Day 1 of confinement in Lima

    

 It’s not been a bad day at all given the situation.....  

we are in a really nice hotel - the Westin- in the financial district, which, for obvious reasons is very quiet right now.  















Here are some pictures of the Hotel and the lobby.  We are being well cared for and are being served 3 very good meals a day.  (See picture of the desert buffet). So it is hard to complain given the global situation. 

 But the lack of information about how long this will last is indeed very stressful.  The picture at the top of this blog is the view from our room - we also have a nicer side view of the mountains in the background, but I wanted to illustrate the empty roads.....

This being said, we had a nice day.  I went to the gym - which oddly remained opened today (seems like a weird place to keep open when there is worry about contamination) and used the treadmill and even did some weight lifting.  Unfortunately, they’ve realized (or were told by the government) that this is not a good idea, so the gym is closing tomorrow.

We also went to the grocery store down the street - which is an allowed activity.  

It is quiet (but there were people around) and very well stocked.  

They even have ample supplies of toilet paper (maybe we should bring some home??) .

The streets are VERY quiet, but not empty.  There are some armed soldiers, but only a few, and they did not ask any question.  Indeed, we went to the grocery store twice:  The first grocery store had a wonderful "licores" (booze) section, but would not sell it to us because they said it was "prohibido" (forbidden).  But then we went out again when we were told that the second grocery store (just across the street from the first one) had interpreted the directive differently and was selling booze.  So - all was good - I got my Chardonnay, Joe got his Jack Daniels (things were about to get tense!).

I contacted the US embassy in Lima - via email because they are not reachable by phone.  Their answer was - I’m not kidding here: “if your flight home was cancelled, please contact your airline”!!!!!!!!!  But there is some positive news on the horizon:  The government has relaxed the outbound flight rule and is now allowing charter flights to evacuate tourists.  The embassy and travel agency (and many other travel agencies for people stranded here) are working at getting a charter flight.  We are keeping our fingers crossed!

We have made the news in the US!  Which is a positive thing - because it puts pressure on the government to help.

I don’t know where the picture was taken, but it does not reflect our experience - no tanks here......