PUERTO DE CALLAO

Today was the first day so far that we got to sleep in. And by sleeping in, I mean 9:00. We met at the Mirabus kiosk at 10:00 for a mysterious seven hour bus ride. Once aboard the big beautiful vehicle, I was informed that we were going to Puerto de Calloa, Lima's main seaport. We made a few stops on the way. The first was to the Lima's naval museum. There we learned about the war against Chile and the importance of the Peruvian Navy. We then took a tour of a submarine. The sub was out of water so I didn't think it would be so scary...until we got inside..

There must have been at least 30 of us in there at one point and let me tell you, submarines are not very spacious. They're also not yellow (in case you didn't know). I thought the tour was going to be a quick in and out type of thing but no, it wasn't! I usually don't get seasick, but standing in a small, dark, metal box that is constantly lurching side to side for 20 minutes really takes a toll on el estomago. For some reason, the museum thought it would be a good idea to simulate what an underwater attack was like. I can safely say that dying in a submarine is probably one of the worst ways to go.

Our last stop of the day was to el Fortaleza Real Philipe, the fortress that was built to protect the port. It was exciting to walk through all the different tunnels of the fortress, although some of us did get a little lost towards the end of the visit. The architecture of the fortress was very similar to the one built in Thessaloniki, Greece. How interesting!