Peru Day 1-Lima

Listen, we came in to the trip a bit underprepared. Normally we would have done a pile of research first. Our lives have been super overwhelming (2 car accidents in 2 weeks and having to buy a new car...just to get started). So rather than show up with our acts together, this trip looks a lot more like running down the runway and tossing the kids on board while the plane was taking off. 

Whatever man.

This morning we woke up (at our awesome Airbnb) to a beautiful and unseasonably warm Lima day. Just as I was about to fill my water bottle from the tap I Googled "is the tap water in Lima potable?" For those of you who don't know, the answer is no. No it isn't unless you'd like to drop a few kilos rather urgently. See, I told you we didn't have our sh!t together this time. Normally I'd have purifiers and tablets at the ready. 

So I boiled the tap water and drank hot/warm water all day. 

We met up with a local free walking tour of Lima that we booked last minute since the first one Dave booked had some weird reviews.  

 We took some rando selfies in the park before everyone else arrived.

 The oldest and I even found a Starbucks though we didn't come to Peru to drink Starbucks!

We hopped on city transit to get downtown.

To say that people are not so fussy about personal space (something I am actually quite fussy about now that you mention it) would be a gross understatement.

Monkey was so hot and boxed in that he actually tossed his cookies once we got off the bus. Poor kiddo.

Our first walking tour was absolutely terrible (yellow vest). The guy stopped every 10 meters for about 8 minutes of talking about things that were of no interest to us. Like 4 different stops about balconies in Lima. Did you know that the original residents of downtown Lima had toilets on their balconies so they could watch what their neighbours were up to while tending to business? Yeah, neither did I.

So we bailed on the tour and stumbled in to a different free tour group (green vest) - the original one that we booked. That tour was awesome. Very infomative, interesting and full of food and drink samples too!

 We saw the original city square (they have 2), churches (cathedrals?)

light armoured vehicles and much more. The police/security presence in the tourist areas of Lima is intense. They are everywhere. With guns. You feel very safe.

 I have no idea why these horses suddenly appeared marching up the street, but SURE!

 I have nothing further to say about this photo until the voting window for "Mother of the Year" closes.

So we met up with some awesome people during our tour and trying in earnest to take the city bus back to Miraflores where we are all staying.

We ended up having dinner together at a market that one of the girls knows well for the Canadian equivalent of $12 TOTAL for the 4 of us. We all enjoyed fried lamb with potatoes and rice. It was incredible.

Tomorrow we have the morning free and are then doing a bike tour of Lima before checking in to a hotel with our tour group. So this next portion of the trip may actually look like an actual family vacation rather than the usual schmozzle of stuff I organize!