Running around the world #2- Peru

[SOMbands]

These blog posts will not be in chronological order, I am just writing when memories come up of amazing runs I have done at places all around the globe!

One of my most memorable runs was just last January in Lima, Peru.
My husband, mom and I had taken 7 weeks off to explore South America and were
staying in a beautiful hotel hotel near the square that held all of the main
governmental buildings: president's house, parliament house, etc.

We woke up early and headed out for our run around the square to check out the
beautiful Spanish architecture of the governmental buildings. We had started to
circle the complex and noticed many armed guards stationed outside of the fence
line surrounding the complex. Every 20 feet or so there was a guard, not so
unusual but the machine guns around their shoulders was a little disconcerting
to us.

We continued running down a road behind the president’s house which we could
see opened up to a beautiful view of the surrounding city. As we ran further
down the road, we noticed a huge tank with soldiers surrounding it, again,
armed with machine guns. It didn't appear that the road was blocked to regular
old pedestrians so we continued on, a little afraid what we looked like to
these soldiers. There was nobody else out for a run; in fact as the trip
progressed we were hard pressed to find any other people running for leisure
wherever we went.
I kept thinking, "I wonder if they think we are some kind of crazy foreign
spies running around trying to find a way into the president’s house!”

We ran right by the tank without incident although we did earn a few quizzical
looks from the soldiers. The view of the city was worth it though.
Multi colored houses layered the hillsides; each appeared to be built on top of
the other, streets winding through the mass of buildings seemingly straight up
the surrounding hills.

We made it back without incident but not without several locals muttering, “loco gringos” as we ran by.

To read about my South American adventure, check out my blog: www.jonesadventureblog.blogspot.com