Hello, my folks! 

I woke up feeling great and opened the curtains to observe people walking around. We had breakfast that tasted similar to yesterday's. The bread makes my inner child so happy because they serve crustless bread. When I was a little kid, I hated bread crust because it always felt like it was in the way of me enjoying my bread. After eating the bread, my inner child's frustration was instantly gone. 

Anyways, we hopped in the van and headed to Old Lima City. The first thing we visited was the statue in the heart of Lima. The statue resembled Jose de San Martin; he founded Peru and established the old city. The Spanish tried to conquer Peruvian land, but Jose de San Martin fought hard to keep Lima away from Spanish control. The purpose of establishing the statue in the heart/middle of Lima is to show that he is one of the most important men in Peruvian history. Then, we walked through Union Street and vee-vee how diverse the buildings were. Some buildings were newer and modernized, while others were old and original. The Spanish made the original buildings. 

After Union Street, we stopped by the Iglesia de La Merced church. This church is unique because of its black architecture in the front and its honorary figure on the inside. The church was designed to promote Catholicism in Peru and forcefully convert the Inca. While taking photos, we noticed a cat sitting inside an honorary figure. Our focus shifted from the figure to how adorable this cat was! We continued our trek through the Union and saw a "LIMA" sign. We took group pictures with the sign, and our tour guide explained that the location was formerly a statue of Francisco Pizarro. The statue was removed recently and replaced with a LIMA sign due to his history of executing several people. 

We also noticed a small coffee cafe nearby, and many of us wanted to stop by. Peru's coffee is well known for its delicious taste. The coffee is actually quite interesting because they use coffee beans from an animal's poop. The animal is called a Kopi, and its digestive process makes coffee taste much better. Malinda, Kaelyn, Lani, Melanie, and Kristen did try the coffee and said it tasted super smooth and delicious. After that, we went to the museum (San Francisco Church) and waited in line for a short time; then, I became sick. Therefore, I'll let my classmates finish writing about the rest of the day. 

-Jami

We entered the museum with a guide provided by the museum and grouped up with more. The guide couldn't sign, so he tried his best to gesture what he said. I appreciated that guide very much, as he would take his time and ensure we could understand. That type of commitment from a foreign place is very rare. Pedro (our deaf guide) could lip-read, so he translated the details as best he could. 

We got to see where the priests preach and eat. It was so cool to see so many artworks. Almost all artworks, such as Jesus, are Catholic-related. The best part of the whole museum was seeing the catacombs. There are around 70,000 people's bones are being preserved in the basement. It looked like a tunnel, and the roof was low. Some people had to duck their heads. We saw many bones, most of which were leg bones or skulls. It wasn't just a single tunnel but a room leading to another one. The bones are from the priests or nuns that live in the church. The tunnel took the longest to look around and was the last thing to see in the museum. We took the bus to drop Jami and Kristen off at the hotel because Jami didn't feel good. We wish they could be with us for the rest of the day, but that's fine. After the drop, we went to Manolo for lunch. We ordered the sandwich, and it was so good. The sandwiches fuel us well, but of course, we have little space for dessert. Manolo has delicious churros. We brought vanilla and chocolate churros, and it was so perfect. At the same time, you could taste a little coffee in the chocolate version.

We walked to "Love Park." It was such a nice walk because we were next to the beach. It was so beautiful; we were standing on the coast, where the beaches are right there. We took many pictures. The colorful flowers are everywhere in Love Park. Love Park is the perfect place for couples to spend time together and watch the beautiful sunset/sunrise on the beach. There's one big statue in Love Park; the statue is a man and woman cuddling and kissing. It's about 10 times of Sean Moore's height. If you'd like to know what is so fantastic about the statue, once a year, on February 14, many people get married for free at that statue. The weather was so nice, very cool.

Then, we walked to Kennedy Park. John F. Kennedy, a former President of the U.S.A., encouraged Peru not to join communism. Peru established Kennedy Park in 1963 to honor JFK for his encouragement. We saw one small booth that sells Picarones. Picarones are sweet potatoes mixed with flour that become dough, then fried to become "donuts" and drizzled with some honey. We cheered together, then tried it at the same time. It's good, and it tastes almost like fried bread. After that, we walked to the hotel to work on the blogs and vlogs for about 2 hours. We ate dinner at the hotel, and it was good. We are exhausted from today and need an amazing night of sleep before a super early flight tomorrow. 

Good night, 

Bye, folks: Kaelyn, Malinda, and Melanie