I have long heard that a picture can tell a thousand words. Well here are 18 pictures of my journey's so far.

Cecil and me gearing up for the journey

 My last glimpse of the Bay

My flights went well. I am terrible at saving food, so my pastrami sandwich vanished quickly. I sat next to a kindly Chinese man who traded mandarin lessons with me for English, and the flight to LAX went by quite smoothly. In the layover, there was an adorable baby to occupy my attention, and the actual flight went by without event, sleeping and watching Taken 2 and Looper. Once I arrived at Lima, I took a taxi to the Cruz del Sur bus station where I would be eventually departing from. One of the major obstacles of this trip is where to put my stuff, but I managed to cache it away in the bus station, freeing me up to explore Lima before my 5:30 bus ride. 

My spanish is actually holding up fairly well, considering that I haven't practiced in a while. Most important phrase= my spanish is bad, please speak slowly, which immensely helps my comprehension. I used my spanish to ask what cool things I should see, and someone mentioned catacombs under a cathedral, which sounded cool, both in the figurative and literal sense.

There were a lot of pigeons at the cathedral.

Outside of the cathedral

Inside the cathedral

Unfortunately, they did not allow me to take pictures in the catacombs, but after a guided tour, those were really impressive. We had to stoop our heads, and there was a very old smell emanating from these catacombs. Apparently, over 25000 people were stored under this cathedral, and it was fairly evident. There were mounds and mounds of skulls, femurs, arm bones etc.

I walked out of the cathedral, and explored a little bit. I happened upon a large crowd of people, people who happened to be watching a parade of sorts (below). Now normally I go the opposite direction when I see men with guns goosestepping, but I made an exception, and watched a rather impressive demonstration, with a live band, and lots of in time movements.

    

 

This was just chilling on the street, a street stand unlike any I had seen before.

The picture above also requires some explanation. I was just sitting, minding my own buisness in a corner off of the cathedral, when I suddenly get surrounded by a group of 16 year olds. I brace myself, not really sure what to expect, when they explain in english ( a rare thing already) that they were students with a homework assignment to interview an english speaker. By the time I have walked the block, three groups have interviewed me. I got this pen as a reward for my patience at the end of the interview. :)

More Placer de armas architechture

This is Miraflores. I went after the historical site because I still had some time to burn and I wanted ceviche. I also wanted to take a picture of the Pacific Ocean, because with maybe one exception, this will be the last I see of it for a while.

This is the life, a drink, good company(there were nice elderly tourists, an english bloke named michael and his wife) and a great view.

I got my Ceviche!! And it was pretty tasty too.

I guess here is another story. I was hanging out with my new tourist friends, when they pointed out the people paragliding. They talked about how easy it was and how it was only 50 dollars, and I was like, that sounds fun and all, but I have my backpack with my computer, and I do have to catch my bus. They agreed to safeguard my bag, and explained that it was only 10 to 15 minutes in the air, so I was like, why not? I jogged over, signed some waivers, paid, and suited up.

This is me :) As part of the paragliding thing, you had to jump off the cliff. My guide told me to run towards the cliff (a command you usually don't get)  and I did.

   It was definitely an exhilarating experience, waving down at people and having them wave back, going super close to bluffs, and just soaring in the sky. It was a shame when I had to come down, but eventually I did.

I got my bag back, profusely thanking Michael and co, and caught my bus in time. For a 22 hr bus, it was not half bad, and I managed to sleep a fair amount. And that just about wraps up my blog post. Next time, it will be likely after Machu Picchu.