Our wallets are slowly recovering from Rio
Trip Start
Aug 10, 2008
1
16
21
Trip End
Sep 20, 2008
Lima,
Peru
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Our last day in Rio was gray and rainy. We rode the Santa Teresa Bonde (trolley)--opting to pay the 60 cent fare rather than hang off the side for free--downtown and took in a few sights. Most things were closed because it was Monday, and it started to rain harder, so we spent the rather dreary afternoon back at the B&B getting organized for the next day, and then went out for an excellent Bahian dinner (Bahia is a region of Brazil) of shrimp dumplings and fish cooked in coconut milk.
Lima is a welcome change after Rio--the language issues are easier and everything is much cheaper. Today we got a bit of a late start because we got into the hotel so late last night, but had an enjoyable afternoon wandering around Colonial Lima. There are several nice squares, and we took in the Cathedral (where Pizarro's remains are) and the Franciscan Monastery (which has catacombs). We had dinner down by the waterfront, overlooking the ocean and listening to the waves crashing on the shore (until the Peru-Argentina world cup qualifier started, at which point the soccer game was the only focus of everyone in the vicinity. There has been much rejoicing in Lima tonight as Peru managed to tie up the game seconds before time ran out.
Tomorrow, we'll hit a museum or two and then it's on to Bolivia. We watched "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" on the plane for inspiration. Keep your fingers crossed for us that the road blocks and protests going on in Southeast Bolivia don't spread to La Paz and Lake Titicaca. Checking reports from tourists in Bolivia right now, things are absolutely fine in the areas we're going to. I'm not really worried about the security of the situation, more so that we have a relatively tight travel schedule, and if there are any road blocks it could throw things off. Though from what I hear of Bolivia, they tend to let the tour buses through the roadblocks anyway.
