Peru Fall 2013 Day 9

We woke up at 4am to get ready for everyone to drop off their stuff at Daniela's house by 4:30 then we would catch a taxi and follow them to the airport for our 6am flight. We thought we were running tight but it turned out we had weather delays in Cusco so we weren't going to take off on time. We had breakfast in the airport. I had a ham and cheese sandwich and coffee.  Then we had to wait. Or flight was about 5 to 6 hours later.  We had plans to fly to Cusco get a transfer van to Ollantaytambo and ride the train to Aguas Calientes but those fell through with the flight delays because we missed the last train to Aguas Calientes even before we arrived in Cusco.

The flight itself was easy and had basically no bumps. It was a full 737-500.  Our transfer van was waiting for us outside and we were driven to Hotel El Portal where we were going to stay for the two nights since the change of plans.  We loaded in and unpacked and then slept for a couple hours before meeting in the lobby around 5pm for dinner. Not everyone came to dinner. Both George and Daniela's mother were too tired and stayed in their rooms.

We went to a restaurant Daniela was familiar with called  La Retama.  I had a beer and a Sopa de la Criolla followed by alpaca served with a potato and quinoa puree. The food was excellent. We stayed long enough to watch their show too, which was traditional highland Peruvian music and dance and was really nice.  After that it was back to the hotel and to crash for another early morning departure to catch the train to Machu Picchu.

Pictures are here.

Peru Fall 2013 Day 8

Today was the day. I woke up probably around 7:30 and had some toast and coffee for breakfast. I think I had about 4 or 5 cups. I did sleep reasonably well but I knew it was going to be a full day. We started getting ready probably around 11 because the photographer was supposed to come in and get some posed and candid shots of the preparation. We were to be picked up by a van at 12:30 and he was pretty close to on time. Daniela's friend Diana came just a few minutes before the pickup and was there to help out with getting us there and ready.  The ride there was easy and without any real traffic.

We had the invitations printed with 2:00pm for the start time knowing that most people would arrive by 2:30 and that was the official start time. I was a bit confused on a couple details but I spent a few minutes greeting people as they came in and then eventually it was time to start. Sue was the eldest representative female from our family so she walked me down the aisle. They don't just have the groom wait up front like we do.  Dad and Daniela's mom came after then the bridesmaids then the flower girl and ring bearer girl (who were Michelle and Sara respectively).  Then finally the beautiful bride. She looked incredible and her dress was beautiful. I could feel nothing but happiness.

The father was a Polish man who spoke Spanish and Polish but not English. The mass went off quite well. I will not explain all the details as there will be tons of pictures and video. We split up some of the time in English and some of the time in Spanish.  We exchanged our vows combining English and Spanish, for example.  I could understand a lot of the sermon though it was given in Spanish.  He spoke slowly and clearly and joked a lot.  I think the mass and Catholic wedding went of perfectly.

After the mass we ran over to the beach and took a few pictures before time ran out and we needed to be present at the restaurant for the civil wedding.  We were able get a lot of good pictures and a lot of people congratulated us as we or they passed by.

The civil wedding was a lot quicker but still had quite a few details for the municipal officer Senora Milagrito as Daniela called her.  There were vows and signatures and fingerprints to be done.  It was nice and she did a great job.   The restaurant was decorated wonderfully. There were more flowers than I could have imagined and they were all great.  We had a DJ for music and had a toast almost immediately. Then Daniela and I, Dad and Daniela's mom, Gary and Donna (Daniela's Sister) all gave speeches.  We were then able to escape again to take more pictures but our plans changed and we ended up on  a small dingy on the water just outside the restaurant with everyone watching.  That was a lot of fun and I think Gabriel, the photographer got a lot of great pictures.

When we got back in we had our meal quickly, it was roast pork with rice pilaf and a sweet potato.  Then they started the music for dance and I don't recall doing anything but dancing until we left the party. Daniela cried at our song. It was a lot of fun but also exhausting. La Hora Loca came in and made people dance even more. La Hora Loca is the The Crazy Hour. Entertainers come in with costumes and make people dance.  That was also a lot of fun.

We escaped the wedding a little bit early and had our pictures taken at the airport. We had some trouble getting parking but we managed it. Inside we did a scene like I was just arriving in my tux and she was waiting in her wedding dress. We met in the arrivals area and I picked her up and swung her around. The people waiting there cheered and applauded for us.  Then we went up to the food court and took a few more pictures among the clapping of people watching. It was strange I will say but I had fun doing it and i think Daniela did too.

After the airport it was back to Daniela's house where we went to bed for an early wake up to be on an airplane for 6am.

Pictures will be found here.

Peru Fall 2013 Day 7

We woke up rather early and got everyone entered into the Palomino Island trip which I had done on my trip when I first met Daniela. Even Daniela and I were going this time.  We had a bit of running around to get everything working and then took a transfer van from the apartment to the port in Callao where the transfer leaves.

The tour was supposed to start at 11:30 but we were probably 10 minutes late. All the same we boarded and were off fairly easily.  The tour was exactly the same. First a trip around the big island owned by the Peruvian navy then on to the island with all the sea lions.  Outside the shelter of the island the water was a bit rough and it was definitely cooler this trip than it was on the first time I did the tour. There was a fairly thick fog and a lot of clouds at first. The fog thinned out. Daniela was freezing so she borrowed a heavy shirt from my brother which she wore over the life vest.  The roughness of the sea did bother Daniela a bit.

The sea lions were in force and this time they started following the boat as soon as we got there. Daniela, Sue and I all decided to go in the water though it was probably only 14C or so.  We had wet suits for this.  The water was insanely cold at first but we got used to it. It was incredible how close the sea lions came to us, even touching us and jumping through us. I am glad I did it this time. Even though I am not a good swimmer but with the wet suit and the life vest I was ok. I think we were in the water for about 20 minutes to half an hour. Probably closer to 20 minutes.  Then we got out and changed and sailed back to the shore around the far end of the island.

When we got back we took a quick detour to the church in La Punta so some folks could use the rest rooms and then drove back to Miraflores. Fortunately we beat the traffic. We dropped Daniela off at the office and went to Don Bellasario which is a Pollo ala Brasa place just across from her office and the apartment. We had some gigantic sampler platters we couldn't finish and I had a beer.

We brought he leftovers to Daniela and she sorted out some stuff then she had to get on her way back home. We got back to the apartment and had a couple beers and watched the last episode of The IT Crowd then Wallace and Grommit: A Matter of Loaf and Death.  Then pretty much it was bedtime.

The pictures from today are found here.

Peru Fall 2013 Day 6

We had to get up very early and pick up George and Sue and bring them to the church in Brena where they could sign to be our witnesses for the church wedding. Of course the padre gave us a hard time about some of it but eventually he did all the paperwork we needed and we had a signed and stamped document. We sent George and Sue back to the apartments where we had arranged a city tour for them in the afternoon giving them the morning free.

We stayed and talked the priest that would be performing the wedding. Daniela's aunt Silvia came too and we planned out a lot of how the wedding was going to go and what was going to be read. It took a very long time to do all this.

We then took a cab to La Punta to the church there to drop off the paperwork that would allow us to use that church but the lady wouldn't take it saying it was missing one stamp so we had to run to another church to get the official stamp. Of course the priest that could stamp it wasn't there and wouldn't be there until 10am the next day. Daniela had a courier to take the document back to La Punta but arranged instead for him to do it for us after it was stamped.

We then walked to the Metropolitan. It was very sunny at this point. There was a small delay for some reason but we got back to the apartment eventually. We had to get dressed for a pre-wedding photo shoot.  After we hurriedly got ready we ran to El Bosque Olivar and met the photographer. He took our pictures walking around the park for about an hour and fifteen minutes. We then raced straight to Dad's apartment to meet them. Daniela did some quick paperwork for their tours and then we all piled in a van and sat in traffic for well over an hour, I think closer to two, on our way to La Punta for the rehearsal.  We went through the practice three of four times with Daniela's sister Donna leading the proceedings. After we were done in the church we walked to see the place where the reception would be.

From there we took the van to a restaurant called Roky's and had Pollo ala Braza with all the people from the rehearsal which was Daniela's family, my family and George and Daniela's friends Yanina, Pakita and Mechi and Mechi's daughter Michelle.  We had 3 chickens with salads and papas fritas. I had a couple Cusquenas.  The restaurant had a children's play area and Sara and Michelle ran around and played there for almost the whole time we were there. She was still playing until the end.  We were there until almost midnight when Peter finally arrived from his flying in.  We had him brought to the restaurant so we could all drive back to the apartments together and George and I rode with him while everyone else rode back in the van we took out to La Punta.

When we got back it was quick goodnights and then on to bed almost instantly.  I was exhausted.

The pictures from today are here.

Peru Fall 2013 Day 5

I made breakfast as soon as we woke up and then Daniela had to do some work for some passengers for a good portion of the morning.  We went and got the keys to one of the apartments for my family but the other wasn't ready when we tried so we couldn't pick them up yet. Then we had to head back out to La Punta to get some papers from the municipal office. While we were there we walked around the area a bit so she could show it to me in more detail than I had already seen because we were in such a rush most of the day.

After that we had to go to the choir leader to pick out the music for the church as we entered and left and during other parts of the ceremony.  We spent a few minutes there.  From there we headed back to Miraflores and I did some quick shopping for the family then we got the key to the second apartment and caught a cab towards the airport.

The traffic was incredibly bad so we didn't actually reach the airport before the transfer van picked up my family.  It took us an hour and five minutes to get to a meeting point still probably 10 to 15 minutes short of the airport. Fortunately everyone was very cool with it. It didn't help the cab driver didn't take a good route towards the airport.

Daniela met everyone and talked to the people at the front of the van while I sat in the back and talked to the others. They had good flights. George even got put in first class from Panama to Lima.  The explained it was a virus that killed the computer systems for Copa airlines the day I flew.  They said a few flights were canceled the day before but they had no problems whatsoever.

We first dropped of Gary and Sue and Sara to their apartment then brought Dad, David and George to theirs.  We got them settled in quickly and walked over to Gary's place and brought them back to the larger apartment. On the way we stopped in a market right next to the apartment and did a small amount of shopping more than I had already done. At the apartment we ordered pizza and had a couple beers then called it a night.  David walked Gary, Sue and Sara back to their apartment because they didn't understand the way at that point.  Daniela and I got back to the room and it wasn't long before we were in bed.

The pictures from today can be found here.

Peru Fall 2013 Day 4

Today we got to start a bit later than the day before but it was still an errand filled day. I made us some french toast and bacon to start for breakfast. Daniela hadn't had it before. She said she liked it.  Then after that it was off to La Punta to the municipal office again to finalize the paperwork for the legal portion of our wedding. That took us a couple of hours including the notary for some documents and having the town's lawyer finalize the papers with his signature.

We stopped off at Daniela's house and said hello to her mother and picked up some stuff she needed. She also had to do a little bit of work on the computer so we let her do that for a few minutes. I said hello to Forest also while we were there.  After Daniela finished her work up we took another ride back to the apartment where we started to get ready for some pre-wedding photos but it was a bit too late for the photographer so he asked us to try again on Thursday. We then changed clothes and took a walk around town and tried to go to a couple different restaurants before settling on Rigoletto which is an Italian restaurant not too far from our hotel. We were given a free bruschetta and ordered the appetizer of garlic shrimp which was actually more like a langoustine or small lobster. They were good. I had the Penne ala Siciliana and Daniela had the fettuccine frute di mare.  Both were good but the sausages slices in my meal were not Italian sausage which was a bit strange.

After dinner there we walked several blocks away to Dolce Capriccio which is a pastry place which Daniela really loves their stuff. I had a brownie mocha which was a thin layer of brownie with chocolate and coffee mousses on top and Daniela had tocino de cielo which is a coconut based custardy thing.  Hers was a bit sweet for me but good and the mocha thing was really good too. We each had a coffee to go along with that.

We then walked back to the apartment where Daniela had to do a tiny bit of work before we went to bed.

The pictures from today are here.

Peru Fall 2013 Day 3

We woke up early and rushed out the door and headed to San Borja to the medical clinic for our blood tests.  We got those started quickly then had a short breakfast of bread and cheese and coffee then went back and got our results. We visited Daniela's friend Yanina very quickly as works right next door to the clinic.

Next we took the Metropolitan to a Combi bus and out to La Punta where we visited the doctor's office to make the results official.  The combi bus was a very local thing. Stopped a lot and people got on and off all the time.

The doctor's office was quick then it was over to the notary and then to the municipal office. Unfortunately the woman handling the case had her purse robbed and was out of the office so we could only drop off paperwork and come back the next day.

After the municipal office we went back to Miraflores and I got fitted for my tuxedo. We had a empanada on the way. I had beef but forgot to take a picture of it. After the fitting we went to Brena and visited the priest and did more of the church paperwork and begged the father in charge of the records to not give us a hard time because 2 of my witnesses would be coming in for Thursday. He chose not to give us a hard time thankfully.

After the priests we went to the Plaza Real and had dinner at a Pardos Chicken. We didn't have traditional Pollo ala Braza but instead a grilled chicken with spicy sauce that wasn't too spicy. A tour of Chinese people came in while we were eating. The didn't really eat a lot of the food. I was wondering if they didn't like it or it was too much.

After dinner we took a taxi to the barber shop and I got my haircut and Daniela got a spa treatment a couple doors down.  Then we took a taxi to Miraflores and shopped for stuff for breakfast. We got back to the room and almost immediately went to bed after an exhausting day.

The pictures from today will be posted here.

Peru Fall 2013 Day 2

Late start and a lazy day after the nightmare travel to get to Lima.  Truthfully we arrived really early in the morning. So we basically stayed in the room an slept a lot later than I am normally used to then got up in time to get the later part of the mass the priest that is going to marry us performed. He is in a church in Brena which is very close to downtown Lima. He is Polish but mainly speaks Spanish. I think he was raised in Peru.  We spoke to him for a couple minutes about plans for the week.

We then walked to a mall not too far away, maybe 5 blocks and had lunch at a restaurant called Provence. We both had set menu items. Daniela had a beef with 4 cheeses and I had a fried fish dish with yellow chili sauces.  We had a ceviche dish to start that we shared.  We also had a bottle of Shiraz to go along with the meal. The waiter actually brought us Australian chardonnay at first but we were able to get that fixed. The food was really good and we shared both of our dinners.  We had a custard-like thing for dessert.  We sat and talked a long time while we slowly finished off the bottle of wine.  After that Daniela had made arrangements to meet her mother to go visit an uncle to give him the invitation to the wedding. We had a coffee at the Juan Valdez then she called us to say she had arrived at our meeting point and we met her.

Unfortunately the uncle was not available so we just walked to the Plaza de Armas for Lima and sat and talked for a while before walking her mother back to a place to get a ride home. We then walked back to the mall and got a metropolitan bus back to Miraflores. Stopped at the apartment rental place and got a spare towel then bought some water in the market before getting back to the apartment.

We spent a few minutes sorting things out then went to bed.

The pictures from today are located here.

Peru Fall 2013 Day 1

Peru Fall 2013 Day 1

Today started out with an early wakeup for a 9:36 flight to Panama on Copa Airlines where I would switch to a flight to Lima.  I got to the airport at 6:30 and check in and security were quick and easy if there was a little bit of a slowdown at security.  I got into the gate area and found The Earl of Sandwich to get a cranberry muffin and a coffee and made a quick visit to the newsstand to get some snack food for the trip.

The plane was to depart from gate E4.  Only a few minutes after reaching the gates they changed the departure time from 9:36 to 9:54. They started boarding us and it was obvious it was not a full flight. I was on an aisle seat but I had a nervous type guy who was doing the jittery leg thing and I asked if I could move to another empty aisle seat and the attendant said yes. It was the second part of an exit row, so no extra leg room but at least no one next to me.

Of course we were on the plane for about 15-20 minutes when they announced they had to have us all deplane because there was a systems failure in Panama and the entire Copa fleet was grounded. They had no ETA but we had to exit the plane with our belongings and wait at the gate.  They assured us since the whole fleet was grounded that any connecting flights would also be delayed so at least we shouldn’t need to rebook to a new flight.

I chose to start writing this during the wait as there was little else to do. After we were about 45 minutes late they reiterated that they had no idea how long the delay was going to be and they would keep us posted.

An hour and a half later we still had no updates other than there were no updates.  So I chose to go to Burger King and get lunch. I had just finished eating a BK double-stacker which was probably a bad idea they started calling the business class passengers to give them vouchers of some sort. Even though the reposted the flight info on the gate board they said they still had no information about when things were going to start moving and they had no information on what was going to happen to connecting flights.  The activity of course caused everyone, myself included, to think they were going to start boarding the flight.  By this point it was almost 2 and a half hours past original departure time.  Very frustrating to say the least.  Especially when there is perfect weather outside.

Of course after I bought the lunch they gave meal vouchers for the airport to the passengers.  I figured I would have to do something with it but not today.  I spoke to Daniela on the phone through Viber for a few minutes because it had been so frustrating.

At 1:20 they called all passengers to get their boarding passes back so they could reboard the plane properly. The person who gave me the pass said it would be boarding in about an hour and another attendant told me they were waiting for the crew. They said that flights would be going to Lima until about 9pm but all flights are delayed out of Panama.  I should be able to get there tonight but I would be arriving past midnight most likely.  I kept as vigilant an eye out for the crew as I could.  They told us we would probably start boarding at 2:30 to 2:40 but the flight crew didn’t even get back to the airplane until about 10 minutes to 3.  The of course didn’t start boarding right away. I wonder where the heck they sent the flight crew for the wait?  It is nuts that they could be hours away when they are supposed to be flying.  They still didn’t know if we would be able to make connections by the time we were boarding.

It was a reasonably quick boarding process and we weren’t on the tarmac for too long before they departed. Still, more than 6 hours late is fairly too much. In any event the flight entertainment was not individual seat style and they showed the new Star Trek film which I refuse to watch on principle so I skipped on that. They served either arroz con pollo or ravioli con carne and I chose the ravioli with some very rough Chilean red wine I sort of wish I skipped on.  The early parts of the flight were smooth with only a few bumps.  I chose to drag out the computer and watch a movie.  Well actually I chose to watch the final episode of the IT Crowd and I hope I didn’t disturb the people around me too much because I really laughed a lot.  From there I decided maybe I could sleep a bit but I wasn’t really able to so I turned on the various  music stations and cycled through the full set of songs on each.

Eventually we landed and sat on the tarmac for a bit before getting to a gate. We were basically told to go to customer service at gate 21 at our arrival gate which was like gate 2.  When I got to customer service there was a long line and no one working the desk. I started on my phone and on a hunch that I was reading the flight status correctly I was able to figure out that my scheduled departure from Panama to Lima still hadn’t left. I hurried over there and was met with a sign that was for Recife instead but the women at the gate said it would indeed be my flight to Lima. We needed to wait for the crew to arrive and be ready again but we would board as soon as they were.  I thought I had seen some crew come in when I arrived at the gate but I cannot be sure. They were loading in the catering when I got there anyway and that finished a few minutes later.

I took a few minutes to sit down and type this while I used my computer to charge my phone a bit. I didn’t have a charger with me, only the cable. The charger was in my suitcase. Unfortunately the battery on the laptop was also a bit low as I had used it a lot during the wait through the day and on the plane. Still if I could suck out a few % of battery for the phone it would be more helpful for giving Daniela updates and eventually for if and when I arrived in Lima.  I should point out that the weather in Panama was as to be expected. Wicked hot and wicked humid. The massive crowds in the airport beyond normal were not helping things at all. I was hoping the crew would arrive quickly so I could be in a climate controlled cabin soon.  It took probably another 40 minutes before they let us board.

After we boarded the air conditioning was awesome compared to the airport but we sat at the gate for over another hour and a half.  Eventually somewhere around 12:00am local time we were able to get off the ground and the flight was about 3 hours. I slept through almost all of it except the very beginning and landing.  I raced to the immigration line which was empty when I got there and got through as the 4th person so was first in line for 3 agents.  After that it was wait for the baggage at the claim. That took a few minutes. I went through customs and I thought it was going to be easy but the guy picked me out to go through a checking. I was very lucky in that when he asked me why I was visiting I said it was to get married and my fiancé was waiting outside.  He let me go without actually checking.

Daniela was waiting outside. We took a taxi to get the key to the apartment then straight to the apartment where we just went straight to bed. It was basically 4:30am by that point. A very long and frustrating day. But it was all just fine when I finally got here and saw and was with her.

The pictures of the apartment are located here.