Lima

So, we are staying in this amazing place called the Hotel Espana that has paintings and sculptures, and large plants, and animals everywhere. They have two parrots who squack at you in spanish every morning, a cute little cat, and two ancient turtles.They all run around the rooftop patio every morning. We have a cute little room with high cielings, on the roof, right by the cafe, and it is prime animal viewing.
Lima is a cool city. It is highly polluted, so much smog every car is either a bus or a cab and there are tons of them, but there are so many beautiful buildings, and such a cool/crazy energy to the place, you can't really help but like it. It feels reckless and busy, and good, but a little unbalanced. it feels good to be here for a few days though. On Monday we get on a bus to Bogota that lasts for 3 days, I THINK we get in on Thursday mid-day. Ugh. But, it starts another chapter of the trip. The tropical chapter. Until then we are on a wholly different coast. There is a low hung fog every day that is thick and brown. We are going to the beach tomorrow, Miraflores is the neighborhood, it is a little more upscale from what I have heard, and there are pyramid ruins there. We saw the beach on our way in, about an hour or 2 outside of Lima. It was crazy, grey, lonely looking, and there were so many birds. Seriously, herds and herds of birds flying low, right above the water for mile it seemed, making the water look black.
We have seen a cool art exhibit in a bank building, the Home Depot of Lima, dentist chairs in open air store fronts, set meals for around $2 (that includes soup, a main dish and a dessert or tea/coffe) etc. My bug bites are still biting, maybe the worst ones I have ever had, thanks a lot Machu Picchu! The street food is amazing here (South America) though, papas rellenos (stuffed potatoes with tons of salsas), empanadas, street meat, cakes, fruit, fresh juice, corn on the cob, etc.