Trip Start May 17, 2006
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Trip End May 2007


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Friday, November 17, 2006

Up early for a long drive through more desert to Lima. We stopped for lunch beside an olive grove which provided a little shade in an otherwise barren landscape. No sooner had we set up the tables when a security guard appeared from no where - we had passed nothing in the last 100 km - and told us to move on. Sas, our tour leader, said we wouldn´t be long and we weren´t moving! This prompted lots of walkie talkie communications and soon a whole truck of security guards appeared all in hard hats and science goggles! They were followed by a car load of policemen who after some discussion were happy for us to stay ! We had by this time eaten anyway and were in the process of clearing up. We can only imagine that a group of 20 people having lunch was the most exciting thing they had seen in weeks.

On to Lima and a drive through the slums before we got to the centre - all very miserable 01 Lunch on the way to Lima
01 Lunch on the way to Lima
 . We spent the next day wandering around the old town and watching the changing of the guards outside the presidential palace. We also visited the Franciscan monestary which has catacombs holding the bones of 70,000 residents of Lima. The bodies were laid on top of each other in deep coffins until the body decomposed, then the bones were thrown into a huge pit. There were troughs of different bone types and some were arranged in patterns!

In Plaza St Martin we saw the statue of Padre Patria, the symbolic mother of Peru. When the statue was commissioned, a misunderstanding meant that instead of being crowned with flames, she had a little lama on her head as "llama" means both things!
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