DAY 18-LIMA, PERU-DAY 1

 At noon today we docked here at the port city for Lima, Callao.  The temperature now is a pleasant 78F.  Since leaving Miami on January 13th, we have sailed 4352 miles.  Tomorrow will be the end of the first of four segments of the Circle South America cruise.

                                                 Sailing into the port of Callao

                                          This is our "parking spot" for the next two days.

                  Once again lots of birds awaiting our arrival.  Different kind of birds today.

                                  Captain using the aft thruster during the docking maneuver.
What We Did Last Night:

                  Pre-dinner cocktails in the Mariner Lounge after the Krew Kapers Show

 Joe & Judy was the other couple who were invited to dine with Daniela, Food & Beverage Director, and Andreas, the General Manager on Mariner.  Joe & Judy are from Wisconsin and we have cruised with them several times previously.  They are also big fans of veal parmesan.  Great conversation around the table.  Unfortunately, Daniela will be leaving for her vacation tomorrow.  She is from Romania.

We both had the Beef Wellington for our entree.  It was the best we have ever had in 83 cruises!!
Kudos to Chef Michael Meyepa and his staff.

Background/Historical Info:
        First let me talk a little about the country of Peru.  It is twice the size of Texas but Texas has just 4 million less people than Peru (Peru’s population is 31 million).  Lima served as the capital of Spain’s South  America empire for 300 years.  It gained its independence from Spain in 1821.  Earliest evidence of human presence in Peru dates approximately to 9000 BC.  In the 1400’s the Incas ruled here until the Spanish finally took over in 1572.  Peru has one of the fastest growing economies mainly due to mining, manufacturing, agriculture, and fishing..
        Lima is the capital and largest city of Peru.  It was founded in 1535 by the Spanish conquistador, Pizarro.  We were docked here in 2012 but did not see the city as we flew to Cusco (capital of the Inca Empire back in 15th century) on a 3 day excursion to see the incredible Incan ruins site of Macha Picchu.  Lima is the 3rd largest city in the Americas behind Sao Paulo and Mexico City.  Today, Lima’s riches are cultural as the city contains Peru’s finest museums, swankiest shops, and finest restaurants.  It is home to the oldest higher learning institution in the New World.  The National University of San Marcos has been continuously operating since 1551.  In 1746 a powerful earthquake severely damaged Lima and destroyed Callao the port city.  Then in May 1940 an earthquake destroyed most of the city which was mostly built of adobe.
        Because of the cool ocean waters, the temperature in Lima is normally between 57 to 84 degrees.  The days are mostly sunny but there may be some morning fog from cool ocean waters.  With only an average of 13 inches of rain per year, they get their water from wells and rivers flowing from Andes.
        Lima is the industrial and financial center of Peru.  The Callao seaport (where we are docked today) is one of the main fishing and commercial ports in South America.  Its main exports are oil, steel, silver, zinc, cotton, sugar, and coffee.  Tourism here features many museums, churches, archeological sites, and nightlife.  It’s airport also has flights to Cusco for tourists going to see Machu Picchu.  (I highly recommend you seeing this amazing place).

What We Did Today:
We docked late this morning at the seaport of Callao just outside of Lima.  After doing our usual workout and getting cleaned up, we headed up to La Veranda for some lunch.  We cancelled our tour, "Ancient Oracle Centers in Lima", that was scheduled for this afternoon.  Two of Rebecca's watches now have dead batteries so we took the shuttle bus to a shopping area in downtown Lima to find a jewelry store that can replace them.

 It was an interesting 45 minute ride to the Miraflores area in Lima.  This is on the way there.  I was very impressed with how clean the streets were during our drive.  Even the lower income housing areas had clean streets and alleyways.  I believe Lima may be the cleanest city I have been to in South America.

                                             Most of the drive was along the ocean.

 It's Saturday so there were several people at the "beach".  Well, there was no sand on the beach, just rocks.  They were lying on rocks!

         The city it up on top of this hill.  As we drove I was hoping there not a rock/dirt slide.

                                             There were several hang gliders out today.

                                     Our shuttle bus dropped us here at the JW Marriott.

            This is the car parking entrance to the Laromar shopping mall that was underground.

           The mall was across the street and underground.  There were 4 levels to the mall.

 EVERY shop you would find in the US malls (not department stores however) was here.  Lots of American restaurants were also here.  TGI Fridays, Chili's, Toni Roma's, to name a few.  One would swear you were in Dallas not Peru!

 Photo above and two below were taken from mall.  None of the jewelry stores had watch batteries for her designer watches.  Of all things, while walking in mall we ran into Andreas, the ship's General Manager.  He was with his taxi driver and they were going down to a grocery store on bottom level to buy some diapers.  Not for Andreas!  LOL.  His wife and two year old daughter are flying in tomorrow and will be on the ship until Buenos Aires.  We told him we could not find any batteries.  His taxi driver said he could find a place.  So we gave her watches to Andreas.

 We got back to the ship at 3:35 pm.  Below our suite on the dock they were busy loading provisions on our ship.

Four huge squash 

                 The provisions officer and our executive chef, Michael, inspecting the fish.

                                         Dock workers taking fish out of the ice container.

                                             Chef Michael inspecting the fish.

             I believe those are scallops in the bags.  He is lifting the gill and smelling each fish.

                                   Loading two pallets of potatoes.                                                  

As I was downloading these photos onto the blog, I called and talked to my mom and dad in southern Illinois.  They were doing ok.  Shortly after that Andreas called and said he wanted to return Rebecca's watches.  Rebecca went to pick them up.  She said the taxi driver had made some deal with a shop in the port area and there was no charge for the batteries or installing them.  What a deal!!  It would have cost us at least $20 in Dallas.  Rebecca is happy again!!!

    It's going to be a noisy night as they will probably be unloading the cargo ships all night long.

We will be having dinner up in the Italian restaurant, Sette Mari, tonight.  Chef Michael has assured me we will not be disappointed in our veal parmesan tonight.  No show tonight as most of the passengers will be packing and getting ready to leave the ship in the morning.  We people in both suites on either side of us will be leaving.  I hope the new ones are as quite and nice as they were.