Hey all. We have just barely recovered from our flight over here. Fun times getting yelled at by US customs and such but it was really easy to go through imnmigration in Peru. We were very happy to see a sign with Hil�s name on it waiting for us at the airport and we had what I now know was a relatively tame cab ride to our hostel (the Point). We got into bed around midnight slept like the dead and did just a little exploring the next day (yesterday). It was canada day and we got some free drinks with our fellow Canadians. Today we went into Central Lima (10 sol cab ride, about 2.50 american) and visited the Franchescan (sp?) Monestary. Lots of really cool paintings from the 1600�s depicting gruesome decapitations of Catholics and such. There were also a bunch of Catacombs. Saw loads of skulls and femurs all arranged in weird patterns. We ate lunch down town- was a yummy 2 course meal of kabobs (chicken), then lamb, rice, beans etc for 6 sols each. After that we death trekked around the markets and bought ALpachian stuff (toques, scarves, sweaters) in preparation for cuzco. We head there bright and early tomorrow (4am-aaaah) so wish us luck with the altitude!

K - it´s Hilary now - just thought I´d add a little to Erika´s entry (I actually tried posting yesterday, and lost the whole thing before I uploaded it - grr!). Anyhow, yeah, we´re here safe and sound - sooooo happy that we booked a place ahead of time - would not have wanted to deal with that after 2 days with no sleep. Spent most of yesterday wandering around Barranco, the area where we´re staying. It sits on cliffs over the ocean, so we walked along there for quite awhile - there´s a park that runs a good length of the cliffs. Then found our way down to check out the beach - cold and foggy. Saw a couple monkeys dressed up to entertain people, and some turtles having sex in someone´s garden (don´t worry - I have pictures!). Found some cotton candy and wandered some more. Last night there was a bbq at the hostel, so we hung out here, and met lots of fun people.

Today was definitely fun. My Spanish is coming along, althought I still have a problem with understanding more than the most basic response. El Monesterio de San Fransisco was really neat - there´s estimated to be about 25,000 bodies in the catacombs. Plus, we got to hear an American woman laying praise on all those martyrs who were willing to stand up and give their lives for Jesus (ignoring the fact that the title of martyr is often given posthumously, and may just have been the church´s way of making it look like these people actually died for something willingly - kinda made me want to push her in with the neatly arranged femurs, but I restrained myself).  From there we went to see the Plaza de Armas. The architecture here is great - very European, with lots of balconies and carved window covers. Lots of bright colours too (definitely makes a difference in a place that´s grey most of the year). We met some nice policemen who gave us directions to el mercado central, and warned us that there were lots of people there and we should hold onto our bags all the time, then gave us the phone numbers for the police just in case. The market was indeed very busy, and the smell of the recently butchered animals hanging everywhere pretty much permeated everything, so we didn´t last too long there.

Larcomar is the shopping centre we headed to next - it´s built into the cliffside in Miraflores, and contains, among other things, blacklight bowling (which was more expensive than bowling at home), a Tony Roma´s, and a Hooters. Yeah. We went for El Mercado de los Indios instead to check out some handicrafts. We don´t want to buy a bunch of stuff too early, but I´m actually a little cold here, and it´ll be colder in Cuzco, so I bought an Alpaca toque and sweater and a little changepurse.

We got in a good three hours of walking today, and got to see all sorts of different areas. I think one of my favourite things that I saw today was the advertising along the main roads. There are grass-covered slopes on each side of the road, and there ar advertisements all along them in different coloured grasses and plants (even Price Waterhouse Cooper!). Also, all of the underpasses are decorated with mosaics, which is pretty fun. Now we´re off for an early night so that we can wake up bright an early for our flight to Cuzco.