Leaving Peru

I don't know or don't remember how this came up but, when we were at my friend Loren's wedding, his friend Catherine's husband leaned in and told Kiah and I "Lima reminds me or Iraq." Kiah and I turned to each other and before we could say anything in response, we were interrupted by the festivities of the evening. Kiah and I talked about it later. Lima reminded him of Iraq? That's pretty bad. Lima, at least the part that Kiah and I were in, does not have any charm to speak of. To be fair, we hadn't ventured far since we were only in Lima for the wedding but still, the part we did see, was not anything that subdued us into leaving Lima with a good impression. 

Our last night we spent in Miraflores, the upper class area of Lima. They had named brand hotels, American restaurants,  tourists and the beach. It was beautiful and totally was the exact opposite of the first couple days of Lima. Our hostel was very party esque and down the street from a drive thru Starbucks. We spent the last day walking around, shopping and eating typical Peru food that we hadn't gotten earlier in the trip. I finally got my ceviche. Yum. And my papas salchichas from a specialty restaurant that only had various flavors of papas salchichas.  Felt like a little kid again. 

As with any big metropolitan town you imagine some sort of public transportation. The buses in Peru are large vans that have general street or suburb names listed on the side of the van but you don't know exactly where that van is heading until someone hops out of the van while it is still in motion and shouts where the bus will be off to next. In reading blogs and books about Peru, everything recommended taking taxis....I stand by that fact. 

When we first arrived in Lima, we saw tons of dogs. The only thing that all the cities we have visited have in common is that there are TONS of stray dogs that roam the streets. Although, sometimes it was hard to tell if they were stray or loose but regardless, each city had dog, after dog just walking around the city. In one city, Kiah turned to me and said "this country has the most dogs I have ever seen. And I've never seen half of these breeds before." The dogs aren't rabid, they aren't vicious, they don't beg, they were just there....in the background of all of these cities. They all looked well fed and would casually just meander around the town or watch you as you walked by. 

However, walking around Miraflores we didn't see ANY dogs. We saw only cats. We found where all the cats live. Of course they lived in the posh area of town. They invaded the parks, streets and stores. The opposite of the rest of Peru. It was so weird. 

All in all it was such a whirl wind trip that when we tell people I get tired trying to remember what we did. Each day wad a different adventure and I'm glad Kiah and I had the samr attitude-"go big or go home"

“A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving."- Lao Tzu

Currently, Kiah and I sit in a Peruvian Chinese restaurant, alone....in a corner....sitting around empty tables that are set up for a wedding. 

We arrived this afternoon and went through customs with no problems. Our biggest problem was finding our driver. Yes, you read that correctly. We had a driver. My friend Loren and Kathy could not meet us at the airport so they hired a driver for us. He drove us for about half an hour and stopped outside the gate of a military base. He then proceeded inside after he got the ok and dropped us off. So I had an idea that we were staying in a military area from Loren but I had no idea that we were actually staying on a military base or military protected area.  I turned to Kiah and said "now you can tell your mom that you are staying at the safest place possible-a military base." 

It's only been a few hours but between my Spanish listening and understanding experience of more everyday conversation Spanish and Kiah speaking more of it in class in a formal setting, we make quite the Spanish traveling duo. I understand and she speaks and we are both quite happy with that. 

The flight was not the worst I've been on but not the best. We had at least 8 little kids on our flight. The ones that we thought would be the worst, did not sit near us and were relatively quiet. We were lucky to sit near these cute little girls. But one little girl did not stay quiet long and cried, CRIED throughout part of the flight. She always cried when I was in the middle of what seemed like one of my REM cycles. I could hear it through my headphones. And it wasn't just like a "I'm scared and crying" but it was "I'm scared and going to cry so much I choke and that will make me cry harder cry." And I sat next to an older man who did not understand "you only pay for one seat." He kept intruding on my space, and particularly elbowing me while I was trying to sleep. He also had the wonderful habit of biting his nails but his nails were so short that it was like he was just chomping at thin air since he couldn't reach his nails. AND even with all that, that still was not the worst flight I've been on. 

Now, we rest and try to catch up on sleep and tv. Tomorrow we get to see some sites, people getting married and eat some more yummy food. YAY!