Plaza de Armes

Two very happy people, at the Plaza de Armes in central Lima. And get this! A Texan took our picture. Of all people. We were walking around looking for another tourist who spoke English, and we saw this couple of old hippies who looked like they might be from the US. I asked if they spoke English, and the woman said si. Then she laughed at herself for that, but they were very kind and the long-haired guy agreed to take the photo. Turns out they have a farm around Cleburne.

This old colonial church faces the plaza. I'm sure the fountain
has a history, but I'm not stopping to look it up right now.

We stopped for lunch at this little sidewalk cafe on the Plaza San Martin. Marc ordered pollo y fritas, and I ordered a hamburger royale. My hamburger had a fried egg on top of the meat - eggs seem to come on a lot of things, for some reason. I guess if you've got a lot of chickens, as they have here, you've also got a lot of eggs. We got a pitcher of fresh lemonade too, so cold and good. And the whole lunch was ~$7 US.

I'm happy.

Lots of public safety at work -- tanks and water cannons:

People didn't seem to pay any attention.

Big churches

with ornate stonework

and birds

and statues of men on horses

The cab driver who took us back to our hotel was this young guy who sang with the radio, at the top of his lungs. It was really wonderful. I wish I'd had the video camera just so I could capture the audio. He was not at all self-conscious and the music was great. The wind was in my hair, there was Peruvian music blasting all around, and Marc and I were smiling at each other. It's been a really beautiful day.