John's dream fulfilled!

About 30 years ago John started translating some of the diaries of Torres' voyage from South America to the Philippines (via Vanuatu and Torres Strait) from the original Spanish into English. The San Pedro y San Pablo, the San Pedro and the Los Tres Reyes sailed from Callao, near Lima in Peru, in December 1605. The day before the expedition left, captains Torres, Quiros (who returned to Mexico from Vanuatu) and Cermano travelled from Callao to Lima to visit the Viceroy in his palace, and two monasteries, from where the Franciscan monks who travelled with them, had come.
Yesterday we visited all of these places, spending several hours looking around these historic buildings ... and John was on Cloud Nine!
In addition, we visited the main cathedral, where we saw the casket containing the bones of Francisco Pisarro, the conqueror of the Incas ... we were almost as happy as Ketty, one of our stewards, who comes from Lima, and was able to show her parents and daughters the ship where she works ... it was a wonderful day!
Other people bought alpaca items, silverware, Indian handicraft - sorry everyone ... we're bringing home memories instead, as we ran out of time to shop.
However, we ARE thinking of everyone at home, especially with Cyclone Hamish bearing down - we hope that everyone remains safe ... and dry. We're with you in spirit, if that helps any.
We're nearly back to the Equator - the cruise is running out fast ... people have returned to normal after the events of the last few days - this is a great way to travel.