Lima tour

Today we did a Lima tour and saw most of the 8-9 million people out on the roads with us in every means of conveyance. Here are a few facts: This place gets 3 to 4 inches of rain a year, a coastal desert. The air is very dry here and is polluted as well. The biggtest minority population is the Chinese -- about 1 million. They started here years ago as imported workers. Lima has 49 towns or districts each with their own mayor -- hey, and there´s mandatory voting here or you get fined. I like this idea. One-third of the people live in Shantytoewn, a colorful scene that creeps up a mountainside. We will visit there tomorrow. The US dollar is the second currency and is accepted everywhere. At lunch today I changed one of my $20´s for some local money just to see what it looks like. The town has a private transportation system so you see buses of every shape, size, and color jam packed with the locals and pumping out diesel fumes. Went to the St. Fransis Cathredal which was saved from the last earthquake because of the catacombs underneath -- the open spaces in the catacombs meant leass underground pressure on the foundation so it didn´t fall. It may have also been helped by the 25,000 bodies buried underneath, which used to be the local Catholic custom. The bones are all neatly arranged under the church probably buy some obsessive-compulsive monk. I saw casino´s here in town -- really about 150 of them and one named New York and another named Atlantic City. Ugh. They are emulating the wrong culture. Also, many of the city intersections have no red lights, stop signs, or police and it seems to be a hurried, crazy, South American game of chicken. Maybe it was devised that way as a form of population control.
Okay, enuff for now.

Lima

Got in last night about 1 thirty and to bed about an hour later. Met my roommate a German now American who is about my age and have much in common, He was a labor and delivery nurse and i told him nursing was in my family too -- my dad, aunt, and now my daughter a labor and delivery nurse. Lima is large (8 million) and mostly gray to my late night and early morning eyes with a mist in the air. Maybe from being on the Pacific Ocean where the cold water meets the land temperatures. I did a bunch of writing on my two flights -- Baltimore to Atlanta and thenn to Lima. Will post some of those later when time and a computer permits. Amor and
hasta la vista.
John
PS Our guides name is John, but he goes by John of God, Juan de dios (if my Spanish is correct)

Post #2

This is really a posting to myself to practice since I noticed the time on the first posting was done on a Pacific time zone setting. How did that happen??? Don't know! Let's see if this works better now that I messed with the settings.

HELP

i AM LEARNING TO CREATE A BLOG TO USE ON MY TRIP ON PERU. HERE WE GO!