The next week or so entailed flying from Arequipa to Lima, spending a couple days there, and then flying from Lima back to Santiago - city of Taco Bell signs but NO Taco Bell. I´m still bitter about that. I was happy that my flight to Lima was scheduled for the morning of Election Day in the U.S., so I could go to the U.S. Embassy in Lima and hopefully cast my vote. I met a guy from Arizona that said it was possible to fill all the necessary forms out and vote the same day. I was a little skeptical, but it was worth a shot. Unfortunately, my flight was delayed from 8 am until 5 pm, so that was the end of that plan.

I have heard pretty unflattering things about Lima from fellow travelers, so I was not expecting much. I was asking the cab driver if it was safe in Lima and he said "yeah, its fine!" He said this literally as he was leaning over to lock the car door as we were driving. I wasn´t convinced. The part of the city we drove through from the airport to downtown was really sketchy looking - burnt out buildings, trash everywhere, no lights. It was a little worrying, but when we got to the part of the city that my hotel was in, it seemed a lot better. Still, I checked in and just stayed in my room for the evening, watching the election results unfold. Now THAT was scary!

The next morning, I took a tour of the city, with a guide named Pablo. We walked around to the different plazas, cathedrals, and a few of the other shopping and restaurant districts downtown. Maybe it was because I had really low expectations of Lima, but I was very impressed! It didn´t seem nearly as scary as it had driving in the night before. Turns out, restoration of Lima began in 1999 and is continuing today. Ahhh, that explains it. Most of the people I know that were scaring me about Lima were there around 1999 or prior. Pablo and I spent the morning walking around the city, and visited a church that had an underground cemetary where the spaniards buried many of the locals. For the afternoon, we hung out with his friend Mauricio. It was a funny tour. It started out as a normal tour of the city- he explained the history of the different plazas and the restoration of the buildings, normal tour stuff. But as the day wore on, it became more like just friends hanging out, rather than a tour. We met Mauricio and went to eat, wandered in and out of some of the shops in Lima, and window shopping. It was like being with my girl friends back home again... kind of. It was a nice day though, better than I was expecting of Lima.

The next morning, the city hopping continued. I flew back to Santiago, Chile, where I am now. I have a few more days here to regroup (i.e. do laundry, buy ANOTHER Lonely Planet) until I begin traveling south through Chile and Argentina!