Here we are again today in Lima. It is a sunny albeit hazy day with afternoon temperature of 78F here on the pier. Downtown it was a lot warmer!.
Most of the passengers are disembarking this morning to head home. New passengers will be arriving throughout the day.
At 8:45 am we departed on a "Highlights of Lima" tour.
Just an example of Colonial architecture in the old Lima.
This is a monument of Jose San Martin the liberator of Peru.
The police had a large part of the old part of the city blocked off to traffic today. They were having a huge Carnival parade today. I have photos of it later in this posting.
Our tour ended up being a lot of walking. That was fine with us as we needed the exercise.
At the Plaza Mayor we saw the Church of Lima.
Also on the Plaza was the Presidential Palace, home of Peru's president. It used to be the home of the Spanish conqueror, Pizzaro.
Some of the young people who will be in the Carnival parade.
Sorry, forgot what Frida, our guide, said this was.
This used to be the old train station. Now a museum.
San Francisco church and monastery. It was a huge complex and construction began in 1535. We toured the monastery but no photos inside it were allowed. They were having church service in the cathedral part.
Over the main entrance.
Peruvian Indian woman selling her handicrafts.
Funny looking tourista!!
Guards in front of the Presidential Palace. There was a large military presence around the exterior walls. All of them armed with automatic weapons.
Next we toured the house which used to be where one of Pizzaro's generals lived. It is called "Casa Allaga". It has remained in the family for generations. The current generation still lives here in part of the house and the rest they open up as a museum. It is really an interesting place with marble steps, magnificent woods, and old paintings.
We were served "Lima Cola". Not sure what to say it tasted like but not bad.
This tree is in middle of the very large house. It is 190 years old.
At the back side of the palace was this armored military vehicle.
Some of the several Peruvian handicraft stalls along the streets today.
Ok, the following photos are of "Carnival". There are 25 regions in Peru. Groups from all the region travel to Lima once every year for this Carnival parade. We were so fortunate to be here today so as to view it. Instead of going to see another church, she let us watch the parade for about a half hour. We just saw a small portion of it. Each group was dressed in different very colorful costumes and performed their regional dances. At this time of the day it was very hot and some of the costumes were not very cool. I wonder how many passed out before the end. We were just a few tourists watching but there were thousands of locals loving the parade also. You could walk out in front of them and snap a photo, no problem.
They loved to be photographed and many posed for us. I think she liked me????
This guy had to be VERY hot in this garb.
This little girl was so cute and had the dance down perfectly.
Would you believe I was taking a photo of the neat trash can???
This used to be the United States Embassy. It was not secure enough so they later built a more secure compound in better part of the new area of town.
At some stop lights, street performers entertained for tips.
Ok, we arrived back at the ship at 1:45 pm so raced up for a bite of lunch. We stopped at our suite first for potty break and to thoroughly wash our hands. We wash our hands a lot as we do not want to catch any sicknesses.
After lunch I raced back to the suite to download the photos above and write the blog posting. Lots of new passengers walking around the ship and unpacking. At 5:15 we will be having our mandatory life boat drill before the ship sails at 6:00 pm for our next port of Pisco, Peru. We will be arriving there at 8:00 tomorrow morning.
Tonight's menu in Compass Rose did not grab us so this morning I managed to get us a reservation in Prime 7, the steakhouse, for 7:00. No show tonight as new folks will be unpacking and tired. This is the beginning of the second cruise segment which will end in Buenos Aires on February 19th. Of course we are not disembarking until March 25th
******Be sure to click on the photos to enlarge them. Especially important to fully enjoy the Carnival photos. I should also remind you to use the "blog archive" on the right side below the cruise itinerary. Click on January to see all the postings during that month.
