We´re in Peru!

Hola!
We´ve arrived after three uneventful flights from sT. john´s to halifax to toronto to lima. I can´t believe we complained about nothaving enough time in Toronto airport! we were almost direct off one plane onto another. it was ca. 13+ hrs on planes yesterday so it was tiring. In Lima the health officials came on and handed out pamplets about the flu and were´ all dressed up in masks and disposible scrubs. They asked everyone if anyone had a fever or cough no one did. of course they looked so scary idon´t suppose anyone wouldñ´ve said if they did. (please excuse the spelling mistakes the keyboards are spaced differently slightly and the apostophes and other symbols are elsewhere..)

Our taxi ride into the city wasnt as harrowing as i expected ' i was thinking india but he did hit either a curb or a dog i´m not sure. we made it and its a nice hostel. perhaps dirty for canada but fine for tropics. they´re nice people and there´s a lovely little cafe and we´ve gotten really nice bus tickets for the 20hrs+ bus to Cuzco tomorrow.

today we went out and walked aroudn to get our bearings. Bev Briggs will be happy to know we saw the Hotel Grand Bolivar where she stayed. We didn´t go in tho there was too much else to see. then we went to see the francisian monstary with the catacombs which was amazing! even neater was that prior we had lunch at a gorgeous cafe. while we were there a franciscian monk came in and blessed the resturarant with holy water and everything!!! the appropriate beginning to our trip in a major catholic country! we see great health for us and the country in general ahead.

To find out this morning that the swine flu alert has been raised is a concern but at the moment there is only one case here in Peru and I think it was well contained. So it looks good for here and with the screening it should help. We´ll keep ontop of the situation.I just wish i´d gotten even more handsanitizer! :-p

We did more walking around and saw another museum and generally took it easy. Lima is very dusty and smoggy so i´ll be glad to leave tomorrow. I´ve been sneezing and I know its the dust. NO deep pranayama for Lima, I¨m going to save that for the mountains!

Anyhow, I am rambling as I´m still pretty tired but we´re having a good time so far and are getting our bearings. We had pisco sour at our hostel café and that was AMAZING! my new favourite drink! very very yummy

If you want to get aholdof peter you´re best off sending me a msg as he wants to stay off computers for the most part. its evelyn_osborne@yahoo.com

Ciao!

A big Thank you!

I want to send out a big thank you to everyone who came to the bridal tea/honeymoon shower over easter in ottawa. I'm packing now and can't tell you how much easier that is already making this trip! it was great to see everyone and will see most of you again in June!
back to packing!

Getting ready to Go!

Hi All
Its less than 48 hours before we leave for Peru on our pre-wedding honeymoon! whee! i'm getting really excited. We're running around trying to get lose ends tied up - taxes, packing, cleaning etc.

Our plans are to fly into Lima on Wednesday spend the day and night on thursday and then take a bus to Cuzco on Friday. Its a very long ride somewhere between 18 and 25 hours. So we'll arrive into Cuzco in the mountains on Saturday for a crazy local Catholic festival which is merged with the local pagan customs. Its the Vigil of the Cross when they take down the crosses from the surrounding "hills" (ie. mtns) and dress them up in finery! Its Peter's 33rd Bday on Sunday so that's where he wanted to be! should be fun. We'll stick around there for a while and see Machu Picchu and do some hiking.

Off to finish taxes - ugh!

cheers
Evelyn

PS: if you want to get ahold of us we'll be on email at evelyn_osborne@yahoo.com or mrabra@peterduchemin.ca