Day 7 - From Cusco to Lima

We got to sleep in this morning - until 7:30 am.

We are heading back to Lima today. I ran with Adrian to the Theater where we performed last night and where we left all of our costume boxes, tech equipment and costume racks. With the help of the truck crew and a few of the theaters' crew, we loaded to truck and headed back to the Amaru Hotel to pick up the Morningstar group and all of their luggage and misc. boxes of food, medical supplies and host gifts. We only got a block before we were stopped by a Cusco policeman who looked at our pregnant truck and was certain he could make a little on the side by asking for a bribe. Adrian wouldn't give in, so the driver received a ticket for something and we proceeded on passing another Policia who also tried to wave us down, but the driver ignored this one. An hour later we were at the airport unloading our boxes to check in. The airline or airport security had other plans.

Though we were not being singled out, as other passengers checking in were having their luggage checked for contraband, they insisted that we open every box and every piece of luggage from our group. That meant over 80 items. I was mostly annoyed because they didn't even raise an eyebrow coming to Cusco and I had send extra time the night before giving each box a good taping job. I hated seeing all that go to waste knowing we had limited tape. After opening the 10th box full of costumes and me watching all of it insisting THEY supply all of the tape to reseal, they stopped being so insistent we open every box. I was glad we got to the airport early as we barely made our flight. The flight was uneventful. We landed after a smooth flight back in Lima.

Our group was getting good at transitions at this point. We knew exactly what to do - we went to baggage claim, grabbed all our stuff, put it on luggage carts, headed outside to a waiting truck and bus. The truck took things to our next performance location, and we headed off to tour Lima. Adrian has been a very informed guide the entire time, but this guy knows Lima. He explained that not too long after the explorer Pizarro created the city, a wall was built around the entire city to protect it from pirates and other intruders. The growth of the city was limited to these city limits for over 230 years. Many of the original buildings had been destroyed by fire or earthquakes over the years, but many magnificent examples of 17th century architecture still remained.

The city was an eclectic combination of architect styles, old and new, colors bright and dingy and everywhere people bundled for their winter weather which was feeling actually quite warm to our kids. The sun was breaking though the clouds (a thing that rarely happens this time of year apparently) so everyone was in a good mood as we headed to a giant old church for a tour. The kids amused themselves by chasing the pigeons which soon turned into trying to catch the pigeons (with no success) They were soon put to shame by a local three year old girl who managed to grab one, no problemo. We headed into the church for a tour - highlights being a secret passage, several amazing examples of tile work from Spain, the library full of ancient books slowly disintegrating over time (Dagny was in a complete panic) and the underground catacomb full of thousands of bones and skulls neatly sorted and thousands of others, not so much. Once a place for burial of the rich and "church favored" turned tourist attraction in the 40's, it was as you might imagine dark, dirty, damp and full of bones. Thanks to a few sneaky spy cameras you may have some pictures though they were not allowed.

After leaving that place we loaded back on the bus and then continued our city tour via bus window until we got to "lovers park" -a park dedicated to couples overlooking the ocean with a giant statue of kissing lovers! The kids walked around took pictures and pretended to be in love for a minute and then we headed to the hostal - the same on we had stayed in on our first encounter at Lima. We enjoyed a delicious spaghetti type pasta - very tasty - Then we hung out and played games - involving blindfolding and guessing who was holding your hand, kissing your cheek, patting your head - the boys were very good at it - the girls not so good. we hung out listened to music - exchanged secret pal songs and poems and then headed to bed!