hola chicas in los estados unidos

so yesterday was another interesting day in Lima...it´s all about the food...we´re thinking of opening a Peruvian resturant when we get back. Add that to the list of new career options for Conor. The Lomo Saltado (filet mignon strips, terakyi sauce, rice, pepoper, tomatoes, and....French Fries!!) Sounds strange, but it´s awwwwesome. We finally made it to downtown Lima...a little sketch, but fairly safe. Basically Lima just seems shadier becuase it has an everlasting cloud of smog and rain over the whole city. its called a ¨garua¨(domers know this as a permacloud.) So downtown we visited La catedral de san francisco that has catacombs that we went in and saw...gross bones, skulls, dead people, and marrow. Something like 75,000 people buried there. Also saw the shanty towns from a distance. All that made us desparate for our neightborhood, Miraflores, where we walked down the cliffs to the beach, Andrew and Conor dipped their toes into the Pacific for the first time and we saw a washed up dead rat. However, we topped this off with a drink out on a pier called La Rosa Nautica...it was awesome. Then we met our Inca trail group at our new hotel accomodations..much better! Our group has 8 Irish guys that are all friends on holiday, 2 cute australian girls, and a couple from the UK. It´s an awesome group that we got to know today over lunch and our plane ride (the COOLEST we´ve ever been on..over the Andes, a dessert, you name it.) The landing in Cusco, which is basically at 12,000 ft (ie the 2 mile high city..take that Denver), was insanity...don´t know how we´re going to take off... So the altitude sickness is not a hoax...generally its disorienting, dizzy, headaches, slips of the tongue, and wobbly steps. They give you tea made from Coco leaves.....they said was perfectly legal and appropriate... it definetely helped, and numbed us right up. we´re not going to ask what´s in it. We did a little more touring around the Plaza of Cusco, and prepared for our take off tommorrow!! We stop in one village tommorrow for the night (last shower) before we hit the trail......This is going to be interesting, but definetely very very exciting, espeically with such a fun group. I´m sure we´ll be overflowing with details when we get back.

lots of love,

lindsay and conor (and andrew)

ps. its cold at night, supposed to be around 30 degrees at night...oh yeah, and go phelps!