lima

when we left casa lena in curahuasi we intended to head to the southern coast of peru and check out a national park there.  as it turned out all of the buses headed that way didn't leave until the afternoon which means we would've ended up getting off sometime between midnight and 2am.  we didn't like the idea of arriving in a new town in the middle of the night so opted to ride the bus all the way to lima, which arrived at 7am.  that's right a 16 hour overnight bus to lima.....uugghhhh!

the kids again faired better as they are small enough to get comfortable in the seats.  i on the other hand didn't sleep much. there was a speaker above my head that i had no control of and when they started showing the kung-fu movie at midnight i pretty much threw in the towel!

we arrived to lima safe and sound which is really what matters.  when we flew to peru from the states we landed in lima but we immediately took another flight down to arequipa.  so this was essentially our first time in lima.

we stayed in a hostel in central lima which was a converted old mansion. it was beautiful and a fun chance to see inside one of these grand old buildings.

view of the building from the street with us on the balcony of the hostel

the tile work flooring was so beautiful!

it being peru's independence celebration, on the first day in lima we watched a big parade and took part in some street games.

i give the kids each a little spending money and lucy bought herself some cotton candy!

we also walked around and enjoyed the beautiful architecture. lots of colonial spanish influences of course but also french influences as well.  felt a bit like we were in a european city.

riley even ran into his favorite soccer player on the streets of lima.....

on our second day in lima we visited a park filled with cats...quite literally a hundred cats, all just laying around the park.  lucy loved it here.  riley kept saying 'how do all the cats know to come to this park??'....quiene sabe??

and in the evening we went to a park that had a spectacular water fountain show called the circuito magico del aqua.  there are maybe a dozen different fountains, many of which people were playing in depite it being winter and pretty chilly.  the most central large fountain has a choreographed show to music......may be better than the bellagio's!

we only spent a couple days in lima (which is about all we can tolerate in a big city), but all and all it was an enjoyable couple of days.  now we are headed north to a city call huaraz which is the gateway to the cordillera blanca.....an amazing range of spectacular mountains!
hasta luego!