Day 1 in Lima - Success!

Despite most of us being tired from our late flight the night before (we got to the hostel close to midnight) and an early morning, I would say that our first day in Peru went very well.  Since this was our first day, we mostly played tourist, but I was able to note a couple of time where what we saw or experienced had a link to what we had learned in the classroom before traveling.

The day started with a city tour of Lima (some of Lima, it's a very sprawling city).  We visited a nun's convent (which had a wonderful view of some of the mountains around Lima and some housing that we had seen and discussed with Dr. Davis), and then made our way to Miraflores, a more aristocratic area that some of us noted had similar building structure to New Orleans (think two-story buildings with fancy balconies).

Our next stop had an interesting story behind it.  As we learned from our guide Paco (actually historian Dr. Francisco Quiroz of UARM) it was placed due to older beliefs about air and health.  Disease at the time was thought to be carried on the air, and Lima was arranged in such a way that the air would travel in a certain direction to leave the city.  The hospital we visited, which was 450 years old, was placed at the north end of the city limits of the time so that air that traveled through the city (south to north) would not carry disease to the rest of the city.

We then visited a church that was associated with the hospital (as many hospitals were at the time), the Plaza Mayor surrounded by various administrative buildings, a library/museum with a 17th century archaeological dig next door, the Church of San Francisco (including the catacombs below), and continued to lunch at a Peruvian-Chinese fusion restaurant.  And when leaving the restaurant, Brittney was caught in some sort of dance-off with a local street performer.  Hopefully we will be able to post the video at some point.

We continued around the Miraflores and Barranco districts, taking in the many sights, shopping areas, restaurants, and one lovely little bridge with a great view.  We also visited two miradores (viewing areas) where we could see the beach and skylines, and spent some time frolicking (yes, frolicking) on a beach.

After these areas we went to a water park, which contained many beautiful fountains, complemented by changing lights and some of which could be played in.  The park had a fountain light show with music that was fantastic.  Unfortunately we did have at least one... "incident", where Kira attempted to climb into one of the fountains.  Long story short, it was deeper than it looked, Kira was fine but soaked, and we laughed way more than we probably should have.

Overall, while we did spend the majority of the day playing turistos, I feel like it was a good bonding experience for us, getting us ready for each other in the two weeks ahead.  We got along well and learned each other's personalities more.  While I certainly hope we're ready for what lies ahead, I'm not too worried for our group.

Hasta Luego

~ Kristen