Machu Picchu - Galapagos - September 26

Gigi and Bearpaw have headed out on yet another new adventure.  This trip will take us to South America where we will visit Machu Picchu and Galapagos.

Tuesday, September 25th - We left home on this day.  Wilma and Leonard were kind enough to give us a ride to the airport (thanks W & L).  Once we checked in and gave up our luggage we passed through Checkpoint Charlie with no issues.  It took just over an hour and a half to get to Atlanta.  After a couple of hours worth of layover in Atlanta we learned that the flight was going to leave “aproximately 27 minutes late”.  The 27 minutes turned into about 45 minutes.  Once airborne our pilot informed us that we were going to take a different route in order to miss some storms and therefore miss some unwanted turbulance.  Instead of arriving in Lima, Peru at 10:30 we arrived at about 11:30.  We arrived at our hotel after a quick 40 minute ride in the back of a mini van.  After a quick shower we got into bed around 1:30 in the morning.  We slept well.  We also slept quickly as we needed to rise around 7:00 for breakfast and to meet in time for our tours today.

An interesting note about time and time zones.  Kansas City is in the Central Time Zone.  We flew to Atlanta which is in the Eastern Time Zone.  This meant that in order to have the correct time our watches were adjusted FORWARD one hour.  When we arrived in Lima we had to again adjust the time on our watches in order to have the correct time.  This time we adjusted them one hour BACK.  Now we are on the same time as we were back home.  What could make that more interesting is that Atlanta is almost on the East coast of the United States.  We flew pretty much South to get to Peru.  Now we are on the West coast of Peru which is at the same time as it is back home.

After breakfast this morning we took a bus ride back to downtown Lima to what is called the Colonial Section.  We Presidential Palace was in this area.  There were military guards at every exit that were dressed in their finest uniforms.


We toured a home that is still in use, but is open to the public on occasion to tour some of it.  The home was typical of that era.  Construction began on the structure in 1535, but because of a number of wars and earthquakes was not completed for nearly 200 years.  It has been well preserved over the years.


After touring this home we got back on the bus and traveled to the Museo Larco (Larco Museum).  This museum boasts one of the largest private collections of Peruvian art.  There was a lot of pottery, jewelry, and other artifacts, including a mummy of a four year old boy that had died of tuberculosis.  And just like today, the young people in Peru during the 1500’s wore ‘nose jewelry’.

the mummy


nose jewelry

I even found a plant that had both blue and pink flowers - on the same stem.

We had a very nice lunch at the museum and then made our way back to the hotel.  It was a fairly easy day.

Tomorrow will be another adventure.

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