At Sea

Hi Girlies,

Budgie, it’s not a desert that starts with C, it is a city.  The largest city in the world built on a desert.  Maybe Daddy knows what it is.

Last night we had a casual dinner in the bistro.  We had lobster bisque and some very good cheeses.

Today we are at sea heading for Easter Island, we arrive there on Thursday.

Yesterday we had an amazing tour in Lima.  We started by going to the Shanty Town where two million of Lima’s poor people live.  There were just four of us on the tour.  We were with a non profit tour company that puts the money they make back into Shanty Town to help the people who live there.  The ship's tours don’t go anywhere near Shanty Town (you should have seen the face Keith made when we told him where we were going).  Shanty Town is divided into about 20 different communities, but they are all jammed together.  We went to an Inca area.  Our guide is also Inca, and he told us we would be very safe, but an interesting thing happened.  Just before we got to Shanty Town in our van, we picked up a uniformed policeman.  Why was he there?  To protect us?  No, he was there to protect the people who live there from us.  In the past, less so recently, people have come into Shanty Town to steal children.  They are then taken out of Peru and sold as slaves, for organ harvest, etc.  So, the policeman stayed with us for the whole tour.  He was a very nice man, but we couldn’t talk to him as he only spoke Spanish (we needed you Lis).  

Now about the tour. When we we decided to go to Shanty Town, we wondered what the poor people would think of rich Americans walking about, looking at where they lived and worked, taking pictures, etc.  Would they not like us being there?  Well, the opposite was true.  The people were SO friendly.  They asked to be in our pictures.  The children were kind of shy, but they smiled and also wanted to be in our pictures.

Here is what the houses look like.  Even here in this poor neighborhood, there is some income disparity.  Some houses are just pieced together with whatever materials can be scrounged.  Other houses are built with brick.  Most have no electricity, running water or sanitation.  

Most of the town is built on a steep cliff, and the people must use steps like this to get around.  There are no cars.

Nana took this picture of this pretty girl.  She looks sad in the picture, but I think she was a little shy.  She smiled at us.

This lady was selling corn.  She really wanted her picture taken with Nana.

We took many more pictures that we can show you this summer.  But if I put too many on the blog, it won’t load.

So that was our morning tour.  In the afternoon we toured the center of Lima.  It is a beautiful city with amazing architecture.  I’ll put those pictures in my next post.  I’ll probably wait until tomorrow to post again.  We have four sea days to get to Easter Island, so there won’t be much interesting to blog about.

We love hearing your comments, please keep them coming.  Haven’t heard from KT in a few days.

Love,

Gpa and Nanoo

xoxoxo