Tonight is the end of a great year, but also the end to our fantastic Ecuador and Peru journey. Tomorrow we will pack our bags and head back home and back to our everyday lives. It has been a fantastic journey, but it's not quite over yet. We have our farewell dinner waiting for us at La Tiendecita Blanca Restaurant in the beautiful Mira Florez Community of Lima.
Yellow is the color for good luck in Peru, so we adorned ourselves in yellow and headed out for the evening. Michelle was kind enough to get enough yellow for everyone to enjoy a happy New Years Eve dinner.
Half the fun was getting them untangled.
As with many of the dinners on this trip, we had pre-selected what we wanted to eat, so the meals were ready when we got there and the service was so easy.
We enjoyed our appetizers.
And shared a lot of toasts and memories!
Lei brought a special treat to share with the group.
Then we enjoyed our dinners over drinks and laughter.
It was a touching farewell dinner in a beautiful restaurant among great friends. It is always so hard to say goodbye, but we have so many memories to take home with us, and there is still one memory left...so stay tuned.
We left the hotel this morning after breakfast and some shopping near the hotel, and "enjoyed" lunch in the airport waiting for our flight to Lima. Lima will be our last stop on this crazy adventure.
We spent our afternoon enjoying the sights of Lima. Lima has been in an economic downturn for the last 16 or 17 years and is just starting to rebound from it. Because of this, there are a lot of buildings in disrepair, just waiting for someone to purchase them and love them.
We visited Plaza El Martine and Independence Square, two very scenic sights in the city.
Despite the need for some repairs here and there, Lima is a very vibrant city with lots of people and street performers.
And much of the city is quite beautiful!
The courtyard of this beautiful house had inlays of llama bone among the stone making geometric designs.
This church was built in 1682 and has been under restoration since 1974.
There are a lot of human remains in the catacombs of this church. Until 1832 the only cemeteries in Lima were in the churches. Eventually they ran out of space and eventually had to build more cemeteries.
The old train station is now a library. It can't be torn down because it is protected by UNESCO.
This is the house of the president.
House of the Mayor of Lima.
Home of the Cardinal. Advertising the upcoming visit of the Pope to Lima.
This guy was an information volunteer, and he was great. He loved telling jokes and practicing his English.
Since this is our last day of this journey, we decided to take a group photo. And can you believe, we were photobombed by the Pope (right next to Steve).
This used to be the post office, but it is now a cooking school. Again, protected by UNESCO.
The lions mouth used to be the mail drop.
After our city tour we checked in to the hotel and enjoyed a complimentary drink.
We are back at the Costa Del Sol Hotel. This time we had a suite instead of a standard room.
We had beautiful views of the city from our room.
Tonight is New Years Eve, we we are very excited to celebrate in this beautiful City of Lima!
