Bikes are Sold, Backpacks are Bought...a Transitional Period in the Slingshot South

From Bikers to Backpackers....That´s my theme for tonight´s blogpost. It´s been a little while since we´ve posted anything here so I hope you haven´t lost total interest. We´ve been hanging out here in Lima both having a ton of fun and getting all the logistics out of the way with the bikes and gear. So we sold both of the bikes, sent all the rest of the gear home, bought some backpacks, and are ready for our flight down to Santiago, Chile to meet Maria and Kathryn tomorrow night. From there we´ll bus into Mendoza, Argentina´s wine country, and eventually over to Buenos Aires which we´re really looking forward to. I think Kyle might add some thoughts here so Ill stick to the captions below so Ill leave the rest to him....Clay.

Here´s Rafa, short for Rafael. Now that we´ve been at "The Point" Hostel in Lima for 8 days we´re kinda becoming regulars. Rafa here is one our new buddies. Rafa is Ecuadorian, and in addition to touring all of South America in his diesel Mercedes G-Wagon, he found time get his degree at a French Culinary school here in Lima. Rafa´s the man for sure. Not only is he a party animal, he makes the best Stuffed Chicken Marsala I´ve ever seen, because you know I´ve seen a lot of Chicken Marsala dishes in my day. Actually this was the first time I´ve had it but it was damn good.

We went to a big Futbol match between Lima´s team, El Universitario, and the Paraguayan National team. The people are so passionate about soccer here it´s crazy. Luckily the "U" won that night and we made it out safely, I wouldn´t want to see what happens when they lose...

Here´s the guy that bought Kyle´s bike, pretty happy camper.

Ok here´s the guy that actually bought the bike, he was really happy. They don´t have many proper sized bikes down here, mostly just little China Bikes. Doesn´t Kyle look like he wants to cry??? Can´t blame him, it was hard to see the bikes go but it definitely turned out to be the best thing for us. I almost sent mine in a flaming ball off the cliff until Janet M. reprimanded me ;) Just kidding Janet...you were right!!!

They threw an "80´s/Hippie/put on whatever stupid clothes you have and come spend money at our bar" party at our hostel. It was a lot of fun. In the middle is our rather tall new friend Martijn from the Netherlands. Martin is another one of our great new international friends we´ve made while traveling, prety cool guy.

Kyle´s birthday was last Sunday. The people at the hostel got him a cake, pretty cool. The workers at the hostel spelt his name wrong but judging how they can barely even pronounce our "funny American names" I´m impressed they even came close.

Man that´s hideous huh??? That stupid sirt was so tight I couldn´t breathe.

We went to a couple musems in Central Lima today. This one had all these crazy torture chambers where they used to tortured prisoners in all sorts of creative ways. Fun stuff

Town Sqare in Central Lima, the equivalent of our White House where the Peruvian President lives is directly behind the square.

This museum was an old Catholic Monastery that doubled as a burial groud underneath the Church. There are thousands of skulls and bones still there that have been excavated after being buried for all those years. Pretty creepy...

That´s all for now. Maybe we´ll have some guest posters on the blog soon as 2 turns to 4 in couple days for the Sling Shot South....