Lima, Peru

What a HUGE city! There are 10 million people here, so guess it would be. But it was a frustrating port because it took a lot of time to get anywhere. There was a shuttle to the Indian Market in the Miraflores area of town. That took 45 minutes. We did some shopping there then grabbed a taxi to the Gold Museum. The driver was a young guy. After 45 minutes, he dropped us off at "a" museum. It was the museum of Peruvian Culture on the opposite side of town from the Gold Museum! We went thru it in about 20 minutes, not very large, then got another taxi to take us to the Gold Museum (another 45 minutes!).

The Gold Museum is in the basement of a building, with vault type doors on the entrance and exit. And what a lot of gold! Apparently the Inca's discovered that it was an easy metal to work with and didn't deteriorate. They used if for everything from bowls to lining their walls with it! There was one piece that looked alike a gold quilt, quite amazing. There were also gold outfits, bowls, figurines, just beautiful things. It wasn't until the Spaniards arrived and declared it valuable, that they stopped using it so freely. The main level of the building was an arms museum. More guns than I'd ever wished to see. Mel thought it was interesting.

From the Gold Museum, another taxi took us back to Miraflores to catch the shuttle back to the ship. It was stopping at the Marriott Hotel. Across the street from the hotel was what looked like a nice park. Once there, you discovered stairs down to a 3 level shopping mall, totally invisible from the street. We found a Peruvian restaurant and had ceviche and fried calamari for lunch. They don't make ceviche like that in the US, it was delicious.

We waited at the Marriott for over an hour for the bus to arrive, then it took us another hour to get to the port! We arrived just in time to go to see Social Network in the Queen's Lounge, the larger theater. Mel went to the Peruvian BBQ on deck.

Day 2 in Lima was another one of a lot of traffic and taxis. We tried to go on a boat ride in the harbor but were told they wouldn't be running until after noon because the president was going to arrive shortly. We returned to the Indian Market for a bit more shopping then returned to the harbor in time to see the president get off a small boat. Not every day you get to see the president of a country in person. The boat we wanted to go on was sold out so we returned to the pier. I swam in my fav pool at the stern of the ship. The water was really warm but the breeze was cold so hard to get out. I went back out on the pier for some last minute shopping, then returned to the ship. We set sail for Easter Island at 10 pm. We'll be at sea for 4 days before getting there. Really looking forward to that one!

At dinner tonight our tablemate said he'd met an interesting man on the shuttle. He gave me a brochure and I instantly said "Sydney Mobell!". He has a store in the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco and is a legend. He makes hour glass jewelry out of gold with cut diamond "sand". He was sitting at a table near us so we went to say hello. He's a very nice man and invited us to his office when we get back home. Nice to meet a legend.

***Many times I take pictures of things that would be nice to buy but just aren't practical. This trip we don't have unlimited free luggage, so we are very limited by size. This picture is off a beautifully framed piece, many typical Peruvian pots, with a carved inner frame. We did buy a much smaller one containing only 2 pots, but this one was a beauty.