Day 2: Thursday, July 23

We landed in Lima at the crack of dawn - 5:30 am - and were met by our trip leader, Edgard Vascones. It wasn't a very lively bunch at this point, but Edgard got us all rounded up and into a bus for the 35 minute ride to our hotel. Our home for the next few days was the Hotel Jose Antonio, in the Miraflores District of Lima. It is an upper middle-class neighborhood, convenient to shops and restaurants. After a quick breakfast, we headed to our rooms for a shower and few hours of sleep.

The group re-assembled at midday, ready for an orientation walk around the neighborhood. Edgard showed us where to find the essentials - post office, grocery store, banks, etc.

We walked to a nearby restaurant, the Quartier Latin. There were several choices on the group menu, but most of us tried asparagus salad and the local fish, which was served with potatoes AND rice! For dessert we had some sort of mousse made from the lucuma fruit, a relative of the avocado - never heard of it before, but it was delicious.




After lunch, we wandered around Miraflores - we checked out Central Park, an old church next to Kennedy Park, City Hall, the Indian Market, and of course ...





… the grocery store. There was quite an array of fruits and vegetables, including a dozen different kinds of potatoes.














There also were lots of street vendors, this one with fresh fruit and vegetables for sale.










We gathered around Edgard again about 4PM, for our official introductions and briefing about the trip. There are 20 travelers in our group, 15 women and 5 men; there are four married couples, a father-daughter pair, a mother-daughter pair, a couple of sisters and the rest singles. Folks are from 12 different states, from the west coast to the east coast and several spots in the middle of the country.

Edgard gave us an overview of the days to come and treated everyone to a Pisco Sour, the national drink of Peru. It's made from green grape brandy, lemon juice, egg whites, sweet syrup, ice and Angostura bitters - pretty strong stuff - one drink and you're happy, two drinks and you're dancing.

We were on our own for dinner this evening, so we tried out a small cafe across the street and headed back to the hotel for a good night's sleep.