Now for mom's perspective...hi everyone, Marci here. I'll share a few thoughts although the girls are capturing the experience quite well. Lima was the surprise city of the trip for me so far. I didn't know what to expect but I thought it would be more like the other South American cities I've seen. This had a very modern, metropolitan feel. Many of the American chain restaurants have made their way here, including chilis, pink berry, TGIF's, KFC, McDonald's and of course, Starbucks. Traffic was crazy, even when we landed at 11:30 at night. Apparently in Lima, a red light is merely a suggestion to stop. Horns are blasting like crazy. They love to honk for no apparent reason. We stayed at a really lovely hotel called the country club in the residential neighborhood of San ysidro. Five star and really luxurious. Never mind that we couldn't get the toilets to flush. More on that later. We had a city tour and saw the beach boardwalk, the old part of town and even found ourselves in the middle of a huge parade of competing schools. I loved it! You know how i love a good competition! The weather has been cooler than we expected. Great traveling weather for us dollingers but not so great for shayna, who left he jacket she planned to pack at home. Thankfully, Marc brought two and loaned her his fleece. For a girl who never gets cold, she finally admitted to being cold. I see a new alpaca sweater in her future! Luckily, we were prewarnend about the bathroom situation here in Peru. Hence the wad of Kleenex in my purse. Apparently they do not believe in toilet seats here so we have been doing a lot of squatting. And oh yes, you may not deposit the tp into the toilet, only in the trash can next to the toilet. Eww! I will never take my potty at home for granted again. Off to pack for our two day adventure to Machu pichu. Sending love, Marci