Sunday 16th October

Slums from the mountain
Not really livable!
The road on the way down- very scary
A very old Library
The catacombs

View the palace of the mountain
A church

A local from the slums
Part of the slums going up the hill

Up early this morning for breakfast at 9am, as our tour guide from Tucan was meeting us at 10am for a tour of Lima.

We walked around much of the city and went to many places we had been the day before, but at least we had a guide. We went into some churches and very old buildings. In one of the churches were catacombs where thousands of bones from many years ago were separated into skull, leg, arm etc... all together. Looked pretty freaky. Apparently during a war, people were buried under the church. Since then they have dug up the remains and placed them all together.

We also hired a small bus to take us over to the slums and up the mountain on the other side of the river, which doesn't have much water in it. This was a really amazing experience- just to see how they live. We saw some really bad sights but then we also saw families together and children in the street playing happily. Our guide told us that he had grown up n the slums and his mother still lives there. The view from the mountain was breathtaking, although over Lima, there was always a dense smog, while we were there.

We had a long day and saw so much. Our guide was very good.

Rudy our guide asked us if we wanted to join him for dinner at Miraflors which is a shopping centre about 20mins away. We didn't have plans so decided to go along.

Before we left for dinner at 7.30pm a beautiful voice spoke to me over the phone and I just wanted to be in your arms so badly. You are my life.

Rudy organised cabs to take us. When were all getting in cabs, because there were 4, Rudy was writing down the number plates of each cab. As it is not uncommon to not get to your destination.

It was a 20min cab ride which took us from dust, roller shutters, slums and rubbish to the better side of town where the houses were huge and had walls of brick or gates and fences of steel closing them off. We drove all the way to the ocean and ate at a great Mexican restaurant in the open air centre.

The only way I can explain the difference is, the Lima we saw was grey and the south side was colourful and happy. People walking around looked good and did not look timid, like the other side. Amazing to see such a difference in a matter of 20mins.

We have had to pack a 3 day bag in our backpacks for our Amazon tour. Leaving at 7.30am.

Our notes show there is a phone at the lodge we are staying so I will call you. BLB Baby.