A Catch Up!

On Thursday we caught a cab downtown to Plaza San Martin.

Plaza San Martin-Lima, Peru

Plaza San Martin-Lima, Peru

After exploring the plaza and checking out the statue we walked down to Plaza de Armas, which is surrounded by The Cathedral of Lima, The Government Palace and some other historical buildings. We toured the Cathedral and it was beautiful inside. The also just discovered tombs under the church about 5 years ago. It was so interesting to learn about the history of Lima and we had our own little guided tour.

First look at The Cathedral of Lima

Closer view

The casket where Francisco Pizarro (the founder of Peru) is buried

The tombs underneath the church

The main alter

More tombs

Where the babies are buried

Plaza de Armas-Lima, Peru

The Government Palace

After our tour here, we walked to the San Francisco church that contains the catacombs underneath of it. They said it was the first public cemetery in Lima. We were not allowed to take pictures here, so that is why there are none :)

On Friday, we took a cab about 40 minutes from our hotel to Miraflores, which is on the coast of Lima. It was beautiful there and we enjoyed lunch alongside Parque Kennedy. From there we walked down to a couple of really beautiful parks and the weather was awesome! We watched people paraglide off of the top of a hill over the ocean and people surfing. It was very relaxing and a really nice part of Lima to explore. If I were to come back to Lima, I would look into staying down in Miraflores.

The climate from Argentina to Peru was quite a change. We were freezing in Mendoza and in Lima it was about 70 degrees and the sun was just beating down and it felt really good. Our hotel was supposedly in the dangerous part of Lima in a neighborhood called Callao, which was only 5 minutes from the airport. It was quite different than the rest of Lima and at night I’m sure was not safe, but our hotel was really nice and the staff was really friendly. However, after taking cabs down to different parts of Lima, it was really hard to find a cab that would take us back to Callao, because supposedly there is something with cameras and cab drivers getting tickets for going to Callao. It was an ordeal when we were looking for a cab to take us back.

Georgia arrived on Friday night and it has been great to meet up with her again for the rest of our travels. We got up early Saturday morning to catch a cab to the airport for our 8:45 AM flight to Cuzco. I had booked our hotel at about 10:30 PM last night, so we didn’t really know what to expect. When we arrived, I had a reservation for a triple room, but supposedly they gave our room away this morning to some other people and they wanted to put us in a double and a single. I was a little bit frustrated and the guy finally made some calls and we got a room with four beds in it :)

After we checked in we went to explore the city some more and grab something to eat for lunch. I really like it here in Cuzco and the people are really nice and friendly. We walked up the street from our hotel to Plaza de Armas. On the way we saw the Convento de Santo Domingo which was huge and very beautiful. There were also ladies dressed up in bright colors carrying little lambs around to get money for taking pictures of them. I snapped a quick picture without them knowing, though...oops. We continued walking to the Plaza where The Cathedral of Cuzco and the Compania de Jesus. The architecture here is wonderful!

Saturday was Independence Day so most of the sights were closed for us to go see, not to mention the cost quite a bit of money to see them all. After exploring, we walked back to our hotel to take a nap before we met Greg and Kay for dinner. I had a nice nap, but when I woke up I started feeling sick and I was freezing cold. Of course, I was not a happy camper! So on our way to dinner we asked the front desk to put bigger thicker blankets in our room. All the way to dinner I complained about how I did not want to stay in this hotel for two nights and I wanted to find some other place to stay. So when we walked by the market, Georgia and dad made me find an alpaca blanket to buy so I would be warmer while I was sleeping. I am also a very picky shopper, so I made sure they knew we were going to be late meeting Greg and Kay. They said that was fine as long as they didn’t have to hear me complain about being cold all night.

We met Greg and Kay at Norton’s Pub and I had some orange juice and hot tea because I could feel I was coming down with something. Before we left the restaurant I had already thrown up and we went to another restaurant where we ate dinner. I had a salad that was delicious and very light on my stomach. The food there was so delicious! When we got back to the hotel, I felt 10 times worse and could hardly talk. When we walked into our room, there was a space heater and nice thick alpaca blankets. Of course, the words that came out of my mouth were “This is the best hotel ever!” Which dad and Georgia laughed hysterically at!

Today dad and Georgia went to Pisac which has a huge market and is quite a sight to see here. I had a rough night of coughing, throwing up, and blowing my nose, so I spent my day lying in bed. I am feeling quite a bit better now and am hoping I feel so much more better tomorrow because we taking the train to Aguas Calientes so we can go to Machu Picchu on Tuesday!

I have been meaning to blog, but it has been really busy and Wi-Fi only works in certain places so this one is just a really long one to catch you up on everything. I hope everything is well at home! I will post pictures of Cuzco when I get the chance. It took 4 hours for the pictures of Lima to load, so that is why there are no more :( The internet here only works in the lobby and I think it is time I get to bed! There will definitely be more to come. Maybe tomorrow, but we will see ;)