Feliz Navidad, Lima

Oh dahling.....don't you just love Christmas shopping??

Are you kidding?

We had to drive to Lima to retrieve our long term visas, carnets de extranjeria, so took advantage of the timing to spend time sight-seeing enroute. We visited a national reserve on the Bellista Islands and Paracas. We also stayed in Nazca and took a flight to seee the 500 year old mysterious line drawings (HUGE!) in the desert sands. These guys were having a delightfully lazy day on the Bellista Islands. There were also an amazing amount of birds...penquins, pelicans and different kinds of terns.

The Bellista Islands are called the poor man's Galapagos, well worth a visit and they ARE much cheaper than the Galapagos Islands.

We celebrated a very festive Christmas Eve in Lima with Liz and Lucho Nakagawa and various family members, including Lucho's 93 year old mother, who is a remarkable woman. We ate a huge turkey dinner between 10:00 and 11:30 p.m., followed by a midnight street party complete with fireworks.

Hmmmm.....a not so subtle statement of what is happening to Christmas?

Tired, but happy Christmas Eve participants.