Peru

We made it to Peru! From Guayaquil, Ecuador we took a bus to a little beach town in the north of Peru, called Mancora. We stayed there for two nights. It was hot and somewhat miserable. The best part was the ceviche. My new favorite dish! We then took an 18 hour(!) night bus to Lima. It actually wasn´t that bad. We are getting used to watching movies in Spanish!
In Lima, we saw beautiful churches, and an old monastery called San Fransisco. It had an amazing collection of old religious artwork. It was also used as a catacomb. Our guide took us to the basement area where we saw all the bones! Back then they used lime juice to help decompose the bodies so only major bones including skulls remained. Even in the beautiful church, you could look down and see secret passages with stairs leading down and more bones. It was interesting and eerie.
We decided no more buses for a few days, so after staying in Lima for a night, we flew to Cuzco this morning. It is much cooler and beautiful! Lots of rolling hills surrounding us. And there is a lot to do here as well. It is very touristic because of course, Machu Picchu is close. We tried to book a tour to hike the Inca Trail today, but unfortunately it is booked until next week and we don´t have that much time. He added that it is the worst time to go because it is the rainy season and it rains at least two hours everyday. So we will take the train up early Monday morning and get there before all the hikers. We are very excited and hoping for a clear day to see the ancient ruins!
Take care everyone. Hopefully we will have some cool photos to post soon.