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Written by Keith Rhoades
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Saturday, 23 October 2004 |
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well my nerves and anxiety are up a bit tonight....for one things I am not sure I did the safest thing today as Cesar took me to his friend Rosa's for lunch and she made carne, ensalada, fruit, and lemonade..but alas. I drank the water...so far so good tho. Sometimes when I travel I just have to close my eyes and hope for the best. Also this is my last night in lima....tomorrow I am on my own....I take a bus to Nazca where the lines in the sand are and will take a two seat plane when I get there to see the famous Nazca lines which those small prop planes unnerve me and I have never flown in one. It is a small village in the middle of the desert...anyway, I am sure I will be fine. As for today....we woke up and Cesar made breakfast and then took me to Pachacamac which is outside of Lima and is from 200AD from the Incas and wari culture. Pyramids, etc....but it was in the middle of the desert...I kid you not I felt like I was in Cairo...I didn’t know Peru had desert like this. We were there for quite a while...it was great and I climbed to the top of the temple of the sun. The drive out to the ruins was overwhelming, as I have never seen such poverty...as when you get out of Lima. I felt like I would commit suicide if I had to live like that. Very sad.After we went to his friend Rosa's for lunch and then headed to Lima Centro the historical section. Our first stop was the main square, which also has the presidential palace...,and there were demonstrations. We went to the San Francisco monastery...found in 1600 and it was wonderful....there were catacombs underneath25,000 bodies were there..It was eerie. It was the only cemetery until 1700 in Lima. They also had wonderful paintings including one of the last supper with Peruvian influence including the serving of guinea pig instead of bread and wine. After the catacombs we went to iglesia de merced which is where the first mass took place in lima in 1535. After that...went to the Sanctuary of Santa Rosa de lima...which was utter madness...i nevef saw so many pilgrims trying to touch the spot and picture where st. rose of lima was born. i seriously thought i was going to get trampled...but it was bittersweet to see so many faithful truly believe some miracle would happen for them. Then went to the church of Santa Domingo and saw the tombs of St. Rose of lima and st. martin de porres...they actually have their skulls on display. After that we walked more to the palace of justice (their supreme court) and Cesar took me to see his office where he works. Downtown historical lima was a trip....so many people, honking, it was sheer madness...but i kind of thrived on it...the excitement, the hope. So we got home and Cesar helped me make some phone calls to line up lodging for the next 3 nights...so taht is taken care. we went out to dinner for chinese food...go figure...and just got home. so i leave lima tomorrow...but i will return to lima november 5th and of course will stay one more day with Cesar who will take me to the airport to get back to the US. Bueno...es todo para ahora. That is it for now. Take care and i will try to wirte in the next day or two depending on the internet situation...but you know how i am with email...like a moth to a flame...so i am sure i will find an internet cafe.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 09 February 2007 )
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