I found Lima was like most big cities: big, busy, polluted and not overly inviting. Butw we stayed in a nice part of town called Barranco, which is an older part of town on the coast where poets and artists took up residence in yester year. I finally found some decent street art but very little in amongst the copious amounts of scribble. But compared to pretty much everything we´d seen since Valparaiso, in Chile, it was pretty good.

We had one of our bigger nights out in Lima, when we met up with our departing tour leader, Alex, who brought his beautiful wife out for a night of fun after leaving her to care for their 6 week old baby girl for the past 3 weeks. He kept up his outstanding service (now I guess hospitality) by trying to pull all sorts of strings to get us into a nearby club, Rob and I were hardly disappointed when he came up short and we were able to go home to bed! Phew.

Robyn and I took a city tour to see the usual sights like main squares, parliament buildings and a few museums. The best was the San Franciscan Monastery and church which housed the catacombs, an indoor, underground cemetery, where 25000 sets of bones found their final resting place. Unfortunately for them it may not be so restful with hundreds of people filing past to gawk at their dusty remains. The monks began "burying" people under the church when they discovered diseases where spreading by shallow burials around churches everywhere. They would bury a body, with a layer of lime and soil over the top, in a normal grave sized plot that was 4 metres deep, then bury the next person on top of them. Eventually the bones were dug up and they used the site again, piling the bones up with all the others. The highlight of the tour was the ancient library, with its tall book lined walls, ornately carved shelves, dusty not so cumfy chairs and most of all the spiral staircasesleading up to the second level of books, all dimly lit by dusty, domed lead light sky lights.

The next night in Lima was spent at Aleks´ (our tour guide) home, where he and his extended family cooked up a huge BBQ and he mixed us Pisco sours. It was another group member Scott´s birthday, so there was more reason to celebrate. I think a big reason for the invite to his place was to show off his new baby girl, Maria Alejandra, whose puzzled look at all these Gringos in her home beamed out from more hair than I have ever seen on a body that small. Thick, black waves just like her dad.

The night´s festivities actually kept the entire group from the meeting with our new guide Ronny, and our new group member Kim. Sorry guys.

The next day we visited the Spanish Inquisition museum with some good friends of ours who were leaving the group there in Lima, ending their 12 months on the road, and looking forward to the big warm baths that awaited them at home. Thanks for being a part of our group Mike and Lisa!!