Day 3 - Giza/Cairo

Mister is up for sunrise at 5:30 to photograph the pyramids.

I sleep in a little and meet him up on the roof deck for breakfast of falafel, tahini, bread, pepper salad, and mango juice serviced by an old, friendly guy who speaks no English.


After breakfast, Mister meets with Franco to setup the Giza tour for the day and decides on a horse carriage instead of camels.  He is introduced to Sahid who says he will take good care of us.  We gather up our things and go downstairs where Sahid then hands us off to Ahmed (here we go again with the pass off) the carriage driver.  We spend three hours on the plateau wandering and exploring the pyramids.

We are able to go into the Great Pyramid, which is 4,500 years old.  We have to leave our camera at the entrance and are not at all happy about that, but we remove the memory card and risk it.  The climb inside the pyramid is quite difficult and requires that you bend over the entire time. Yes, even I have to bend over.  By the time we reach the tomb, we are both amazed at the technology to build this and exhausted.  Mister jokes that it was done by aliens.  We are soaked from sweat and it is very humid with low oxygen inside.  Just as we are at the entrance to the tomb itself, we pass an English lady on her way back down and suddenly we are totally alone - no guards and no working security cameras.  We stay inside for a little while just trying to understand this need for something this huge simply as a place to be "buried".  Astonishing.  We make our way back down by walking backwards and the outside 105 degrees feels almost nice after being inside.  We get back into the carriage and enjoy the shade and slight breeze as we head to the sphinx.


We make a stop at another tomb and Mister is able to snap a few pictures inside (illegally but with some baksheesh) while I visit with the driver and one of the many peddlers that are constantly after us to buy something.  It is almost noon, and we are dropped off at the Sphinx and send the driver on his way as we can walk back to the hostel from here.  There are tons of souvenir stands  and more tourists as the buses drop people off here.  We walk around the Sphinx and are astounded at the size of it.  We enter into the Sun Temple and explore a little before wandering back out to try and figure out how other people are getting closer to the Sphinx.  We decide that we must have missed something in the Temple and go to enter it again.  There is a huge argument taking place at the entrance as someone apparently does not have the ticket to enter.  The guard makes room for us to pass and we find the passageway that we missed the first time.  The inside of the Sphinx is closed, but we are able to walk fairly close to the exterior.  It is now getting incredibly hot and so I head back to the hostel while Mister sticks around to take more pictures.


We cool off for a little while and then request a taxi to take us into Cairo to the Egyptian Antiquities Museum.  Franco is concerned and thinks it is better for us to have the driver wait at the museum and return with us - we are not thrilled, but go along with it to try it out.


The taxi arrives and Selman the driver stops at the train station in Giza first to get our tickets for the night train to Aswan the next night. 



The sleeper car tickets are sold outside the terminal in a little building.  The man in the ticket office takes US dollars, but inspects each one and is not happy with some of the old ones and wants different ones.  He finally takes the money and we are on our way into Cairo. Selman drops us off, points out the museum, and we set a time to meet him.  We pass what we assume to be a burned-out hotel but later discover it was Mubareks Headquarters and also new hotel construction for a future Ritz as we walk towards the museum.

Once there, we get our tickets and turn in the camera (yes, again) and start our time in Ancient Egypt.  It is an old building with even older exhibits and things are really just put in there haphazardly without care for protecting it from hands, breath, or dirt.  We spend a couple of hours and finish up in the King Tut section - the gold is amazing, but housed in a dirty glass-enclosed room.  At least this one exhibit is climate controlled.  We stop to use the restroom in the museum and Mister is given 4 squares of TP.  Wow.  We phone Selman to tell him we are ready and walk to where the car dropped us off -- only to find that he is at the museum looking for us to walk with us.  We wait and he arrives shortly and we make the trip back to the hostel much quicker than yesterday's run.  We go past the Corniche along the Nile and ask to stop and take pictures, but Selamn doesn't seem to understand.  When we arrive at the hostel, there is an argument over the price that was agreed upon and Franco takes over while Mister comes to the room and then pays Franco later.  Shower time and Mister goes out for Kebabs for dinner while I try and snap pictures of the laser show again.  We eat in the hostel and head for bed.  No problem sleeping tonight.

Day 2 - Arrive in Cairo

Breakfast is served and after everything is cleared away, I get my first glimpses of Germany as we descend into Frankfurt and it is very green and pretty.  The runways are surrounded by beautiful tall trees that have all their foliage at the very top.  We land, park out on the tarmac, and are loaded into buses that transport us to the terminal.  We head for our gate - don't have to go through customs as we are on a connecting flight. We are flying Lufthansa for the first time so things are a little different. 

We find the gate for the flight to Cairo -- we think.  It is not marked, but from the appearance of most of the people waiting for the flight, we think it is the right gate.  They all look Egyptian and the family from the previous flight (the girls with the cowboy hats) is among them.  Mister goes up to the counter and asks about our flight and is told that our boarding pass will be issued as we board --?? This confuses me and so after a brief wait, I go up and ask questions myself.  Apparently, we have already been issued seats and when we get to the gate, we will receive them as we are boarding.  Okay.  Mister heads off to get a few Euros and some soda and chips.



There are tables and chairs in the boarding area, so we sit and visit for awhile and Mister tries unsuccessfully to call the Pyramid View hostel.  He tries several times and finally asks some of the other people if the numbers are correct and if he is dialing correctly.  They assure him that he is, but he still gets either an Arabic recording, wrong number, or nothing.  The flight is delayed (we will come to realize that anything related to this trip will run on Egyptian time -- always late) for an hour before we board the plane.  As we go through the automatic gate (like a subway) a ticket spits out with our seat numbers on it.  It is a 4 1/2 hour flight and the plane has absolutely no entertainment of any kind.  Interesting.  It is VERY quiet.  Lunch is served and we are fascinated by the actual dishes and silverware that we are given.


We try and rest (Mister has no problems sleeping as usual -- I am so jealous).  I notice that we are now flying over land and so watch as we come close to Africa.  AFRICA!!!  Wow.  I cannot believe that we are here.  I try and take some pics as we close in on Cairo.  I can see the Nile river and Mister awakes just as the Pyramids come into view -- too cool.  As we get closer to Cairo, we watch out the windows and take pics -- it is remarkably all the same color.

The first thing we notice is that there are not really any differences in architecture -- the same buildings everywhere.  We land and arrive at the gate without any problems -- not sure why I expect there to be issues.  We take our time heading to customs and take pictures along the way and make a bathroom break.


Mister watches the bags and I go first and as I enter the restroom, an attendant hands me tissue and into the stall I go.  At the sink, the attendant puts soap in my hand and I wash and then she gives me another tissue to dry with -- not a paper towel, but bathroom tissue.  Then she holds out her hand.  It is my first experience with "baksheesh" which is a blatant request for a tip.  I didn't take any money in the room with me and so I shake my head no.  I go out to Mister and he takes his turn.  While he is in the restroom, I notice that a male attendant comes running out for tissue and soap from the cart out front.  He goes in to take care of Mister, apologizing the whole time.  Is there a shortage on paper and soap???  Very strange.

We head to customs and are directed to a banking window where we can exchange money and get Visas for entry into the country.  The Visa costs $30.00 and doesn't require any paperwork, just money, too funny.  Mister exchanges $200.00 and gets 1,204 Egyptian Pounds -- this could be fun!  After passing customs without any issues, we are inundated by cab drivers.  Mister asks one of them to call our hostel, but he gets the same issue that we did.  They are relentless and so we finally just sit down and talk to make plans.  We decide to give the one guy a chance and ask him to drive us to the hostel anyway.  He takes us up to a desk to pay and then the guy there tries to talk us into one of his hotels -- he gets really pushy and tells Mister that "she deserves 5 stars" which we both just laugh at.  We try and push things along and he just wants us to sit and have tea and work things out.  Mister finally gives them the address and agrees on a price.  We leave the desk and the terminal following who we think is our cab driver.

He asks several times to take my bags and I refuse the first few, then finally relent and let him carry.  We get to the cab and he turns us over to another guy who is the actual driver.  We load into the car and the guy who walks us out wants baksheesh -- Mister says no.  We know that the hostel is located right at the base of the Sphinx and give that information along with the address to the cab driver.  We head off to Giza.  We drive down what we find out is a new road, with shops and piles of bricks and sand on the highway.




The drivers are crazier than the ones in Peru and we didn't think that was possible.  There is a ton of "new" housing right next to the road which is part of the Mubarak push that was stopped with the revolution.  The driver leaves the highway onto a heavily congested road and soon stops in front of a hotel.  We tell him that it is not our hostel and he looks confused.  Turns out it was one of the agency's hotels -- ugh.  He calls to get directions and no one is able to help him.  He starts driving towards the pyramids as we keep talking about the Sphinx.  He stops at another hotel -- nope, another one of theirs.  It's getting ridiculous and taking forever to get to our hostel.  We stay strong and start directing him, what's wrong with this picture?! He stops and asks for directions to the Sphinx  We catch our first glimpses of the pyramids from the taxi window so we know we are close. After multiple calls to who-knows-who, we drive down a narrow road filled with horse carts, camels and people sitting on the sidewalk.


 I see the hostel sign and Mister gets out and is met by Franco who takes him up the stairs and shows him the room while I wait in the cab to make sure the place is okay.


Mister looks at the room - it is old and hot, but looks clean enough.  He comes back down and gets me and settles up with the cab driver and we head for the room.  Another hostel worker turns on the a/c and opens the curtains for the most incredible view of the Sphinx and the Pyramids.
 

  Franco has told us there is a roof deck and so we head up there to take in the view completely.

It is almost dusk already (it gets dark early here) and Franco tells us that we can see the laser light show each evening from the deck.  Cool.

We hear the evening call to prayer (at sunset every night) stream out from all the nearby mosques and there is a local one right in front of the hostel.  I can see into the windows from the deck and watch as the men enter.

We settle in and watch the light show -- it is so amazingly beautiful.  The story of the Pyramids is good and we both learned a ton.  It lasts about 45 minutes and keeps our attention the entire time.  We are so excited just to be here.

After the show we stop at the room to discover that the a/c is not blowing cold air. Mister fixes it, and Franco leads us next door for dinner at The Great Pyramid.  We are the only ones in the restaurant and as we sit down, the light show starts up again.


We discover that is is on twice a night, the first time in English and then a different language each night after that.  Tonight is French.  Mister orders a mixed grill dinner with 3-4 sides, bread, and tahini for dinner.  Everything is good and Franco comes by as we finish and helps with the bill -- tells us we are tipping too much.  The owner tells us that if we come back again, he will give a discount.  We head back to our room, shower in the shared bathroom (although no other guests in the hostel tonight), and crash.  It has been two days and we are beat.

Off to Egypt - Fly Day

After being home for two weeks and getting everything caught up, we decide to be impulsive once again and take another trip before June ended.  We head to the book store and return with books on Egypt and a book of Arabic phrases.  We are set -- ha ha.  We do a little research online and map out an itinerary of sorts listing where we want to go and search out the best ways to travel within the country and decide to go for it.  Once again, we are going without booking anything ahead of time and flying standby -- another adventure has begun!

An early 3 a.m. rising and off to the airport with Cassie to catch the 7:10am flight out to Washington Dulles.  We settle into some comfortable chairs in front of the Jet Blue gate where Cassie is working and relax for awhile just people watching.



We head down to our gate and are able to get seats on the plane.  I overhear the gate agents talking about how the flight crew is not scheduled to arrive at DFW until around 9:30 -- what???  Apparently the plane had arrived late last night and the crew was not able to work the flight this morning due to time restrictions and a new crew was on it's way.  The announcement followed shortly after, so Mister and I head off to some quiet area of the terminal to take naps.  After waking, we go back to the terminal to discover that it is still delayed -- ugh.  After a 3 hour delay, we finally depart for Washington Dulles and settle in to sleep for awhile.  Once again, Mister is way more successful than I am at sleeping on airplanes.  Fortunately, we have a long layover in Washington so the delay isn't a problem.  Upon arrival, we locate the gate for our flight to Frankfurt, Germany and are shocked that it is this tiny, cramped gate at the end of the terminal.  This is an international flight -- where on earth are all the people going to wait?  A group of teenagers heading to Europe sit around us and we are entertained by them while we wait.  We also notice a Middle Eastern family with young girls all decked out in new cowboy hats and smile about it.

I grab a pretzel and munch while the plane starts the boarding process.  The flight is way overbooked and has over 30 people on standby, so we are pretty sure we'll have to try a later flight, but stay and wait anyway.  Watching the screens to see the standby names, I am still pretty sure that we will not make the flight, but --- woohoo!, they call our names and off we go to Frankfurt.  It is 5:30 and we will be arriving at 7 in the morning.



We settle in our seats -- amazing, but they are together on a side of a 2-5-2 seating and in extra legroom space with footrests and individual pop-up televisions.  Within the first hour after we are airborne, dinner is served and then we spend the next couple of hours watching movies before trying to sleep -- Mister succeeds, I watch more movies.  Day one is behind us.

Day Seven in Peru - Miraflores and Back Home

We sleep in a little today before heading down to breakfast.  I have the same wonderful fruit bowl which I enjoy immensely and Mister has his eggs with ham, bread, and coffee.  We pack up and leave our bags with the hostel for the day and steer towards the nearest ATM so that we can get enough soles to pay the hostel, enjoy the day, and get us to the airport in late afternoon via a taxi.





The ATM is in a local grocery store and so we take a few minutes and explore the store looking to see the different items and what is missing that we are used to being able to purchase.  It is a great little neighborhood market - clean and well-stocked.  We take our soles and go back to the hostel to settle our bill and then we are free for the day to just go wherever.

We decide to go back to the ocean, only this time down to the water's edge so we take a slightly different route as the other day and enjoy some new neighborhoods and parks.  We pass a great little ice cream shop that has every fresh fruit flavor imaginable.

We descend down the stairs all the way to the beach and I am already dreading going back up.  There is a building out on a pier but it's not open until noon.  So we continue down the beach and Mister puts his hands in the water to say that he did it.

We find a little park and sit down for awhile right on the beach and talk about how to get back.  There are signs indicating where we can go back up and none of the entrances are near us so we opt to hail a taxi and sure enough -- that is so very easy to do.  We get dropped off at Parque Kennedy and as we roam through it, we laugh about the cats again.

I am hungry and ask Mister what he wants for lunch and he says "ceviche".  We decide to go to Punto Azul, the place we had tried the other night.

There is a church right by Parque Kennedy - the Inglesia de la Virgen Milagrosa - and so we dart in for a second to peek.  It has a slightly different architecture to it and I like it.  We are able to snap a few pictures without distrubing the parishoners.  We pay attention to the detail on the front of the church and Mister notices a cat sleeping on a ledge. They are certainly comfortable in their surroundings.



Going in the general direction of where we think the restaurant is, it quickly becomes obvious to us that we are missing it somehow and so we use what we know and head back to the hostel.  We grab the map and walk the few blocks to the restaurant and enter just before the lunch rush.  Mister knows what he wants, but they have many different ones so he chooses his ceviche carefully.  I ask for an English menu and order tiradito (a fish marinated in lemon juice) only to discover when it is delivered that it is also ceviche, raw.  Cannot do.  I enjoy sushi, but a whole plate of grey wiggly fish is just not what I am able to do.  I do not handle it well as I am very hungry now and grumpy.  The waiter gets a manager and explains that I thought it was a "caliente" dish and lets me trade for something else so I order a baked fish with an artichoke sauce that is quite good.  Mister loves his ceviche again and we finish our meal and wander up some different streets this time and run into an upscale grocery store and so we go in and look around. It reminds us of a Whole Foods or Central Market back home, only on a smaller scale.  Very clean and well-stocked once again.  This one has signs that you cannot take pictures though -- I guess they don't want their concept taken.

We walk up and down the streets and are marveling at the amount of silver they produce and sell there.  The inventories have to be worth small fortunes and the people just don't look that well off.  We stop in at the hostel again for a restroom break and I read about some ruins right in town that close at 5 and it is 3:15 now so we decide to give it a shot.  It is a good walk and takes us about 45 minutes and we arrive at slightly after 4 only to discover that they do not admit anyone after 4 .  I ask the guard if we can just go in a snap a few pictures and he lets us go in for just 5 minutes.

The ruins are called Huaca Pucllana and it is an adobe pyramid that dates back to AD400. We leave quickly and walk around the exterior of the wall hoping to see a little more, but it doesn't really happen.  I am kind of frustrated with myself that I didn't look things up in the morning, as we really haven't done anything special all day and could have seen these great ruins.  Oh well.  We walk back towards the square and arrive at dusk.

We decide to stop in a local juice shop called La Lucha and have a surtido.  It is like a combination smoothie and juice and is quite nice.  We sit for awhile just watching as the staff works at keeping the floors clean and safe as it is raining and people are tracking dirt in.  Finally, it is time to head back to the hostel to get our bags and depart for the airport in Lima.  The hostel calls a taxi, but it is rush hour and there is a big event going on across the street, so traffic is very bad - way worse than normal if one can believe that -- and it takes the taxi awhile to get there.  He arrives and we head back into Lima - making a gas stop along the way. The prices ($15.50 soles per gallon) surprise me.

Our flight is at 11:45 p.m. and it is 8 so we have to wait until 9:30 to get seats. So off we go to the food court.  Mister goes and exchanges some money that we have left so that I have one of each coin to take home with me and I settle in and read.  Once we have boarding passes, it is through security and off to the gate.  At the gate we have to go through additional security by United personnel as we are entering the United States.  All those water bottles that were okay -- even the ones bought in the airport are suddenly not okay anymore.  Amazing.  We board the plane and settle in.  They serve a very late dinner and we eat and then everyone tries to stretch our the best they can and settle in for the night.

We arrive in Houston early in the morning and are off to customs (very grumpy officials) and ANOTHER security even though we are in the secure part of the airport for connecting flights. With TSA barking orders in English and requiring all the additional security measures, you quickly notice how horrible it is for people visiting the US. Mister comments to a TSA officer that he doesn't hear them announcing anything in Spanish, the TSA guy says "You're in America now." What a great welcome to our visitors.

We dash for an early flight but it fills before we are called. We list for another flight in an hour and head to the gate.  As we get there, the gate next to it has a flight to  Dallas as well that is running late and so we ask if we can get on and yep -- we will land at Love Field instead of DFW, but that's okay.  We arrive in Dallas and grab a taxi (incredibly expensive after what we have experienced the last week) and head home.

It was an incredible trip -- one with memories that we will treasure forever.  I feel as though we walked more than 50 miles over the course of the week, but have loved each moment of it -- yes, even the stairs.  The people of Peru made the trip.  I will always remember watching the young moms take their mantras (square blankets) and lay a child in them (up to about 3-4 years old) and then pull the opposite corners up and tie them.  They then take the other two corners and pull them together, pick up the bundle, and flip it around on their backs.  The look of heads and feel sticking out the sides will be in my mind forever.  It always made me smile.  At no point did we feel unsafe or unwelcome in their country -- quite the opposite.  People were always willing to help in any way that they could.  The amount of history that we were able to absorb was intense and I found myself feeling a great deal of compassion for the Andean people.  We would definitely go back and highly suggest it to anyone else.  Magnificent!

Day Six in Peru - Lima

Today we are going into Lima to spend the day.  We start out by enjoying breakfast at the hostel.  Mister ordered me some fruit since I was quite a lazy bones and didn't want to get out of bed this morning.

The fruit bowl is wonderful and I am lucky enough to try a few new fruits.  The first is a Chiramoya which is excellent and the second are bananas that have fruit that is a bright orange in color.  Mister has scrambled eggs, bread, and coffee - the coffee is served almost like espresso and you add hot water to add to it.  Interesting.

After breakfast, we are out the door and heading down the street to the bus terminal. where we meet the most helpful attendant who helps us get the ticket and then points us to the bus we need.  The bus is almost like the metro rail back home in that it runs in a dedicated lane away from all traffic.  We board our bus and find ourselves packed in like sardines holding onto ceiling loops for dear life.  It takes about 25 minutes to get to Lima and we miss our stop (the only one with no name) and go a few blocks further than necessary.

We start to walk in the general direction that our map shows to get to the Plaza de Armas (yes same name again -- it means Plaza Major or main square) and pass a church that we pop into and Mister is able to take some indoor pictures which have been pretty elusive thus far in Peru.
   

From there, we continue towards the Plaza when Mister remembers that he had wanted to go to the Flower Market and it is only open in the morning.


So after consulting the map, we realize we need to backtrack and we go looking to where it should be.  We ask a couple of lady security officers and one gives us directions, warnings (rough part of town, put camera away, etc.), and as much information as she can and sends us on our way.

We are crossing foot bridges over the river and hear a person running to us and it is the security officer. Don't take the first steps down to the street level, but the second, and her "companion" will be at the other end to help us.  Really?  How cool is that.

We continue to the end and take the stairs down and sure enough another officer is there and he not only gives directions, but offers to walk us the first block there.  We continue on and hit a corner and are not sure if this is the one we are supposed to turn on when a local man asks if he can help us.  We simply say "mercado de flores" and he points to the next block and sends us on our way again.  How nice.


We round the corner and sure enough -- a big sign over the entrance indicates we are there.  It is a wholesale flower market on one side and the other has stalls filled with flower arrangements in all shapes and sizes.  They are as fascinated by us as we are by them.  They laugh when we say we're from "Estados Unidos" as if to say -- look at the silly Americans down in this part of town.

The colors of the flowers are intense and we see bucket after bucket of different dyes and white flowers of all kinds soaking up the colors.  It is a spot of beauty in a dump if that makes any sense.  When we finish looking around, we retrace our steps back towards the Plaza and find the first security officer again to say thanks.  We laugh about the conversation that must have taken place between her and her companion.  Imagine - "Be on the lookout for two redhead gringos that seem to think they need to see the flower market".  Obviously it is not a hot tourist spot.

We continue to the Plaza and notice that security has gotten a little more powerful.  They are now carrying machine guns. We round the corner into the Plaza and stop in awe of a magnificent building.  We ask what it is and are told that it is the President's Palace.

A restaurant touter comes up and says that at 11:45 the changing of the guards at the palace takes place.  It is now 11:15 and so we decide to just hang around the Plaza for 30 minutes and watch it.

We take a stroll around the Plaza and find a bench that faces the palace and sit down to wait.  Within minutes, the guards clear the front of the building and asks everyone to cross the street and watch from there.

We stand and claim a spot on the curb with the crowd that is forming.  Soon, a band starts marching out and continues until they are right in front of the fence on a raised platform and play several songs for us.   

We laugh as it is not the type of music that we expected, but rather lively and festive.  When they finish, they march to another area and a flag corps and group of guards march around until the guards are changed and everyone leaves.  The whole thing takes almost an hour -- wow, not what we had anticipated.

During the "show" we kept hearing honking horns down the street and what sounded like people yelling. and so we go that direction now.

As we get closer to the noise, we notice that the police are all set up blocking the road to the palace with guns and riot shields in place.

They are just standing as a human blockade if the crowd were to try and head that direction. Otherwise, they were not doing anything aggressive.  As we get closer, we stop in a store for a juice and discover that it is a labor protest for higher wages in front of the Department of Labor.

It breaks up within minutes of our arrival and soon the street is clear again.


We continue down the street towards the Monasterio de San Francisco where Mister wants to see the catacombs.  As we are walking down the street, I spot a little shop with an interesting looking food on the counter and stop to ask about it.  It smells divine. 
We start to leave, but I decide that I want to try it and so we go back to get one and discover that it is a form of Churro and they just sold the last one and it will be 10 minutes for the next one.

Two local men smile and point at the bench they are sitting on for us to join them.  We "communicate" for a few minutes until our treat is finished. When we say we're from Texas, one man smiles and says "the Alamo". They offer to let us have the first one and so we buy theirs for them (one sole each).  We take our hot treat and head towards the monastery.  We are having trouble eating it as it is soooo hot, but goodness it is yummy.  It is filled with some type of pudding-like filling and the outside is sprinkled with sugar after deep-fat frying it.  We sit on a bench at the monastery and try to finish it without burning ourselves.

When we are done, we go into the building and find out that there is not another English speaking tour until 4:00 that afternoon and so we buy our tickets and head back out to return later.  We walk back towards the Plaza and decide to go to the Catedral and so in we go to purchase our tickets.

The architecture here is similar to that of the one in Cuzco, however, the decor is much better and we are able to take pictures.

We leave the Catedral and take a seat on the stairs out front to map out where to go next.  I look through our guide book and see something called the Museo de la Inquisicion that looks interesting and is in the general vicinity of where we have to go back to the catacombs for our tour and so we gather our things and head that way.









As we walk down the little side streets again, we pass a shop with chickens roasting on an open spit and they smell oh so good.

The "chef" is a friendly guy who says they roast for one hour, and tells us to take a picture. As Mister gets his camera, the man runs to the oven and poses. We laugh as he wants to see the picture afterwards. We continue on our way and as we near the Senate building where the museum is housed, we see a park with a fence all around it and guards at the gate.  There is no one in it so we ask if we can go inside and they gesture to go ahead.  There is a statue in the center and something similar to our "Tomb of the Unknown Soldier" and I wonder if that is why the guards are there.

From there we go into the Senate building and ask for tickets to the museum.  It is free but they tell us that the only tours today are in Spanish; however we are welcome to join in and so we do.  This museum sits above the place where prisoners were tortured during the Spanish Inquisition.  Peru was the second largest site for the Inquisition and a large number of people were "questioned" here.

The indigenous people were exempt though as the Spanish determined that they didn't know any better.   We go through the museum catching a little bit of what the guide is saying, but enjoying the artifacts anyway.  As we enter the area that leads down to the torture chambers, she indicates that we can just go and explore on our own, which we do.  We weave our way through small tunnels and see torture rooms and very tiny jail cells.  Pretty sure nothing good happened down here.

We leave the museum and start back towards the monastery for our tour. We are early, so we pop into Toque Criollo (right across the street from the monastery) and order a drink.  Mister decides that he has waited long enough for his ceviche and orders that as well.  They bring us our beers, a Cusquena and a Cristal (local Peruvian brands), and a little snack of maiz chulpi - roasted corn kernels. They are soft with a light crunch and we munch away while we wait.

When the ceviche arrives, it is very pretty and very large.  Mister only has a few minutes now to eat before our tour begins.  I feel bad for him because he doesn't get to truly take his time and enjoy his treat, but he declares it excellent and loves every bite of it and does manage to finish on time.

The tour starts and our guide speaks decent English with a very clipped cadence and we giggle at her repetitiveness of "and now we continue" each time she wants us to move.  As we go through the monastery, she gives a great deal of historical information and it really is interesting.  Finally, we descend underneath the monastery and are in the tombs, which are basically open pits full of bones. They buried over 25,000 people down here and just piled them in one on top of another.  Someone has cleaned the bones and sorted them -- that's right, you read that correctly.  There is a container of skulls, one of leg bones, etc.  At one point there is even an open round well in which they have created some sort of weird "art" out of the bones. I am disturbed. Time to go.

We exit and see an old lady walking along the street selling flowers. She looks like a small wicked witch of the west, and Mister has to give her some change..

We make our way back through the Plaza and to the bus depot as it is starting to be dusk and we want to get back to Miraflores before dark.  We buy our tokens with the help of a nice young man and enter in only to discover that this station only has buses going the wrong way.  He helps us get off a few stops later so we can board and go the other direction.  We get on the right bus and start back to Miraflores, packed in like sardines again.  Another delightful young man talks with us on the way back and "practices his English" on us.  It is very broken, but he is trying and we learn that he is actually an English teacher.  Too funny.

We reach our destination and stop at the hotel for a quick stop and to get a recommendation for dinner.  Apparently, we are doing Arabian tonight and so we walk the few blocks until we are there.  We order an assortment of hummus, baba ganoush, and another mixture that I don't really care for, a shwarma, and a liter of sangria.  When the food arrives -- there is way too much and we cannot possibly finish it all.  We are stuffed and decide to walk a little and so go around a few blocks and see that the Parque Kennedy is once again bubbling with action -- apparently it is a nightly event.  We work our way back to the hotel and check on our flight for tomorrow before heading to bed.  Only one day left -- time to start home.