We flew from Boston to Atlanta, then we flew from Atlanta to Lima, about 9 1/2 hours in the air total. We landed around 11 at night, but the airport was PACKED.

After adding a new stamp to my passport, we rolled out past security. I was told to look for Francisco in a blue shirt. Not much to go on. But there he was, waiting in the front of the line, wearing a blue shirt with the white wheelchair logo. He was there with his wife, who also works for Accessible Travel Peru, but she didn’t speak English. Because we are in Peru.

At this point I’m tired, thirsty, and ready to go to bed. I was totally ok with following this man who spoke English and Spanish as long as he could bring us to the hotel!

We followed him outside across the road to a wheelchair van - by Freddy at Vamos Por Ti, He also drive us to the airport at the end! which felt much better. Our driver was friends with Francisco, and he drove us to our hotel.

Where we stayed

We stayed at the Ibis Budget Lima Miraflores Hotel. Me and my mom got our own room, and our dad got his own. Our room had a queen bed and a small end table. It was very minimal, but when I go on vacation I don't really stay in the hotel room.

Our bathroom was a handicap bathroom, it was an ok handicap bathroom. The toilet was against the wall. There was a short grab bar next to the toilet, and they had another short bar right in front of my knees. The sink was right behind the bar. It was a roll under sink. Sorry I don't have a photo.

The shower was to my right facing the sink. The shower was technically a roll in, it had a bench that came down from the wall, the other wall was a little past my knee. There were a few grab bars, so it was doable, but I needed help.

When we checked into the hotel they also told us not to drink the tap water. We were only allowed to drink bottles of water. We brushed our teeth with bottled water. On Sunday we ate breakfast at the hotel, and then we walked around after.

Columbia Restaurant

Around lunch time this man came up to us and was talking to my dad about I don’t even know what. It turns out he was trying to get us to go to his restaurant called Columbia. It was down a cute alleyway. When we got there we were the only ones there. We had our own table. The man from the street came up and took our order. A lot of the menu was in Spanish, so instead we just told the guy to make us whatever.

He brought out a big platter of different meats, but it didn’t really look like a platter of American meats. They had a lot of sour cream mixed dips with chips. The guacamole was so good! After we ate everything, we were too full for dessert. By the time we left, the whole restaurant was full of people. After that we just made a big square around our hotel.

My sister and her husband got in later that night since their flight was delayed. That reminds me, our flight going down got delayed.

The Tour Begins

On Monday we drove in an accessible travel van. It was a big passenger bus with no ramp, but Francisco brought out two portable ramps and wheeled the two wheelchairs up.

Convent

Now, we headed for downtown Lima, and we went to the Ingreso Museo del Convento Santo Domingo. The door had steep stairs to go in, there was a group of guys that worked there who came out and carried us in the wheelchair down the steps.

The building is very old, but wherever they had steps they had a little ramp. In the main building there was a courtyard in the middle. They also had another courtyard between the buildings.

They had a mural on one of the walls of angel wings. Where a lot of people take their photos. They had built a cement ramp going up to the platform right under the wings. INCLUSIVITY!!!!!!

Along the walls of the building they had beautiful mosaic tiles. They had mannequins with the one eyed face coverings the nuns wore, and plenty of crips, then it was time to head out. The group of guys showed up to help us get up the stairs.

Pedestrian Only

We walked down a pedestrian only street that links Plaza de Armas and Plaza San Martin. We rolled in Iglesia de La Merced, which held the first Latin Mass here on this land in 1534. The church was originally built in 1541.

Restaurant

We went to lunch at Lima 141 Sangucheria and our tour guide bragged about the restaurant's fish and seafood. Then we got an option of four meals and none were fish. So I felt robbed.

Then we took group photos in front of the big block letters of L-I-M-A.

Museum

We went to this cultural museum The Museo Larco where we rolled through shelves containing 30,000 catalogued ancient artifacts. There were also rooms with older tribal wear, artwork and the Inca history in Spanish and English, and then we drove back to the hotel. It had been a long and exhausting day! Not everything was my cup of tea, but when you are on a group tour you go where they go. We ate at the hotel restaurant; I got a big bowl of vegetables. Then we went to bed.