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| The entrance to a WWII sniper den on the beach in Rockaway |
Tuesday, 25th of September, 2018
Well, here we are in Lima, on the other side of the world, on the Pacific coast, where I have not been for nearly 16 years. Yesterday was.... interesting. First of all, I nearly made us lose the flight, simply because I forgot to set my phone time 2 hours forward to New York, and set my alarm for 6 am, not realizing it was still Colorado time, which just so happens to be 4 am NY time. Good job me. Luckily, Dad was on the ball and had an alarm on the correct time, so I didn't screw that up.
After loading our numerous backpacks, suitcases and carry-ons into Turtle, the adorable litlle skiff that Jarad and Cristel have remodeled, we prepared to head to shore, passing the bridge where the A-train commutes to Manhattan every day. However right as we disengaged from Catherine, the little bronze bell that is rung anytime anyone feels like it, fell and bounced off the side of Turtle and right into the water. Luckily, (we seem to be relying on luck a whole lot these days) it landed with the bell side up and the little hole was small enough so that Dad could swipe it before it accumulated too much water and sank. However, the little ringer piece was unfortunately missing.
The past 4 days that we had spent with our good friends onboard and off of Catherine was wonderful.
The Poseidon Parade, full of colors and characters, down the boardwalk in Rockaway Beach, Queens, was a vivacious experience and not a memory I am likely to forget anytime soon.
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| Before the pink hair and mermaid makeup |
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| And After |
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| Of course I decided to bring my Hula Hoop |
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| Arden and Nash in their fabulous costumes |
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| When your hair matches your outfit |
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| Nice hat my dude |
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| My full regalia |
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| Captain Jarad, pulling our float |
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| Riley the queen of conch blowng |
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| Our weather float in the parade |
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| And this fabulous person had the most awesome high heeled stilettos |
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| And I guess that this is a water demon? |
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| And Triton. |
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| Everyone from our float. Notice the lady in yellow? Her little baby was also a sunbeam and slept through the noise unbelievably. |
And so the day of traveling began with the most glorious sunrise I have seen in more than a year. The sky was filled with hues of pink, red and purple, all fighting for dominance as the most vibrant.
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| RED |
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| PINK and PURPLE |
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| The final goodbye |
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| The A-line into Manhattan |
The sky slowly lightened as we stopped for coffee for the adults and bagels with egg and cream cheese. I am quite glad that I don’t have to commute to work anywhere in New York City, simply because the amount of traffic that I witnessed at 6.30 in the morning was horrendous. We arrived in reasonable time, and proceeded to stand in 2 massive lines, one to receive our boarding passes and the next to go through TSA. The flight to Fort Lauderdale was uneventful, given that I slept through a good deal of it.
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| Goodbye New York |
After nearly 5 hours in the airport, and another bagel, this time with smoked salmon, we received our seat assignments after worrying about the situation of our leaving Peru and entering Chile, since the lady behind the information desk had been so skeptical that I went ahead and booked an Airbnb for one night in Chile so I had the information and then canceled the next day. We boarded and happily found we had exit seats with plentiful legroom and no one in the seat next to us. Despite there being space to lie down, I did not sleep on that 6 hour flight, nor did they feed us which I thought was wrong. You have more than 100 people on your flight, flying from 5.30 until nearly 12 at night, and all you have to offer is chips and pretzels? Come now.
All went well and we went through custom and immigration swiftly, chatting with the friendly man who stamped us into our first South American country on the next leg of our expedition.
We collected our bags and attempted to rent a car, realized it was more hassle then it was worth and walked outside into the badgering arms of countless taxi drivers. I was about to get us an Uber to our Airbnb, but my wifi connection timed out and I couldn’t connect again. Luckily, however I was able to see the price to take us there, 39 Soles, about 14 dollars. The guys in the airport all shuffle past calling taxi, taxi, all the while scoping out the tourists. The first guy to offer us a taxi wanted 80 soles, double what an Uber would cost. Dad politely told him we would take an Uber at that price. He then lowered it to 70. Dad said 50, and he said his final price was 60. Dad said 50. Another guy stepped up and said he’d take us for 50. All this was accomplished in Spanish, mind you, something we haven’t really used in a while. We made it to the Airbnb, let our people in Colorado and New York know we were safe and delved into wonderous sleep.
The next morning I woke at 10.30 only because Dad was proffering a glass of orange juice in my bleary face. Just between you and me, I could have slept into the afternoon, but shhh. We lounged and relaxed for most of the day, not realizing what the time was, as the weather here is not of the sunny variety. Its been overcast so long as we’ve been here, but it’s actually not that bad. The temperatures were swell and we spent the whole day wandering up and down the beach. We probably walked 10 km! There is so so much street art here in the district of Barranco, it is amazing.
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| Mermaid |
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| Just a small piece of artwork |
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| This bridge has so many faces painted under it. |
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| Taken from the bridge of sighs |
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| The faces of the south americans |
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| Twins |
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| Hot and Cold |
We ended the day at a wonderful restaurant and reflected on an intriguing first day in Peru.
Wednesday, 26th of September
A simple day, picking up laundry, trying local cuisine, and kicking around in the main square. We stopped at a local bakery, bought coffee from a man with a portable ice cream stand, walked into a local market with numerous dead chickens and loud eating people. There I purchased a bag of palo wood, which has a very distinctive smell that I love and that sells for 30 dollars for 4 pieces in the US, here I paid 2 soles, the equivalent of 60 US cents for an entire bag.
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| More beautiful art |
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| A little unicorn girl |
The Peruvian people are interesting in their demeanor and characteristics. You can see a select bunch of them eyeing up the tourists, checking them out, seeing who has money, who needs a tour, who doesn’t speak spanish.
All in all, I am enjoying this new culture, this new opportunity, and most of all, these new subjects to observe and photograph.
Saturday, 29th of September
Today is Jabez’s birthday, and he is 6.500 km away playing magic, and then he will be playing paintball later this afternoon.
He’s 16 today, and seems like we both managed to spend our sweet 16’s away from each other. Why we did that I’m not 100% sure, but it’ll be something to discuss when we’re old and arthritic( hopefully not that last one).
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| An adorable VW Bug |
Thursday was more wandering through Barranco, exploring the sights, getting manicures (yes Dad got one too), and walking around the tiny little market filled with the sounds of frying food, loud voices and the smells of incense and palo wood. But yesterday, we hopped on the Metropolitano, the local bus that runs right under our window, and went uptown to Miraflores, the trendy area of Lima.
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| The Library in the park |
Upon our arrival there, we realized why they describe Barranco(where we are) as the hippy area, the reason being that there are more tourists, more stores, more everything in Miraflores. We wandered, trying to find the Andean market, which eventually we did, full of handicrafts from the shawls traditional to Peru to paintings and blankets, scarfs, shoes and so much more. All of the clothing and blankets are made of alpaca and baby alpaca. Since the alpaca are only shorn once a year, it surprised me the amount of goods made out of that hair. Maybe I have simply underestimated exactly how many alpaca there are.
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| The Andean corn, large pieces, and very different tasting |
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| Yes this is milk in a bag |
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| Two new gross flavors of Oreo: Strawberry cream and Lemon cream |
There was also a large department store, where we encountered feather pillows at the exorbitant price of 80 US dollars for one. No I am not kidding and yes you read that right. For one! Luckily we sent word to Mom and they did purchase 4 feather pillows in Denver to stick in their bags.
Finally we came to the JFK Park, in the center of Miraflores, with 2 lanes of traffic on both sides, with the unique fact that this is known as the residence of multiple cats. Yes this is the cat park at the center of the city. There are 35-40 cats that live in this park, sleeping on the grass, getting rubbed by amazed tourists and eliciting food from hapless lunching locals. Truly its a wonder. they have water put out for them everywhere and they do what a cat does best: sleep, eat, and get rubbed whilst looking like they own the whole damn world. That may yet be my favorite place in Peru so far.
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| Sleeping boy |
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| Just lazing about |
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| Church after church |
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| Door pose |
Now onto food.
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| Ceviche is very popular here and dad is reaping the full benefit |
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| Smoked fish and rice with Plantain |
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| A food festival 2 blocks from us |
Food in Peru has been intriguing in that there are so many new flavors and sensations. By far the best has been the restaurant Ventarron 3 blocks from our Airbnb. The food there has gained the approval of Dad, which is usually not impressed unless it is outstanding or home made. There is a little restaurant right across the street that makes typical Peruvian comfort food that is warming and reminiscent of the good old days when I wasn’t yet born.
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Tequeños, a typical starter, consisting of a little cheese empanada, deep fried with a avocado like cream
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