September 30, 2009

This may be part one of today's post, we will see how I am feeling later. We left Miami slightly early (who ever heard of such a thing...) and had an uneventful flight to Peru. It is currently 10:49 CST and we are back in the Lima airport. We arrived here around 4:45, went through customs and got our luggage and were waiting for our tour company to pick us up around 6am. Our guide arrived to meet us shortly thereafter and took us out for a driving tour of Lima. Lima is actually a beautiful city. There is a lot of neat old architecture, we saw the statue of San Martin, oldest cathedral, the prime minister's house, the bishop's house, the Barranco and Miaflores districts. As for animals we saw wild dogs and cats, pigeons and small vultures. The weather was overcast and has yet to clear. Most days start this way and the fog and clouds burn off after nine. We enjoyed a great breakfast at Mananos in the Miaflores area. We invited our guide and the driver to join us. Chuck and Miguel (our guide) enjoyed a native Peruvian breakfast. It reminded me of beef stew, Chuck called beef with a gravy sauce served with bread. He said it was tasty. I had coffee, and a ham and cheese omelet and fresh squeezed strawberry juice. Miguel was telling me how cheap strawberries are here year round. I was so envious. Chad enjoyed a ham and cheese omelet as well with fresh squeezed orange juice. Our driver Juan had some sort of croissant sandwich that was served with an awesome chili sauce. The sauce had kick but great flavor.

After breakfast we headed back to the airport and got the rest of our travel information and checked in to head to our next destination of Puno (elevation is close to 13,000 ft). I am guessing we will all have headaches and feel horrible for a couple of hours, espeically after not sleeping a whole lot. TTFN.