Last night I was too exhausted to write about the day. We arrived in Callao, Peru, the largest port on the western side of South America, at 10:00 AM yesterday morning. Our cruise ship was surrounded by cargo ships with many more anchored out to sea. We assumed they were waiting to be loaded. The empty one next to us was loaded all day yesterday and pulled out this morning. This large shipping center is one of the few ports where we stay overnight. We are probably loading lots of things before we leave this evening. I am playing hooky from Road Scholar’s trip today. They are going swimming with the sea lions, and I don’t swim that well.

Yesterday, we took a 40 minute trip into the capital city, Lima. All these SouthAmerican cities seem to have a town square. Lima’s was beautiful with the cathedral on one side, the presidential palace on the right side, and two restored examples of colonial architecture on the other two sides. Inside the cathedral we visited the tomb of Pizarro. Our guide seemed to have mixed emotions about memorializing the conquistador. After a walk through the old town, we had a typical Peruvian lunch with potatoes cooked three different days. Apparently, they have over a hundred varieties of potatoes!

In the afternoon we visited the catacombs of a Franciscan church. I have posted the photo of the outside, but photos were not permitted inside. Suffice it to say we saw a lot of ancient human bones, at least the large, sturdy ones. They used to bury the poor people for a few years. Then they took them up and put the remaining bones in deep wells that had been dug to help protect the church from earthquakes. The guide explained that most of the structures had suffered damage from earthquakes and what we saw were restorations. Back at the port we saw some beautiful alpaca wool articles for sale by vendors who sat up tents on the docks. Tomorrow is a day at sea. I understand we get the Super Bowl on the main stage.