Hi Everyone

(Silvena) We both thought Peru will most certainly be the most difficult part of our trip. And it probably will be but i have to admist that our first impressions of Peru are great and we are both absolutely captured by this country from being here just 24 hours. The airport in Lima is a modern and seemingly very peaceful and pleasant airport. We read in our book that check in is chaotic but we never experienced any chaos. In fact the lady which was checking us in turned out to be from Ukraine (married to a Peruvian) and we had a very good first chat. Later this same afternoon while wondering around the shops at the departure lounge, one of the shop keepers told us she had been a tour guide for 4 years and she really misses it and it was obvious she did since for about half an hour she was giving us advice as to where to go and what to see while in Peru. In general the people in Peru are impressively warm. Our waiter in the restaurant last night (while both me and Michal could hardly move from exhaustion at around midnight) had the biggest most radiant smile on his face and offered us impecable service without any expectation of a tip as this is not a custom here (of course he earned his :). Today we just got aquainted with Arequipa ( a city in the southern part of Peru), strolled forever the little streets, nooks and corners of one Monastery with a very interesting history of being totally isolated from the outside world for close to 400 years before being open to the public just about 20 years ago. On many walls (brightly painted and decorated with beautifully arranged flowers) there was a sigh SILENCIO but the whole place somehow naturally made you be silent and not interrupt its peacefulness. Going back in time to discover more about the Inca civilization which once florished here, we visitied a museum where a frozen figure of a young Inca child is kept (which was found high up on one of the mountains), made as an offering to the gods. The museum itself gives you goose bumps and seeing this frozen girl though the glass in a small container, really made us wonder about the ways of these once powerful people. We are on our way to discover more soon contiuing our journey in Peru.

Oh, and i should not forget to report that we finally managed to make MichalЄs dream come true - we bought for him a local Peruvain instrument which looks like a small guitar and but has more strings, from a local musician on the street who produces them in his house. He was kind enough to give him a first lesson of how to play this instrument and Michal is right now immersed in his trainings in our room :)

All from us from today. Cheers!
S