San Francisco Church (Tuesday)

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 Hey Everybody,

This is what we did Tuesday. We went down the street from our house to the San Francisco church (pic 1). We when there. There is a lot to tell about this place, but first i have to tell you about the little man who was our guide. He is the cutest little old man (pic 2&3) and he gave the best tour and knows so much.

So now about the church. It was built by the Spaniards who came to Peru. The building is built from stones made by the Incas. The Spaniards paid the Incas for the stones that they laid, this is why all over the floor are these makings that are the names of the Incans who laid them. The Incas didn't know how to write so the just made symbols but there was one Incan who did and he carved his name "Lorenzo" in his stones. Our Guide also told us about when the Spaniards came over they were converting the Incas, this means that most of the churches here are built on the sacred grounds of the Incas but was destroyed to make the Church. This is also why the Jesus on the cross here sometimes wear skirts because the Incas were trying to relate to the new religion.. You can see it everywhere in the church Jesus wearing a skirt.

In this museum we also saw the phenomenon where one person stands in the corner and the other in the opposite and if they whisper it can be heard like the person was standing right next to you. It was amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This Church was filled with some of the most beautiful religious art work and also the biggest oil painting in South America (pic 4). This picture is the original  9X20 meters in total it has hundreds of faces. It is a family tree of the Franciscan family. It took the painters family 10 years to paint it him and his son finished it after he died.

There isn't enough great things to say about the church, all the intricate details that went in to all the ceiling tiles that were made by ceder trees that used to cover Cusco and now are not here and in all the churches.

Rose

Cuzco

Hey Everyone,

We got to Cuzco yesterday at about noon from riding a bus on a windy road for 14 hours. Not much fun.
But on a brighter note we went up in a tiny airplane to look at the Nazca lines. This is just a picture from the internet because we are at an internet cafe. The wifi at Hotel  Frankenstein is down.
We started school this morning and I like my teacher the other girl in my class is 17 she is from oklahoma and in Cuzco alone . My teachers name is Magda and she is very nice. Tomorrow we aree going to the market.
Nothing super exciting has happened yet... but I´ll keep you posted when I can.

Love Rose

Lima Art Museum

Italian Art Museum that we visited

Downtown Lima traffic is crazy to newcomers!

Lima has a lot of beautiful old buildings downtown and we are enjoying the architecture.  We spent the morning walking around more of downtown Lima.  Protests continue with lots of police presence.  The people here have been very nice and respectful.  Rose is glad she brought Lissy's big coat, because it sure is cold here.  It may be 70, but with the humidity...it feels more like 50.  Just like every other country we've been to, we spend a lot of time waiting and a lot of time waiting in lines.  We are in Pisco tonight waiting to go on some tours tomorrow.  We are staying in the hotel at the bus station because we are tired of walking.   So far we have had two Peruvians mention to us that it is our independence day today...how's that for being educated!  Happy Birthday Nate!
-Michele

Houston We Have A Problem

Houston we have a problem… your airport is disgusting. But other than Houston’s airport our trip went fine. Our first flight was at 10:02 (don’t forget the 2 minutes) from Denver to Houston that was only about a 3 hr flight. Then at 3:50pm we got on the plane from Houston to Lima which was 5 hrs and 56min. YAH FLYING!!!!!!!!! But the second flight was so cool it has I-pads in the headrests!!!! It was sweeeeeeet!!!!!!

           

Then we got to the Hotel Espana at 12:30, it is amazing they have artwork every where. This morning we went up to the 3^rd floor and had breakfast, mom almost stepped on a turtle and then we started looking around and saw a boy and a girl peacock and 2 parrots that are very loud. We went up to the 4^th floor to see the baby turtle but we couldn't find him. All in all it was a good first day! :)

~Rosie

Plaza de Armas - Lima, Peru

 

Today was our first day sightseeing in Lima, the capital.  Downtown was very interesting today.  When we got close to the Plaza de Armas (only a block from our hotel) there were lines of police with their clear plexiglass riot gear in hand blocking the street.  They had the whole city main square closed down because they were having some kind of protest which we could hear once we were in the square.  They gladly let us in, but there were hundreds of police in the square milling around looking a little tense.  The square was closed to traffic, and they weren't letting anyone hang around so there were just a few tourists, locals and tons of police because they wouldn't let anyone else in.  We toured two churches (one of which had catacombs underneath with the bones from 25,000 people all organized in pits by bone type and the other had the bones of Saint Rose in it!) and went to the central market.  We also toured a museum about food in Perú. We also watched the changing of the guard in front of the National Palace. All in all, my feet are tired.  Tomorrow we are going to spend the morning in Lima and head to Pisco to go to Las Islas Ballestras (called the poor man's Galapagos Islands).                  -Michele