca (though we have to sit on the second floor in the regular instead of the luxury first floor seats) and headed into central Lima.

We started off by going to the San Fransisco cathedral.  It was very nice though Tim didn’t take off his hat (he said he did it on purpose) and the monks chased him down to take it off.  Later they chased me out cause they were closing and ended up locking Tim in (I waited at least 10 minutes for him to come out of the other exit after everyone was gone).  They had great pigeons in the square there and I’ve gotten some great pigeons shots all over.

We then went to the catacombs and got student discounts… the first guide only spoke Spanish so we ditched them and joined an English group but it was private so we ditched them and just walked around until we got busted cause I was taking photos and they heard me.  Eventually they got us with an English guide and we stayed with them for a while but ditched two more groups before we left.  It was funny but we had a good time and didn’t get kicked out.

We then went shopping and didn’t buy anything. The t-shirts are the clinging cotton though they do have 2xl and the alpaca stuff is very cheap which I find funny cause we have the same stuff at home (but not cheap).  We then went to the mayoral square and I photo´d the presidential palace, the fountain, and another cathedral.

We went in but they wanted money for the full tour and we were short on time.  Tim went to look at the postcards rack and we kept peeking into the cathedral.  I went to take a picture (which was allowed) and the person next to me used a flash and everyone started to yell at me – but it wasn’t me!

We took a taxi (these guys are crazy!) to the Museo Nacional de Arqueologia, Antropologia e Historia del Peru. It was amazing (and free today) it was outside and inside with big courtyards and wonderful art.  Tim went though so slowly he only got to see the precolonial stuff (which is what he cares about).  Now I have seen two last suppers where they are eating Guinea Pigs!

We stayed at the museum till they kicked us out. Tim and I both got some books and I got a refrigerator magnet.

We headed back to Mirflores to have dinner at this restaurant that Tim saw yesterday.  It was a nightmare. While I enjoyed my Beef stroganoff which was beef with mushroom soup and 1 slice of bread, his fish dinner was still frozen and he sent it back while I finished mine.

This led us on the quest to get Tim fed to a level of satisfaction that took us to a cafe and a Chinese place. The Chinese place was funny cause they sold gelato and they gave me a little spoon sample of a flavor and when I asked about a different flavor he prompted me to return the spoon from my mouth so that he could scoop the second flavor.  Think about it.

We ended up in the town square where we first found a wonderful art gallery with an exhibition on merging modern and ancient art forms and then went outside and saw a fabulous photo exhibition www.yannarthusbertrand.org that just really made us think.

On the way back we stopped in city hall to use the restroom – I just found it funny that at 11pm they were open just for that.  And then got some munchies before heading back to the hotel.

We have a 5:15 wake up call and I have to pack.

Having fun… heading to Nazca

Jared

[Re-posted from my University Blog & Edited 07/01/2011]