TACA TACA ALPACA

Yesterday we went to Lima Centro.
We saw historical buildings. The most impressive was the Basilica and Convent of San Francisco. This is now a museum and no pictures were allowed, so sadly I have NONE of the inside. The interior included amazing tiles imported from Sevilla, Spain. Ceiling woodwork with wood imported from both Nicaragua and Panama. The dressing rooms for the religious monks had large wooden drawers with personalized 2d etchings above each drawer. They had a beautiful, very impressive two story library where they only used natural skylights to read (to prevent fire from candle lit reading) There was so much more. One notable part of the Convent was the underground catacombs. These catacombs were the burial grounds for about 250,000 religious figures! They were creepy and had skulls and femurs on display throughout the full scale catacomb tour.

On a brighter note we walked through two major plaza´s in downtown Lima. One is the major man plaza and the other is called Plaza Saint Martin. They include large statues in the center and sometimes fountains. They were green with wonderful seating areas.

We got to try cebiche which was highly recommended and rightfully so. With a nice spicy kick it was fresh with a tastey lime base. This fancy restaurant we went to layed the cebiche dish over a sweet potato slice and the peruvian corn (huge kernels). Our lunch for two which included apetizer, main dish, dessert and soda FOR TWO was a total of $7 USD. Incredible deal!

We took a colleective bus there and back which is a whole other story in itself. This bussing system is truly unique!It is a municipal bus, a privately owned microbus or a collective minibus. The driver gets to ONLY drive which is nice because the streets are BUSY and FULL of honking. There is a person who hangs out the bus door which is actuall placed in the middle of the bus. He repetitively shouts the destination of the bus and a few minutes after hopefully succeeding at getting YOU to ride on his bus he collects the fair for the bus ride which again is either 1.5 or 2 soles. SUPER CHEAP! They also pretty much stop where-ever you want to get off. CONVENIENT!

On the way back we tried churros which were too buttery and Kevin tried these tiny hard boiled eggs. the shells were white with black speckles which we later found out were quail eggs. I did not try them, Kevin says they taste no different from regular eggs.

TODAY. no bus required we walked to Huaca Pucllana the only standing Pre-Inca remains. Kevin and I received a private tour in English (it was a slow wed. afternoon) by a Japanese Peruvian. It must have been a 2 hour tour around the remains with all the questions we asked. It was fascinating history.

We walked again to the Inca Markets after our informational historic tour where I bargained and bought an intricately hand embroidered wallet for $2 USD. The work the Incans and locals do to produce these purses, gloves, scarves, wallets and everything is so impressive.

We are taking a break before going to a local restaurant to try some recommended Lima local food. I will try the sweet potato dishes and I will let Kevin try Alpaca and GUinea PIG!! yikes!

Later we were told to try the local drink a "Pisco Sour" happy hour is soon approaching!