Christmas – 2018 Peru

Mum came over in the beginning of December. A long flight so she didn’t feel to good the first day.

We took walks around La Punta. Sunny but not hot. Went to see the big fort, Fort San Lorenzo, built by the Spanish. We also tried to go and see the submarine museum but the waives were to big so closed.

We also chilled on the beach. Not the most comfortable as it’s stones, the water freezing but good for people watching.

Back in to Lima old town to show Mommi( grandma) the catacombs, old colonial buildings and lunching out. Kids kicked off a little as we had seen all this before…

But what we hadn’t seen was Huaca Pucllana, another archeological site but built well before the Incas.

And the mummies they foundI then booked us to go to Chincha, about 3h from Lima. Heard about the slave tunnels….

When we got there it was HOT! Took a mototaxi to the hotel and it was really funny watch Mommi in one of those

Went for a walkNext day we took a taxi it Hacienda San Jose. A big beautiful place with a very dark secret. It was a sugar plantation in the 1600 with 87 slaves. Sugarcane produced two of the sweetest and most valued products in those days…..sugar and honey.

Later, in the 1800 it had up to 1000 slaves. Brought in to the hacienda through these dark and narrow tunnels all the way from the coast, tunnels around 30km long. You had to pay tax on each slave so if you got them to your plantation in the dark, nobody really knew how many slaves there were. And if the taxman came and checked, the owner through them down the tunnel again, into the dark….

When we walked a small portion of it, it was chilly, dark and very dusty. One could just imagine how scared they were. Not knowing where they were or where they were going. It was a brutal life, just for stealing you got 20 lashes and if you managed to escape and got caught, 100 lashes….

The middle tool was used to mark the slaves out. Like cattle, with a mark on they skin…Some stunning furnitureAnd as always, they make them selves home anywhere!

It was a short trip. Before we knew it we were back in cloudy Lima.

From one thing to another, we belong to trusted house sitters. Great way to travel to different countries and we had a 3 month one in Calgary , Canada and couple of short ones in Panama City, Panama. Not always easy to secure a sits with kids but now we got the biggest surprise!

Got a message through ASKING US to sit! Wow, what a surprise. Two dogs and a cat over Christmas for a month, here in Lima.

We met up and she was happy for us to do it. So now we had roof over our head for Christmas so to say. Very happy.

So we prepared and packed and on the 16.12 we moved to Surco, Lima.Great to have the place and great to have the animals as it got us all out for walks and horsing around parks.

Christmas was a bit unusual as all the presents and other boat stuff was coming from States but we miscalculated the arrival date. The container arrived in Callao on the 24.12 and of course there is no way to get to it. So had to come up with a story that there was not enough snow in Lapland so Santa put our presents on the ship and hey, it’s here but can’t get to it. Now we thought we could get to it in couple of days but this is where customs are shitty again.

Can’t take this and that out unless you pay 25% tax on the value of the item. Don’t think so. They got so much money out of us so we are not paying a penny more to them. Well then the goods stays in the container until you leave …..

This country is paranoid and difficult beyond believe. So the Christmas presents are not going to be available until end of January.

So a bit of a lean Christmas…..