Back in 2005 I went to Peru with a few friends from NY. We spent 2 weeks there and visited Lima, Arequipa and Cusco. We got to see condors, alpacas, some of the biggest canyons in the world and visit ancient ruins. We had friends from NY, California and Italy joining us on probably the most fun adventure I have ever been on.

I took a flight from Orlando to Miami earlier in the day. I met up with Rita, her mother and Rita's boyfriend Josh, who were all flying in from NY. We all took the same flight from Miami to Lima, Peru, which lasted about 5 hours.

When we arrived in Lima, it was already dark. Rita's mom, who is originally from Peru, went onto stay with her family. The rest of us had a taxi waiting for us at the airport and the ride to our hotel was about 30 minutes and only cost us 10 Soles. 1 Sole was equal to about 3.20 US$. We soon found out that about everything we bought was about 1/3 cheaper here, than in the states and some stuff was even cheaper.

We stayed at the Hotel Espana, which I thought was really a hostel. The hotel had replicas of famous painting and sculptures throughout. The 3 of us shared a room.

The next day we ate breakfast in the hotel for a small price and then met up with some of Rita's family in the main square near the hotel, that was actually in front of the presidential palace. We all had some Chinese food for lunch and then went to a walmart type of store, where I bought some more water and rubbing alcohol to disinfect my toothbrush, since I heard the water wasn't safe. Rita was looking for a hair dryer, since she forgot hers and women must have their hair dryers.

Later that night at the hostel, Josh's friend Andrea came in  from Italy, with his friend Francesca and we all stayed in the same room.

Here's some pictures from Lima where we spent  2 days. Make sure to view the other entries below for the rest of my trip to Peru and even more pictures you won't want to miss.