Saturday, July 2, 2016

A wonderful first day in Peru

Yay! We are finally here! It was a great flight, and even the 6 hour layover wasn't too bad. We arrived late and we were all exhausted. This morning, we woke up, had a wonderful breakfast with fresh fruit, juice, bread, and coffee. We headed out on our first adventure. We walked to see the Pacific Ocean, just a few blocks from our hotel. The sight was beautiful. There were huge waves crashing, people sightseeing, and the weather was just right.

As we left in our taxi, I felt like I was hanging on for dear life! I could literally high five someone from my window to their car. On the expressway, we even had men approaching the car to try to sell us drinks. It seemed like every car had some kind of weird figure hanging from the rear view mirror. One car had a monkey hanging and another a giraffe. I have never seen such a sight! Everywhere we turned, there were people outside making a living from their small carts of products or little open shops in the middle of the town. Stray dogs were everywhere and no one seemed to notice or care.

We got to the historical downtown part of  Lima. The pictures don't do it justice, it is beautiful! The architecture, colors, and beauty was one of a kind. We got there at the perfect time because we got to watch the change of the guard being done in front of the Presidential palace.

After this great experience, we left for the San Francisco church and catacombs. We walked through a tour of paintings, the library, and even through all the catacombs-- 25,000 bodies to be exact (bones of the deceased). It was such a good experience and a neat place to discover with my classmates. The place we visited was created  by the Spanish in the 1600s. There were paintings brought from Europe and even a last supper painting. However, this one was different because it was created in 1696, and it was more so related to the Incas. You could tell this because there were fish and Guinea pigs as part of the course of the supper--both Peruvian delicacies.  We even saw part of the architecture that was made of bamboo to resist earthquakes.

Next, we headed to lunch at La Buena Muerte ( the Good Death restaurant). We were all confused by the menu, so thankfully Dr. Aliaga could translate for us! I got fried marlin and lemonade (it was good but could've used some ketchup) and some of the others got ceviche which is raw fish cooked with lemon juice!

Afterwards we got our tickets for the football game! We rested and headed right back out for a full night of soccer, I mean football! It was an exciting game between Universitario de Deportes and the Deportivo Municipal at the National stadium. I am so glad I went!

To finish up the night, we got dinner at Pardo’s Chicken.  It was so delicious! I even tried a cows heart—“anticucho”. It tasted like steak, very delicious. We got back to our hotel and headed to bed. What a wonderful first day indeed!

~ Emily Griffin






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