South America-Day 1- Lima, Peru-"We're in Peru?"

Hard to believe but we're actually on our own version of the amazing race in South America! We'll be gone for 33 days (July 1st to August 2nd) celebrating Brennan's graduation and taking advantage of the chunk of time this affords us. Since more will come with each step of the journey, we won't dwell on the overview right now. I don't think it will be possible to upload photos as we go, but hopefully we can go back after and add them in for a complete recap!

Anyway to get things started... we left Alexandria mid morning to catch the tripper bus up to New York. Trip got off with slight hitches but nothing too terrible-- downpours in Virginia and a much longer trip to NY than anticipated. 6 plus hours later we made it to a pub in midtown to celebrate Martha's birthday. We grabbed a bite to eat then jumped in a cab to JFK to catch our LAN flight to Lima, Peru. We took off a few minutes late but were so tired from moving this week and from the travel day that the 8 hour flight went quickly and we were out for a good chunk of it.

We landed in Lima (hooray for new country and, better yet, new continent!), zipped through immigration , and then got stuck at luggage as our checked bag apparently went missing. Checking bags is not our thing and we never do it but since we're gone for so long...well, we didn't have much of a choice. And this of course happens on the first flight! Anyway, we hope they find it quickly and can get it to us since we leave for Cusco early Thursday. We caught a cab without incident and took it to our hotel, the Doubletree in Miraflores. After the frustration at the airport, we couldn't have asked for a better reception: early check in, an upgrade, complimentary breakfast, and of course their cookies. The concierge is on the case of the missing bag so we took a few minutes to plan our day.

We grabbed a cab and headed up to the historic center. Starting at the Hotel Bolivar and the Plaza San Martin, we walked up a pedestrian concourse passing the church called El Merced and ending up at the Plaza Mejor. There were a fair number of people out and about but it by no means felt crowded so we had a nice stroll. One tiny detail we noticed is that the pedestrian walk signals have a green man who actually moves, which was entertaining to us:) Traffic and drivers here are nuts but walking was a breeze which was great! So on Plaza Mejor, we saw the Catedral, the Archbishop's Palace and the Palacio Gubernatorio. The wooden balconies in Lima are something to behold; the woodwork is so impressive and intricate and this architectural detail abounds in the older part of the city. We then walked over to the San Francisco monastery and took a tour.  It ran a little long and we had a few question-askers in our group, but getting a look at the inside of the monastery including the dome, the library, and the catacombs made it very worthwhile.

Starting to get tired, we stopped for a quick bite. We found a little place and had soup and a tamale to start and then I had pollo a la plancha (chicken with rice and potatoes which was even better when doctored with a red onion hot sauce mixture) while Brennan had arroz ala cubana (rice with grilled plantains and fried eggs). Our last stop was supposed to be San Pedro, but the church was unfortunately closed when we went by. Instead we headed back to the Hotel Bolivar to have our first Peruvian Pisco Sours. I clearly fell into the trap of the special house version of the drink which turned out to be the exact same as Brennan's but three times the size. Definitely a nice finale for our first day of site-seeing!

We headed back to the hotel via a cab to rest up for a bit before dinner. One thing to note- Brennan's spanish is rapidly coming back; to the extent he's been discussing soccer details in the cabs!  When we back, we got a few yummy treats delivered by the hotel since B is a VIP with his status ;) but no sign of our bag still. Hopefully tomorrow!

Dinner was close-by in Miraflores (about a ten minute walk) and was set up by our concierge who recommended it for some great local seafood. It's called Alfresco and it was absolutely fresh and delicious. While we weren't famished and were obviously very tired, we managed to tuck into some great choices-- a combo platter of salmon sushi, flounder, mixed cebiche, caustos with tuna (aka fried corn balls), and shrimp/avocado skewers; followed by tuna tartare and prawn/asparagus risotto.  Brennan also had his first Peruvian beer of the trip: Cusquena. Stuffed and ready for bed!