Bus tour of Lima

Yesterday, a couple of us (Wes, the Georgetown med student; the vet tech; and myself) decided to do the touristy thing and took a double-decker bus tour of Lima. The tour started at Parque Kennedy, and before you ask, yes, it is that Kennedy. There's even a bust of him in Parque Kennedy.

Apparently, Miraflores is the sister city of Pensacola, FL. Why that means they need a bust of JFK, I have no idea, but there it is. There's also a statue of John Lennon in another part of town, so I think the Peruvians just like statues.

Anyway, driving around Lima, in Lima traffic, on the top of a double decker bus is a bit of a harrowing experience. This is definitely not the worst traffic was, but I want you to take note of the open manhole.

Although Lima is, overall, a pretty dirty city, they do have some nice architecture and whatnot. Here's a picture of what I think would roughly translate to the capitol building.

And this is the monastery San Francisco (as in, for St. Francis, not the city in California), which I think they were saying is the oldest Franciscan monastery in the Western Hemisphere. The catacombs are also located here, and for about two centuries, (1500's-1700's) they buried quite a few people here. When the catacombs were excavated, they found the remains of over 25,000 bodies.

And here's a random shot of a hill that somebody decided to paint a Peru flag on.

So that, and more shopping at the Indian Market, was my day yesterday, and today, I spent a good deal of my time at the hotel (by the pool, for a good bit), working on my presentation, which I'll be giving on Friday. I'm doing it on the roll of entomology (study of bugs) in preventive medicine, briefly discussing the history of vector-borne diseases on military populations (with a few slides dedicated to MAJ Walter Reed), the Army regulations on insect control, ongoing research projects at NMRCD-Peru, the role of bugs in the deployed setting (malaria, Leishmaniasis, and also the sleep deprivation/psychological impact of being surrounded by bugs and giant spiders... Jason, if you have any thoughts on the matter, I'd love to hear them), and directions for future research. In all, it's supposed to be a 30-45 minute talk, so we'll see how that comes along.