Lima - Delightful!

I'm happy to say were back safe and sound. The day went really well. Princess took care of us with taxi's right outside the gangway. They had posted prices to all the attractions in Lima and I believe you could rent them for the day. Unfortunately I left my back support in the first taxi so am hoping to recover it tomorrow. The taxi drivers had a nice conference discussing the reputation of the sea lion tour agency and let us go once they pronounced it safe. We greatly appreciated their taking a look at it as it was reassuring.

Our sea lion tour could not have been any better. We ended up going with an organization called Ecocruceros. It was really well done. They got everyone out to the boat, offered them motion sickness medication, snacks after the swim, wet suits included, hot drinks and a nice explanation of the sights. We were out for about 4 hours and I'm hoping I have some great video and pictures of swimming with the sea lions. The cost was only $30 pp.

islaspalomino@ecocruceros.com
ecocruceros@infonegocio.net.pe
www.islaspalomino.com

We are going to be on TV! There were two CNN Spanish network employees, a reporter and a camera person. We will be on the CNN Spanish network show 30 min. Although, I'm not 100% sure of the show name as the camera person did not speak English. We also had 23 students from Indiana on the cruise. They are doing an exchange program. Unfortunately they showed up late which caused us to be late for our next tour, the Pachacamac ruins. However the boat captain phoned someone on shore who went and found the guide and asked him to wait for us. I was very grateful that they made the extra effort.

Our next tour was the Pachacamac ruins.

Our guide was from the following agency:

Jenny Erquinigo
Inbound Tour Coordinator
*FERTUR PERU TRAVEL EIRL*
RUC 20518271122
Jr. Junin 211 - Cercado de Lima
Phone or fax: (0051-1) 4272626
Cell phone: (0051-1) 969-05791/ RPM: *240099
Toll free: UK 020-3002-3811
USA/Canada: 1-877-247-0055
Fax : 1 954 3629895
Email address: receptivo@fertur-travel.com
Web site: www.fertur-travel.com

He was the best tour guide I have every had. Our van was high-end and very comfortable. The driver was extremely safe and since there appear to be no traffic laws we were very impressed with his skills. The guide went out of his way to make sure we got to see as much as possible. Unfortunately with the 1 hour delay we got to the ruins with very little time to go before closing. Thankfully our guide still had enough time to show us the museum and two of the sights. The whole site is very large so we drove to the two we saw. I really enjoyed hearing about the history of the area

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From there we decided to extend our tour by going to a market to do a little shopping. We only had about 30 min. so it was hard to take it all in. I have my eye on a few items that hopefully I can pick up tomorrow. After that it was off to a grocery store and then back to the ship.

We really cut it close for dinner and I had it brought to my room while I showered and then dashed to the folkloric show. The Peruvian folkloric show was excellent! I don't know where they found this dance group but they were extremely good. They had a dance with some white scarves which was particularly engaging.

Everyone we encountered was simply delightful. It was an excellent day. Tomorrow we are in Peru for half the day. Due to the short time I booked the ship's City Highlights tour.