Sunday: January 9, 2010

This morning our group went to see the historical center of Lima and China town. We took the public transportation to get to the historical center and afterwards we proceeded to walk around. The buildings here are amazing! All of the buildings that we saw had interesting architecture. When we arrived we were lucky enough to be able to see the changing of the guard at el Palacio de Gobierno, where the president stays.  We also saw the Palacio de Justicia, the Plaza San Martin, and a church. All of the historical buildings are rather big and seem to be in the French or another European power style of architecture. It's amazing how much history can be in one place. We took tons of photos and I think we all really enjoyed seeing the historical buildings.

Later in the day we went to China town (barrio chino) and shopped a little and had lunch. Though Chinatown isn't as beautiful as the rest of Peru, everything was very inexpensive. It was very similar to a mall, being inside one building with lots of little stores selling different things. Though it was busy it wasn't impossible to get help and reach what you wanted. After walking so much all of us were ready to rest and were slightly hungry so we went to lunch at a chifa called San Joy Lao. A chifa is the word they use for a Chinese restaurant in Peru, except the food is a mixture of Peruvian culture and Chinese culture. We were able to get a table rather quickly, which was good because later when we left, there was a big line at the door. They brought out lots of food and put it on a Lazy Susan in the middle so that we could all try everything. It was all delicious, though very similar to Chinese food in Texas. While we were there it was someone's birthday and it was really fun to hear happy birthday sung in Chinese. After we finished lunch and had relaxed some we proceeded to leave and go to the catacombs.

I think we all had a really good time seeing the historical part of Lima and Chinatown while in Peru, though the two places were very different from each other they were both very interesting and unique to Peru.

-DB