In Lima

Greetings from Lima!  This post comes with a disclaimer.  Moyra and I just started taking our high altitude meds and we are feeling pretty buzzy!  Currently we are sitting in our room in our hostal both on our computers.  It took me about an hour to figure out how to write a new post....something that should have been very easy.  My computer wants everything to be in Spanish.  Apparently it knows we are in Lima.
The journey yesterday took about 20 hours.  Moyra and I had different flights through different cities.  I went from Portland to Phoenix to Mexico City.  In Mexico City I had to retrieve my suitcase, clear customs, check my bag again, find the train to another terminal, use a kiosk to get my boarding pass since they could not do it in Portland (of course at that point there were only 3 middle seats available), went through security AGAIN, and finally caught my flight which was never announced in English or Spanish. AS it turned out there was only one other person in my row and he moved to a window seat so I had the row to myself...so nice.  Once in Lima I cleared customs again and went to find Moyra.  When I exited the customs area there was a sea of people many holding up signs for various hostals.  I was looking for Moyra not the sign.  After about 15 min. I started looking for the sign and found a nice man holding a sign with Moyra's name but no Moyra.  He checked on her flight, found out it was late.  Eventually she arrived and he took us to a taxi.  The driver put most of our stuff in the back and advised me to put my little bag between my legs on the floor.  Apparently it is not uncommon for people to smash the windows at red lights and take stuff.  Sure enough at one of the first lights there appears a man at my window.  He only knocked at the window and the driver said he just wanted money although he was clearly looking to see if I was holding anything.  Later another car approached us and the driver made a sign which freaked us out.  We got here just fine but things were feeling a bit sketchy at 1:00 in the morning.  Our hostal is very cute, we have our own bathroom.  Breakfast is included. We had rolls, jam, coffee, tea, and they brought ham and cheese.  There was a bowl of coca leaves next to the tea.  Many people use the coca to help with altitude sickness.  We are just taking the pills instead.  Tomorrow morning we leave for Cusco and a huge festival that brings people from all over the world.  I'll keep you posted!  Carrie