Our last morning in Peru . We went for breakfast and again spent an hour talking to Angelo and getting a virtual tour of downtown Lima and its history. He gave us all kind of interesting details about all the places we were going to go visit. We then took a cab to Plaza de Armas in downtown Lima. The Plaza is a beautiful square with the Government Palace, the Cathedral, and other great buildings. When we arrived, the changing of the guard at the Government Palace was going on so we watched it for a while. It was really hot that day. After the changing of the guard, we went for a walk around the square and the area. We made our way towards Santo Domingo church but could not see much because it was during mass. Santo Domingo is home to the remains of Saint Rose of Lima, Saint Martin de Porres, who was the first black saint in the Americas, and San Jaun Masias. Since we couldn’t really visit it, we decided to go for lunch. We had some chicken Peruvian style, it was really good. After that, we made our way to the San Francisco church where we had a guided tour.  The tour was very interesting and gave us a lot of great information.  Built in 1674, the yellow church is considered the best example of the “Lima Baroque” style of architecture. The carved portal would later influence those on other churches, including the Iglesia de la Merced.  The central nave is known for its beautiful ceilings painted in a style called mudejar (a blend of Moorish and Spanish designs).

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That morning, we woke up around 9:00 am and walked to our B&B for breakfast. Even though we were staying at a hotel two blocks away, we still had breakfast at our original B&B. After breakfast, we talked to Angelo the owner, who gave us some very useful information on the city and historical facts. We then headed out to walk around around Mirafores which is the neighborhood that we were staying in. We were headed towards the ruins of Huaca Pucllna and went through the Petit Thouars market on the way there where we spotted places to come back to for shopping. The Huaca Pucllana ruins are ruins of a 5th to 8th century AD ceremonial and administrative centre of pre-inca Lima culture. The pyramid of small adobe bricks is 23m high. We took a tour of the ruins which was very interesting. Our tour was given in french. On the tour was another couple. The girl was from France and the guy from Lima. We started talking with them during the tour and found them very nice. At the ruins, they also have a small zoo with Alpacas, lamas, guinea pigs, and the Peruvian hairless dog also called “hot dogs”. They are called this because their body radiates heat. Due to the dogs higher body temperature, the owners of these dogs used to use them to warm their beds before going to sleep. The visit to the ruins was very interesting. Once again, we saw a culture that was able to build structures that have survived numerous major earthquakes while buildings that are built today can’t. The only bad thing with the tour is that we were exposed in the sun and we ended up pretty sun burnt. It was a bit frustrating because we had been so careful up to now.

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That morning at breakfast, we told Freddy that some money and our swiss army knives had been stolen. He seemed quite mortified and went to talk to the rest of the staff. We got out stuff ready and went down the rugged path one last time. Before we got in the truck, Freddy explained to us that a young man who had an accident with a brain injury, was working at the lodge for a few days as part of his rehabilitation and had been stealing. When we got back the office in town, Tatiana was very apologetic. She said they had searched the young man and found the money and the knives and gave them back to us. The priest running the shelter also came to offer him apology.  After we left the office, we went to the market to do a bit of shopping, went for ice cream and them made out way to the airport.

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This morning, we were woken up in the early hours of the morning by the torrential rain. Just the sound of the rain was impressive, try to add thunder and lightning while you are in a little straw hut and you have the full effect. It was kind of cool. As a result of the rain,  the description of the day will be pretty quick. It rained most of the day and we just chilled… We read, slept a lot, of course went for breakfast and lunch. Roger and I watched the Motorcycle Diaries in bed that morning on our Itouch – what a great movie.  After lunch, the four of us played dice with Freddy.

In the afternoon, the rain stopped and Roger went on a jungle walk with Freddy.  He didn’t see many animals as it had just stopped raining but was impressed with how dense the forest was.   When he came back, Kevin and Roger went down to the pool while Melissa and Marjorie sat on our longchair on the deck chatting and appreciating the magnificent view of the jungle. That afternoon, Melissa realized she was missing money in her wallet. So we all decided to look and see if anyone else what missing anything. Kevin realized he was missing his swiss army knife and after a while Roger realized he was missing his too. It really sucked! We were the only guests there and we were in the middle of the jungle so it tends to limit the number of potential suspects… We decided to wait until breakfast the next morning to talk to Freddy about it and just enjoy our last night there.

That afternoon, we had a few drinks on the deck overlooking the jungle. We then went to the bar to have some Pisco Sours.  The Pisco Sours were great.  We ate another great supper and then played cards for a while (well until we had lights as we had electricity only from 5pm to 10pm.)

All around, despite that we didn’t get a chance to visit much of the jungle because of the rain, we enjoyed the day as it was the first day since the start of the trip where we really just hung out and relaxed.