After an amazing train ride through the Andes, we were ready to take on Lima, which with around 9 million people, there was bound to be a lot to see and do. Lima is well known for it great food, many museums, and more cars than you could imagine, all trying to run you down. As Kristen says, you should consider yourself lucky if you don’t get hit by a car or get in an accident while riding around the streets.

Real life Frogger

It seemed that every other car was a taxi that would politely honk as they passed to let you know they were free.  So nice of them to slowly drive us crazy with the continual honking.

First, we headed down town to the historical center, where there are many interesting colonial building, churches, and the presidential palace.

Plaza Mayor

We showed up to music playing from the Presidential palace and found the slowest changing of the guards ceremony in progress.  They did this interesting slow step, which I am sure the guys getting off shift hated.  Unfortunately, unlike in Ecuador, the President was not on hand, so Joe was not able to wave at him like his new Ecuadorean President friend.

Presidential palace

Seems like the show was so slow that even the guards outside of the gate were bored.  One continually checked his watch and a few others were texting friends.

Keeping an eye on what is important--that's his cell phone down there, I swear

From Plaza Mayor we walked to the Monasterio de San Francisco, which is a beautiful monastery and church.

San Francisco Monastery

There is beautiful artwork all through out the building and also an amazing crypt.  Many of the bones are still visible and the underground area is amazing, but a little eerie.

Bones - Bad picture quality due to no flash allowed

The next day we headed to the amazing Museo Larco to view many artifacts from pre-colonial times.  This museum by far had the best collection we had seen, and we were amazed at every turn.

Could you imagine wearing this?

Sacrificial knife and cup

War weapons

Nice heavy earrings

At one point in our lives we had taken a pottery class and tried our hand at throwing pottery.  We quickly learned how hard it is to make more than an ash tray, and were amazed at the quality of work here.

Amazing pottery

Extreme detail

A bit scary but nice

The most amazing thing about the museum was the store-room, which we were allowed to visit.  It housed thousands of pieces of pottery which were equally as amazing as the ones on display.

Store room

The gastronomical delights in Lima was one of the highlights of our time there.  Being on the coast, Lima had sea food that was to die for, and we set out on a mission to eat seafood until it hurt, and then have a little more.  The things they can do with fish was truly amazing.

Cerviche mix

We visited an amazing famous restaurant called La Mar in Miraflores, which was visited by Anthony Bourdain while he was in Peru.  It lived up to all its hype, and if you could judge the quality of food by quality of cars out front this place was going to be beyond excellent.

Sea food risotto

Causa - Amazing Potato dish

Miraflores is a very swanky part of Lima where many of the rich live and where the tourist flock.  The wind shear on the cliffs made it a great place for parasailers to fly like birds.  It made us a bit jealous watching them soar in this beautiful setting.

Miraflores coast

Our hostel owner recommended another restaurant nearby and again we gorged our self on the fantastic sea food.

More Causa

More sea food

Teresa, Kristen’s sister, joined us in Lima to travel around Peru and Bolivia with us for three weeks.  After picking her up at the airport and getting her settled in at the hostel, we headed to the Magic circuit of the water.

Kristen in a water fountain

This park is full of really amazing water fountains and it was great wandering around and try not to get wet.

Teresa doing a handstand

For those of you who don’t know Teresa, this handstand is par for her.  She is always doing something crazy to make us laugh and to tempt fate.

There was one fountain which created a tunnel of water to walk through.  For the most part you would stay dry, but if someone touched the stream of water everyone would get soaked.

Kris and Tee in the fountain

We wandered around the park for about two hours and checked out all the well-lit fountains.  One of the fountains had laser show in conjunction with the water show, it was one of the coolest things we have seen.

Water fountain laser show

More Lasers

Kristen and Teresa took some time to pose infront of the Rainbow fountain.

Crazy girls

You were able to run around one of the water fountains and tempt faith in not getting soaked by the unpredictable spurts of water.  Joe and Teresa held back, and good thing, because as Kristen made her way to the middle she slipped and went face first into shooting water.

Kristen somewhere in the middle soaked

Joe and Teresa could barely contain themselves as Kristen tried to get the timing correct to make her way back out.

Lima turned out to be an amazing city, and Joe and Kristen have decided if we have some extra time they would like to move in for a while.  The great food, museums and people made Lima an amazing place to visit.

On to Huacachina for sandboarding, and how you turn a 4 hour bus trip into a 15 hour ride.