J: We left San Fran behind and headed to the airport early, we arrived at midnight for our 7am flight as we thought it would save costs on a room for the night and we slept in the airport. Oddly we flew via Miami to Peru as somehow this was cheaper. As we arrived late we had arranged a hostel room including a chauffeur and we had a little man standing at the arrivals with "Keeler" written on a board, this was a first for us and we felt a little famous. As we stepped out of the airport the night heat hit us! Oh how lovely it was to feel heat at night again. We got to our hostel finally at near 1am and they put wrist bands on us, a little odd for a hostel, it wasn't like we had an all-inclusive hotel.

S: We managed to catch the bus into town the next day and ordered a chicken sandwich at a restaurant. We both soon realised that English is not spoken commonly, and if we want to eat we need to start learning Spanish fast. We walked past the Royal Palace and they were changing the guards with a brass band present. It was great to watch and take it all in. We visited Lima's Cathedral and it was huge and so beautifully decorated. We went under the alter where lots of past Archbishops are buried, it was a little eerie especially in another section they had open coffins where you could see the bones. We decided today was definitely a culture day and visited the Museum of Francisco, where we visited the catacombs underneath. There are approx 20,000 femurs and skulls (as these are deemed the important part of the body). It was very strange to be walking along side mass graves (they were buried here not killed) and they had no way of knowing who was who, as they didn't keep any records at the time. It was fascinating to see, and I did have to laugh at James having to duck through all the door ways. It seems James is extra tall again.

J: We felt we hadn't had enough culture and went to the Museum of Inquisition, paid, and they offered a free tour guide, brilliant I thought, then he spoke in Spanish and didn't translate..... Thankfully a local man on the tour with his family realised and offered to translate for us, and he did for the next hour! The history is brutal as people were tortured first and then if found guilty killed, so even the innocent gets tortured. The Spanish have a harsh history here. We later decided we should make an itinerary plan for South America, it's very vague but we don't like too much of a plan.
The next morning we stopped at a locally famous sandwich bar which was truly excellent and the juices came in jugs! Then we moved onto the Lima ruins in the town. The Lima culture predates the Inca culture. We had a tour around the ruins and it was really impressive, they had mummies still being discovered in the walls, the latest only a month ago!

S: They kept llamas and guinea pigs on farms - it's strange to think they eat them out here but it's a local delicacy. The building of the temple took around 500 years to complete as each stone is handmade and then baked in the sun. Although they still knew how to build them to withstand earthquakes even at that time. We stopped at the local market and brought a few things to take home, James as usual had his bargaining head on. We tried empanadas which were lovely and very cheap to eat off the street vendors. It's great to be travelling again and eating local food.