Woke up pretty early and enjoyed the
continental breakfast at the hotel. Not bad. Eggs, waffles, sausage,
bagels, etc. Mark and I decided to spend our day driving to South
Beach and walking around before we returned the rental car and got to
the airport. So after driving around looking for spots for about a
half hour, we did just that. Walked the beach, dipped my feet in the
Atlantic Ocean and enjoyed the scenery. Very nice. Saw a completely
topless sunbather, caught me off guard, didn't know that was ok in
Miami. Took some nice scenery pictures, found a nice little deli, got
a banana, an odwalla drink, and an empanada. The cashier was so busy
hitting on a cute Italian girl and barely noticed me, it took a few
extra minutes, but it was tasty nonetheless.
We walked through South Beach shopping
area and then drove back to the airport. It was the easiest drive to
the airport ever, got right there returned the car super easy, went
through security, with only one....oops! I left my boarding pass in
the bathroom! moment, and a quick only take a few things out of the
top of my bag security search in the international terminal. But
other than that it was super smooth. We had time to get a drink and
some wings in the concourse before our flight. I met some very well
traveled Dutch girls to pass the time waiting for the flight and
boarded the American 767.
Mark and I sat 1 row apart, and I
spent time getting to know Jose, a Bolivian residing in Alabama who
was going to Peru to visit his wife's family by himself. And also
Laura, a freshman at Virginia who was going to intern in the Amazon
teaching first aid. Mark met a nice young kid who told us all the ins
and outs of Peru. He lived in Florida, but visited Lima once a year
to see his grandparents.
The inflight movie was one with, I
think her her name is MacDonald from Wedding Crashers, she played a
woman who got partial amnesia in a car crash, romantic comedy, didn't
catch the name. Lasagna for dinner. I passed the 6 hours watching
that movie, napping, and not listening to my uncharged ipod. There
were some nice folks on there, except for the old woman who tried to
cut a bunch of rows on the plane, but only got as far as right next
to me, making it difficult to get my things without hitting someone
because she was literally pressed up right next to me. One unique
observation was it felt as if the plane had landed already, the
engine stopped, and movement seemed to stop before we actually
landed. Everyone just looked around at each other. I came to find out
that because of the mountain/ocean drop off and the air currents
right by the Lima airport, the engines get oxygen deprived somehow,
possibly from a gas emitted from the sea, shuts down, and you
actually coast into Lima. New to me!
We landed, customs and immigration
were a breeze, ended up in line with the young kid Mark sat next to
and got his advice for awhile. We had a quick scare when our driver
wasn't there waiting for us when we got out. We sat down, examined
our options, looked for the hotel contact information, and decided to
check again. He was there. I think our flight was a little early, but
it was a relief to see him there. The driver for our Bed &
Breakfast, Casa Bella, held up a sign with “Mathew Steward”,
close enough for me. We got in his car and avoided many aggressive
cab offers on the way out. The drive was almost 15 minutes. We saw
lots of billboards, more than home, it was about 70 degrees at 9pm,
and the time zone is the same as CST in Omaha, etc. It is the start
of winter here now and the temps this week are 60-80 degrees, lows to
highs. The driver was very nice, and I was pleased to realize I was
understanding about 80% of his Spanish and talking with him pretty
well. We rode through some fairly busy metropolitan areas, some slum
type areas with shanties that consisted of one room “homes” made
of concrete with corrugated metal doors. Prostitution is legal here
according to the driver and he was surprised it was not where we came
from. Didn't really see any, just came up when we were talking about
the differences between our countries. Drove a bit more, right along
the Pacific Ocean, near La Barranca and up to Miraflores, a very nice
area. We arrived and checked in to Casa Bella, a 12 room Bed &
Breakfast, with a very neat, homey feel. Our room is small, but nice.
Two beds, alarm clock, flat screen TV, DVD player, desk and bathroom.
Evidently plumbing is fairly new and the pipes are small, so you
don't flush toilet paper here, you throw it away. The floor is
beautiful wood and the DVD player has a USB port in it so I can
charge my stuff. Good thing because the outlets are different than
what I had read they should be. Need to buy an adapter tomorrow. The
front desk lady was beautiful and very helpful, describing the
Miraflores area for us, and Fernando was great too. We spent all
night talking about Peru, the U.S., and life with him while enjoying
some Cusquenos, a beer made in Cusco. We also made reservations to do
a driving tour of Lima in the morning. Mark and I walked down by the
ocean and there was a great little park with mosaic art and many
sayings in Spanish decorating the place. We remarked how cool it was
to be at the Atlantic Ocean in South Beach and the Pacific Ocean in
Lima at midnight the same day. We returned to the hotel and told
Fernando about Jack Johnson and Pandora after finding that he had
been listening to John Mayer on YouTube. His wife teaches English and
he lives in a $500 USD apartment that is about 900 square feet. After
booking the tour and arranging for a wake up call, we called it a
night, both wrote in our journals and listened to some Thom Yorke. My
first music experiences in Peru are the Metallica phone ringer of the
cab driver and Amy Winehouse on the hotel sound system. Hoping to
see/hear some local music tomorrow, but not disappointed at all.
Mark's a little culture shocked, knowing very little Spanish, but I
feel good, and he assures me he will too...just might take a few
days.
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