End of Day 1 - Lima

the covento de san franciso in lima

matt in the plaza de armas in lima

Day 1 in Lima went much better than I expected. The guidebooks acted like Lima is the scariest place on earth, but really, it was not that bad - no worse than any other big city in the world, as far as i`ve seen. We caught a cab to our hotel in the middle of the night last night with no problems. this morning we went to Lima Centro, checked out the Plaza Mayor, Catedral, and Convento de San Francisco and had no problems whatsoever. We went to a Spanish speaking tour at the convent and understood maybe every tenth word, so we probably missed out on a few things there, but besides that, A-OK. There were catacombs at the Convent and it was amazing - just stacks and stacks of skulls and femors. Crazy. I met a funny old man who kept trying to talk to me. it was funny because a) his family kept shushing him because he was WAY loud, b.) i didnt understand but maybe 1/4 of what he was saying anyways.

Tonight we went to a silly "cultural night" at our hotel, with an Incan band and dancers and such. Matt, of course, made us some new friends from Georgia (the state) so we hung out with them all night and they gave us the low-down on Cusco, as they just returned.

We went to a cevichiera for lunch today. i really wanted to go, and it was okay, but i doubt i will ever eat ceviche again in my life. i tried to explain to matt that it was "marinated" in lemon juice, but he was convinced that it`s pretty much just raw fish in lemon juice. my belly has not been grinning at me tonight, so i tend to agree.

The best thing about Lima is that it is so freaking cheap! we took a cab all the way across town, had went to two museums, had dunkin donuts coffee, took the cab back across town, wandered for a while, took another cab to the restaurant, had lunch, took a cab back to our hotel, and spent a grand total of $60, and that`s including a $40 lunch (two lunches and 4 beers) at a 5 star restaurant. (not because we were stuck on a 5 star restaurant, but because i was so freaking hungry i was near tears (it was after 2:30 when we decided on a plan) and we could not find anywhere to eat so we hailed a cab, gave them an address in my book and went for it.) we took a 30 minute cab ride for $5. AWEsome.

Tomorrow we leave for the jungle. by tomorrow i mean we have to wake up in 2 1/2 hours. our flight leaves at 4:20am. that is not early morning. that is the middle of the night.