We got on the plane just before midnight Monday night. It was a pretty big plane.
We all got to sit together.
5 1/2 hours later, we arrived in Lima, the capital of Peru. We went straight to the hotel and took a nap. Then we got up for a meeting with our tour group. There was a guest book in the lobby where other people had written about their visits. This page had a great ball-point drawing of the Cathedral of Learning where Poppa used to work. The choir from there visited Peru this summer and signed the guest book.
Poppa looked at this sign for a while, trying to figure it out.
This is a city hall,
and the cathedral beside it.
Our group stopped for lunch. Nana and I are sitting on the right.
We went to the main square downtown. When the Spanish conquered Peru 450 years ago, they measured all distance in Peru starting at this fountain.
Poppa asked me to take this picture so you could see that he's here too.
This is San Francisco - the church of the Franciscan priests in Lima. If you click on the picture to make it bigger, you'll see a lot of black dots all over the right side of the building. The dots are pigeons! Looks like good hunting.
Speaking of food, I learned this about Peru. In some countries, people have Guinea pigs for pets, and give them names like "Fluffy" or "Cutie". In Peru, they like Guinea pigs too, but give them names like "Crunchy" or "Chewy". I hope I get to try one.
Speaking of cultural differences, one of the first things we learned is that the wastebasket sitting beside the toilet is where you put your used toilet paper. You can't flush it down the toilet because it will clog the pipes. I wonder who will be the first one to forget.
We went to the National Museum of Anthropology and Archeology, where we learned about the early people in Peru and their development leading up to the empire built by the Incas. They had 18,000 miles of roads, fine ceramics and weavings, beautiful gold and silver articles, and huge temples. We'll visit some of the temples and other buildings later.
The Spanish Conquistadors arrive in 1532, and in a very few years destroyed the Inca empire, melted down all the gold and silver they could find to ship it back to Spain, and enslaved the Incas. The Incas were "Quechuas", the indigenous people of western South American. Now when they try to move to the cities, the Spanish descendants call them "invaders."
We'll do more touring in Lima tomorrow - and it will be a lot different than ones would expect in a large capital city.
Posted from Nana's iPad
