We have one last full day in Lima and the plan is to spend it in the old part of the city, where most of the colonial buildings were constructed after the Spanish arrived. It turns out to be just a few blocks from our hotel, so after breakfast we load up and head out. The difference between this part of the city and Miraflores is evident almost immediately, as the streets are more crowded with locals and the sidewalks lined with street carts. One of the famous foods here is ceviche (raw fish marinated in lime juice), so it has been on our “must do” list. How then could we turn down the opportunity to not only try uncooked meat, but to do so from a dingy box on wheels. A+ to Sammy for staring botulism in the face and not flinching.

A few blocks further is the main square, Plaza de Armas. On one side is the Presidential Palace, and by sheer coincidence, we arrive as they are going through the daily changing of the guard. Adjacent to that is the Archbishop’s Palace, where after a quick look a the church, we are approached by a man selling paintings (his back story is that he teaches art to kids in Lima, and of course, has a good friend in Seattle). As he is flipping through his portfolio of original works, poker-face Sam gives him a big thumbs up whenever he sees a picture with a llama, and comments how the prices are pretty cheap. Not surprisingly, we end up with a painting of Machu Picchu that contains llamas, but for only twice what we probably needed to pay.

Just off the square is a restaurant recommended in our guide book, so we stop there for lunch, including some less sketchy ceviche, yuca fries, and fantastic rice pudding for dessert. It is definitely the best food we have had so far, and probably a spot we would come back to if we were staying in Lima longer.

Like Asia with all of its temples, it is easy to get “churched out” here, but one I did want to see if the Monastery of San Francisco, primarily because you get to walk through the catacombs and see the 70,000 people that are buried there. The rest of the tour is very engaging though and includes a room full of priceless painting by Peter Paul Rubens that you can walk right up (no sheet of plexiglass or ropes 5 feet from the wall), and a stunning library with over 25,000 texts going back over 500 years.

For the rest of the afternoon, we just wander around town, checking out the various markets and trying different snacks here and there (note the ever present Inca Kola). It’s crowded, noisy, and admittedly a little infectious, but after a few hours we are ready to get back to the hotel and relax. Tomorrow we are off to Cusco.

After spending a full days cooped up in airplanes flying to Asia, the 8 hour trip from LA to Lima was a piece of cake. As always, I used a good chunk of the time to catch up on movies from the past year (since movie night at the Roberts house typically revolves around such blockbusters as Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2), while Sam refused to waste a single minute of being in total control of his own TV. Angela slept (shocking, I know).

One of the particularly nice things about traveling South instead of East, is that the time zones aren’t a whole lot different. We will be on Central Time, so when we arrive in Lima at midnight, thankfully we’re tired and can go straight to bed, instead of staring at the ceiling, wide awake, for hours.

Given the late night, it is no surprise that we start of a bit slow the next morning. I’m a little antsy, as usual, but nothing here seems to open before 10am anyway, so that keeps me from annoying my travel companions too much (at least for today). After a quiet breakfast and a few hours at the cell phone store trying to buy a SIM card in broken Spanish, the high point of my day thus far has to be this exchange:

Angela; “Sam, get away from the balcony, I don’t know how sturdy it is. Let your Dad go.”
Sam: “How come Dad can go, but I can’t?”
Angela: “Because your Dad is smart.”

We know what she meant (even the dull one), but couldn’t resist the opportunity to bust her chops a bit for how it came out.

Finally geared up and ready to go, we head to an area called Miraflores, which is the affluent area of Lima. We have no particular agenda, other than the check things out and get a feel for the city. As the uppity part of town, prices are higher, but we manage to find $3 lunch, most of which we recognize. Sammy also discovers his new crack cocaine – Inca Kola. There must be a good story behind how something that tastes like liquid bubble gum and looks like a trucker bomb became so popular, but nonetheless, it is all my son can talk about (he starts making beeping sounds when the bottle is almost empty to let us know he is running out).

There are a few sights in this part of town, but nothing overwhelming, and by dinner time we are powering down. With none of the restaurants in our guide book close by, we break down and pick the first place we see. One uninspired meal later, we decide to call it a day, and head off for a nice walk back to the hotel (or at least where we believe the hotel to be).

Overall, a good first day. As capital cities go, Lima seems very clean and orderly. Traffic is bad, and horns are blaring all the time, but there is still some structure to the whole experience versus the outright chaos we found in places like Cairo and Delhi. The people here are extremely friendly, and thankfully very patient with the scraps of broken Spanish I have to use to communicate. English is less common here than other places we have been, but so far we’re getting by.

No matter how far in advance we start talking about where we’ll go next, the night before always ends up being a chaotic scramble to get things in order. Sammy has talked about going to Peru for 2 years, our flights were all booked weeks ago, yet here we are burning the midnight oil again, in a panic about what we are forgetting. However, time stands still for no one, so ready or not, come 8:20am , we are wheels up on our next adventure.

This is, of course, the second chapter in our grand plan to introduce our kids to the world outside of Redmond. Sam has spent the past few months figuring out all the things he wants to see and do in Peru, and after thinning it down to a manageable level, our plan is as follows:

3 days in Lima
7 days in Cusco/Machu Picchu
2 days in Puno/Lake Titicaca (what 11 year old boy could refuse a place with both “titi” and “caca” in the name?)
4 days in Nazca/Paracas
7 days in Galapagos Islands (a bit of a cheat since it is not part of Peru, but given how animal-crazy he is, we couldn’t come this far and not let Sam experience it)

While connectivity should be good in many of these places (Lima and Cusco in particular), in others, like Puno (where I’m going to try and convince my road warrior wife to home stay on a manmade island) and Galapagos, probably not so much. That said, documenting this journey may come in waves, but hopefully I can keep up.

Vámonos.