Lijah

Hi, it’s Lijah. We have arrived in Lima and to my surprise I am actually not that tired. I usually cannot sleep on planes but this time I was sound asleep on both plane rides. We arrived at the Peruvian airport and we noticed everyone had medical masks on. We asked around and supposedly they were very big on keeping swine flu out. This was kind of scary to know that it was a possibility. We went to get our luggage; we got ours just fine, but Dewey and Tim were not having much luck. Finally after a while it came through. Then Dewey and Tim also got the random security check. They were not having much luck in the Peruvian airport!

From the airport we were bused to our hotels. The night life of Peru was amazing. There were a lot of casinos and bright tourist lights that lit the city. We also saw many wild dogs that roamed the parks and alleys. There were these two specific dogs that were running in circles around a big park statue. They were barking and rolling around. It was quite humorous!

It was a relief to finally get to the Sheraton hotel. It was quite
nice, but I guess any room with a bed would look spectacular after 7
hours of flight! We were only able to sleep for about 2 hours until 9AM
when we went down to The Museo Larco for breakfast. While we ate, we
talked with Catherine Hughes about the previous expeditions they had
been on. They all sounded amazing which made me even more excited for
the adventure that lay before us!

We made it in to the Museum
Larco to see a shelf of original, antique, Incan, pots. Then I walked
to the side of the shelf to see many more shelves filling the whole
room with ancient pottery full of mystery. What really shocked me was
when I walked into the next room which led to another and another room
filled with these pots full detail. The real shock was when the tour
guide said “Now….on to the main event!” How could thousands of ancient
pots formed from such an old civilization with unlimited precision and
detail not be a main event!?!? The main event was not in the number but
in the quality. The work was so detailed that it was just breathtaking.
It was almost eerie, a bunch of realistic bots shaped like heads of a
person or animal, made you feel like you were constantly being watched.
Like I said, eerie!!!

After the museum we headed to lunch which was delicious. Chicken,
fries, (we tried 1 kind of their 3,000 potatoes) and authentic Incan
corn juice that almost tasted like bubblegum, was the main meal. From
lunch we went to the Incan market. There were many colorful handmade
bags, shirts, and many other interesting items. There were also really
cool wooden crayons. They were hand carved crayons that had wax up the
middle, they were really cool! The bad thing is that a lot of the items
were almost identical from store to store, and if you wanted it, then
you were pulled in 20 different directions to buy their product. It was
very different from American markets; everything was handmade and very
colorful! Bartering was expected, and yet difficult for some of us to
do. I didn’t really know what to expect going to another continent, but
really people are the same wherever you go, they are just trying to
make a living and striving to have the best quality of life possible!

From there we bused around Lima, stopping by the ocean for a quick
photo opportunity–the skies were gray and misty, the ocean lacking in
color. The fishing boats and surfers were a sight to see. Dinner also
looked over the city lights meeting the ocean. It was a beautiful day!
I can’t wait for the adventures that await us!