Peru

Lima is huge. Not that we saw that much of it (8 million people) but what we saw, we liked.

First, we were driven through a fairly poor and decrepit area but, it was very clean. There wasn’t a piece of litter to be seen on the streets and no stray dogs were running around. Further on the areas were much prettier to look at, and equally clean. In the city itself we saw sweepers everywhere, mostly women in burgundy uniforms wearing face masks. If they’re responsible for the cleanliness of Lima, they’re doing a fabulous job.

We stopped in a little restaurant where Teddy was going to treat us to a pisco sour but after 15 minutes when our drinks hadn’t arrived yet, we left. Time was ticking and we had to catch a sightseeing bus.

The tour we tried to book on the ship was sold out, but, for $18 we found a city sightseeing tour bus in Lima which took us on a fabulous 3 hour journey through the city and into its heart, where we did a short walking tour that included the catacombs. All old bones and skulls but very interesting. They did a count of the bones and there were 25,000 people buried there. The catacombs themselves were lit by why looked like flame torches attached to the walls, but they were electric.
Bought a 4-piece rough painting of the Nazca lines, which I love.

San Martin, Peru

“I had this,” said a woman to me as she grabbed for one of the two alpaca wool scarves I had just picked up off a table. “And this one too,” she continued as she moved to take the other scarf from me.

“Well, you don’t have them now.”

Stupid woman. If she had them and wanted them, she shouldn’t have put them back on the table. I bought them and I love them.

This place looks a tad desolate. The shuttle took us about 25 minutes into a little beach village which consisted of little kiosks selling stuff to tourists. Along the way we saw dessert, just sand dune after sand dune after sand dune. In a few years this place will be built up. They’re already starting, and they have a nice pier where our ship could dock so we didn’t have to get tendered.

Teddy treated us today to pisco sours on the beach since yesterday’s never materialized and they were delicious, and unfortunately more expensive than they would have been in Lima.