Peru - Days 1 & 2 - Lima

March 21, 2011 - Sigrid and I took off from Kansas City at 2:00pm. Our flight plan took us to Dallas, Miami, and Lima, Peru. We landed in Lima at about 5:00am on March 22. By that time, those of us who don't sleep on planes were running mostly on adrenaline. We transferred to our hotel on a bus provided by our tour operator, Odysseys Unlimited. After a quick breakfast, we retired to our rooms to freshen up after the trip before meeting with our tour guide for the next 10 days, Victor Colunga. These ceramic figurines greeted us in our room. We would see them again several times during our stay in Peru.

Lima from our hotel room.

The front of our hotel.

Victor briefs us on necessary facts about Peru like the names of various drinks and the benefits of Cipro.



We then traveled to the Rafael Larco Herrera Museum for lunch and a tour.

The grounds were beautifully landscaped.

Amy Ford, me, and Susan Atkinson.

Larry Rader and Susan nearest the camera.

Carson Rustand, Amy, and Sigrid.

Victor explains the menu while Linda Guthrie listens.

There they are again at the entrance to the restrooms.

Ken and Beth Richards with Peggy Westerbeck on the end of the table.

Terri Butler in the white blouse on the left side of the table.

The food was unbelievable. This was the appetizer.

A Pisco Sour.

The main course...Lomo Saltado.

I think this is a Lucuma pudding.

The museum has two collection. One is the erotic Incan works shown below....I didn't publish the most graphic works.

The second is the more classic types of works displayed in museums.

Sigrid rests in the courtyard of the museum.

Peggy and Terri

The museum tour guide and Victor talk.

We are now taking a driving tour of Lima. By neccessity, I have to take "Bus Photos" which means window glare and blurry focus due to the very rough roads.

Most of the photos are here simply to show the city and daily life. You will notice how brightly colored the buildings are. Lima has few sunny days so the colorful buildings help keep morale up. Peru's population is 23 miilion with seven million living in Lima.

The Huaca Hullamarca Pyramid is located in the heart of Lima. This ancient structure served several functions and several peoples in its near 2,000 year history.

Federal elections are just around the corner for Peruvians and the streets are loaded with campaign signs. Voting in Peru is manditory and is tracked with a national ID card.

Plaza San Martin

Plaza de Armas

The Lima Cathedral

Francisco Pizarro is given credit for founding Lima and is entombed in the church.

Note the dark brown window boxes on this building. Peruvians are able to use wood on structures like this since they only get about four inches of rain per year in Lima.

The San Francisco Church.

Bus transportation around the city is provided by private companies with mixed results.

We ended the evening by walking to a nearby restaurant with Ken and Beth for dinner....great fun.

This was a very long posting and it really taxed the blogger software. I will have to have fewer photos in future posts or make multi-part postings. Remember there are 14 days to cover so this is just the beginning of the trip.