Lima, Peru

Last Friday I took a bus from Guayaquil, Ecuador to Lima, Peru. The bus took about 26 hours. But the bus was really nice - reclining chairs, food service, and lots and lots of movies. It wasn´t too bad. They also help you with the border crossings. Some bus companies don´t wait for you at the border. But this bus company, Ormeno, was ¨royal class¨. At the border there are people (not in uniform) that try to charge you for your stamp. Also, there are people that change your money from US Dollars (thats what they use in Ecuador) to Peruvian Nuevo soles, but at a terrible rate. I wan´t going to change any money, but another gringo on the bus said it was legit. I knew I would need some Peruvian money for a taxi when I got to Lima, so I changed $20. I totally got ripped off. Maybe I should´ve not listened to him. Oh well. This was not the first or last time I´m sure that I´ll get ¨gringo-ed¨. You win some you lose some. I won´t sweat it too much.

On Sunday I did some exploring in Lima. I went to the Centro Historico to Plaza de Armas. I got there and there happened to be a huge mass for Corpus Cristi in front of the Catedral de Lima. The cardinal was giving the mass. The plaza was full of people for the mass. It was really beautiful. I was really lucky.

Afterwards I went to check out Iglesia de San Francisco. They had a tour of the church, monastary, and catacombs but no pictures allowed. It was a really great tour. There were beautiful murals, paintings, furniture, an amazing library all from the 17th and 18th century. There were many rooms with the Spanish moorish type of arcitecture. The catacombs were pretty creepy. Bones, skulls, and skeletons from the 18th century.

I ended up seeing a parade too for the Corpus Christi.

After trying to cross the parade, I went to the Museo de la Incuisicion y del Congreso. The tour group was pretty big so I missed a lot of the explanations. There were wax figures of the torture methods used back in the day.

After that I checked out Iglesia Santo Domingo and Plaza San Martin.

Then I headed for the waterfront area. I went to Larco Mar. Its this toursity mall with restaurants and everything. (Yvette, there´s a Hooters there. I thought of you.) I walked all along the waterfront. There were a few parks. There was one called Parque del Amour, which was absolutely the worst place to go when you are missing your boyfriend. There´s a big statue of people making out, and there were couples everywhere making out. It was terrible. The worst place in Lima. But the waterfront area is really nice. You can see surfers out in the water.