Familia de Lima: Family in Lima

I spent three excellent days in the great city of Lima. I didn't go to a single museum, had only a few cultural experiences, and found an excellent hotel costing only $35/night. Nonetheless, my arrival was certainly not boring. Upon entering the terminal someone did attempt to sell me Machu Piccu (in its entirety) for only a few thousand dollars. We then found a taxi driver who told us our hotel “wasn't very nice” and tried to take us to a different one. By 7am Sunday morning I was happily napping in a fairly clean room featuring cable AND hot water. Lucky me.

Now on Monday morning, things got a little interesting. I had sent word a few days back to the our contacts in the Ministry of Education that we would be coming into town in the near future. I don't think that message was ever received because when arrived at the office everyone was very surprised to see us. Including the boss. Amos and I might have been two of the biggest surprises the Technology office has ever received. But not to worry, the ministry had surprises for us as well.

Apparently, a delegation of Mexican officials was currently visiting Peru and deciding whether or not to purchase laptops. As soon as we arrived we were shuttled right into the fiesta, sitting in 4 hour meeting and going to great dinners with the Peruvian and Mexican officials. We ate one night at a restaurant that had Inca ruins built right into it (imagine that). After four hours of appetizers, drinks, dinners, deserts, ruin tours, and speaking in Spanish, I was so exhausted I had to excuse myself.

I do have to say that the nicest thing about being in Lima is having friends (more like family) there. Maria (one of the women who works in the office) adopted us last year and was absolutely thrilled to see her ninos americanos (American children) even if our arrival was a bit of a surprise. She was kind enough to take us to Pizza Hut, explain recent happenings in Peru that we didn't understand, and make sure we had a concrete plan for the next few weeks.

Oscar, the head of the office (also the one who hosted me last year) was quite excited to see us once again. He and his wife went out to a fantastic Italian restaurant with us and caught up on everything we had missed over the past year.

Leaving the foggy Lima is always a joy, especially when the arrival destination is Cusco. I sit in my favorite Peruvian city now. I would write more, but my quite cafe just got interrupted by a windpipe cultural experience. The music sounds faintly like the song of the ancient potato flower and I'm afraid that this song has no distinct stopping point. To this end, I'm going shopping for some sandals. Amos and I are going river rafting tomorrow.

The Trials of Travel: Getting there

There is something I'm afraid I will have to admit in my first post of the summer. I absolutely hate the “travel” part of traveling. Hate it. I hate being lost or delayed in ways that strong vocabulary and exclamation points cannot even begin to express.

Now, don't get me wrong, once in my new locale, I love seeing things, meeting people, having cultural experiences, and riding horses through the mountains. But thing having to do with planes (cough, cough delayed departures) and lost luggage, I would happily delegate to someone (anyone) else.

Each summer's travel has led me down a different path of adventures involving the airline industry. Picture this:

I am 16 years old returning from Spain by myself for the first time. I have booked my tickets through a travel agent in the hopes of avoiding any of the issues that international travel usually entails. The plane out of Madrid is boarded 20 passengers at a time (a 600 person flight I might add). All of us are shuttled out to the runway where we (and I kid you not) walk up the stairs of the 757. Alas, my layover time was then too short to make it through customs. I left customs and immediately got in the “rebooking” line. One hour later, I had a new ticket and the got in the “I need to check my bags” line. One hour after that I had missed my second flight of the day. I got to the front of the line the second time and made the best move any desperate underage traveler can make.

I cried. No, actually, I balled. I wept so hard the entire Continental staff was paying attention to me. I was rushed through the “rebooking” line, was able to skip the “I need to check my bags” line, given a stall of my own in “security” line, and personally driven to my gate. Now that's service.

I write to you now from a nice runway in Washington DC. Some combuster-thingy on our plane doesn't work and boy do I wish it did. I'm already stressing about missing our flight in Miami and hoping my baggage doesn't become the new wardrobe of some hustler in Lima.

I might be paranoid?

Nonetheless, I'm scheduled to arrive in Lima tomorrow (Sunday) at 4:45 am-- (yes that's a terrible time to arrive in Lima). I will make a decent attempt to play the infamous “hotel game” and then hopefully meet some friends for dinner. Then we spend a few days in Lima before hitting the road in Peru. The summer itinerary is (very, very, VERY, tentatively) as follows:

6/20-6/28 (or 6/20-6/31ish)- Peru
6/29: MY BIRTHDAY!
6/28ish-7/10ish- Chile
7/10ish-7/20ish- Argentina
7/20: Erin arrives in Argentina
7/22-8/18- Uruguay


So welcome back to those of you who followed along last year, and welcome aboard to all the new folks. I hope that my experiences over the next 8 weeks will be as entertaining for you to read about as they will be for me to experience. I vow to exclude the gory details (that's for you, Mom), to be as amusing as possible (that's for everyone who isn't my mother), and to rarely provide you with a 25 page list of all the things I did during the day. Cross your fingers that my flight down south doesn't crash into some ancient Incan ruins and I'll write again from Lima.