Monday in Lima, or was it Rome?
The goal for our Monday in Lima was to take a gift to our Compassion International child. Though we didn’t get to visit with her, we had a great experience visiting their office and seeing the operation. We also saw some neat historic and government buildings that bore a striking resemblance to our trip to Rome.
We began the day with a trip to the Compassion International office. We have sponsored a child, Elim, for the past seven years. We have only been able to send her monetary support, pictures, coloring pages and other flat articles as gifts all of these years. However, when a Compassion sponsor visits the child’s home country, they are able to bring them a more substantial tangible gift. We really wanted to visit with Elim, but costs and time were prohibitive so we settled for delivering a gift instead. We were advised not to visit the office by the US staff but to instead mail the gift when we arrived in country. We’ve never been ones to follow these types of advice, so we struck out undaunted in an Uber to visit the office. We called the office first to make sure of the hours, and off we went to see Francesca (thankfully, she spoke English!). She gave us a nice tour, explained the work that they did there and we left with a good feeling about what our money is doing for Elim and other children in Peru.
It was off to lunch afterwards. We didn’t want anything over the top right then so we found a mall and had some Peruvian food… rice and chicken and papas huanciana. Like most of the rest of our food, it too was great!
In the afternoon, we trekked off to Plaza de Armas and the city center of Lima. Just take in these pictures below and, if you didn’t know, you’d swear you’re on the streets of Rome.
As evening approached, we headed back to our AirBNB. Hopping into an Uber (or any vehicle this time of day) proved problematic. It was not a problem to hire a driver but the problem came about a mile from the end of our trip. As we tucked into a mass of vehicles headed home in the evening commute, we crept along at the rate of about a car length every 20-30 seconds. We decided to ditch the Uber there because we could walk faster to our hotel. We were right – 10 minutes and we were back. We dumped our backpacks, washed up and went on a stroll for a little dinner and dessert. The choice – a chain called China Wok (please don’t judge) and dessert at a little place called Cafe Cafe in Miraflores. Both were just awesome!
This last picture really caught my eye. As we dined outside having dessert, this group of folks was gathered playing chess. Talk about throwback – they weren’t home watching TV or heads-down in their cell phones – they were playing a thinking-person’s game. Just reminded me that community forms in so many ways.
Our next day we depart from Lima for Cusco for our trip to Machu Picchu. More to come!
