ATW – 3/4/13 – Day 3 – Lima, Peru

The group sets off today. Of course there is some tension. The tour company wants everything right. The passengers are anxious to get things underway. We got up at 5:15, got packed up and moved our luggage to the lobby before breakfast. The private jet took off from Sanford Airport, not Orlando International. That was much better as getting through security was almost a breeze. The tour company is well aware of where the hitches are likely to occur and does their best to anticipate them.

The private jet is a 757 that has been outfitted with 92 first/business class seats. About 78 are for tour participants, the rest are for the staff. It’s a different way to travel than cramming 230+ people into the same size plane. The flight to Lima was about 6 hours. We flew past Cape Canaveral and over the Panama Canal. I didn’t see much.

Lima is a much nicer city than I anticipated. Granted, we didn’t see the slums but I understand that a lot has been done to get rid of shanty towns. Lima has about 9 million people. The Pacific Ocean is to the West and the mountains are to the east. Therefore, it is a very narrow city along the coast that we were told is almost 60 miles long. Obviously, we traveled by bus through the nicer areas of the city. Buenos Aires is a beautiful city but Lima seem a little less tattered, even in the nice areas. That is probably due to the problems within the Argentinian economy.

We had one major sightseeing event on the calendar for today. It was a visit to the Larco Herrerra Museum which is a private museum of Inca and pre-Inca artifacts. It’s not a large museum but some of the items they have are quite impressive. While they have several hundred pieces on display we also got to go into the storeroom which has another 4500 pieces.

Tonight we are staying at the Miraflores Park Hotel. It is on the ocean and has beautiful views. It is a very luxurious hotel and the group had an excellent buffet dinner this evening. We aren’t spending a lot of time in Lima because we head to Cuscus tomorrow morning. Lima might be a place worth returning to.

This is an item in the museum. It is a sarcophagus of a revered king. It the culture the body was entombed in a fetal position. The head on the sarcophagus is fake. The guide said that it has been X-Rayed and there is a body inside. Yet the body had almost no muscle because, being a king, he did no physical work.

Some metalworking for decorating the royalty. They like ear enhancements and nose pieces. Why such large nose pieces? So that their emotions would be hidden.