Monday, December 30, 2013

Peru Christmas 2013 Day 6

As it was a Sunday and we had been up fairly late we again got a late start on the day and basically had no plans for what to do at all which I think was nice.  We really didn't have breakfast and eventually ordered another pizza from Papa John's as our lunch (along with some pepperoni rolls and chicken wings).  We got the TV working for displaying movies off a USB drive sort of and watched the movie Hero though I am sure Daniela didn't much care for it.  Unfortunately the TV wouldn't play several of the movie codec types I was hoping it would.  After that I was able to find the second half of the Patriots game on a live stream that was a fair bit choppy but at least I had an idea what was going on. I was happy to see they got the first round bye though I wish the Raiders could have at least put up a little bit of a fight.

After the football game was over we got cleaned up and dressed and took a bus out to a place that I wanted to take some pictures of the Christmas decorations. I think you will figure out what I mean if you look at the pictures from today. It happened there was a 4D heladaria across the street and we had some desserts and coffee or hot chocolate there.

We then got a cab to a movie theater and watched the movie Last Vegas which in Spanish was titled El Ultimo Viaje a Las Vegas (The Last Trip To Las Vegas). I think the joke gets lost a little in the translation.  It was cute and I laughed quite a few times through it.  Not typically a movie I would choose to watch but I did enjoy it.  We had popcorn and water to accompany the movie.

After the movie we walked back from the theater which is in San Isidro (one district off of Miraflores and where the olive tree park is) back to the apartment where we called it a night.

The pictures from today are located here.

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Peru Christmas 2013 Day 5

We definitely had a late start to the day and didn't do much but hang around the apartment for most all of it but eventually we had to go to Daniela's office really quickly to get a couple things done towards the evening. That only took a few minutes and then we had dinner at La Trattoria de Mambrino which is just off Ave Larco near the big round about with Pardo.

Daniela had a salad then a stewed beef rib it over pasta and I had the gnocchi ala pesto. I forgot to take pictures of the food until we had the dessert. We split a bottle of Argentinian Malbec with the dinner. For dessert I had a grappa (it was listed as a pisco but was Italian which is a grappa) and an apple dessert that had calvados and vanilla ice cream and was really good.  Daniela had a cappuccino which came with some chocolate that she really liked. It was a very nice restaurant and the food was very good but it will apparently be moving to Larcomar by June or July because they feel they will get more foot traffic there even though the place has been where it is for 30 years or so.

After dinner we had to run quick to get a gift for Estef and we were able to just before the store closed.  We walked most of the way down Ave Larco and then picked up a taxi to Barranco where the club El Dragon del Sur was. That was where Estef was having her birthday party. We got in and got a water and juice and sat at the bar while Estef was waiting for all of her guests to arrive by midnight.  They were playing reggae music which I thought was odd. We stayed around for a while and talked to Estef for a few minutes but after a couple of nights of being up so late Daniela could see I was exhausted and we left. We walked down the streets of Barranco for a bit until their main square then got a taxi back to the hotel and called it a night.

The pictures from today can be found here.

Saturday, December 28, 2013

Peru Christmas 2013 Day 4

When we got up I made French toast for breakfast using some Turtle Lane Maple Farms maple syrup (they're in North Andover just down the street from  me).  I think it came out decent enough but it does not appear to be Daniela's thing though she liked the maple syrup.

After breakfast we got cleaned up and walked over to Gabriel's office to finish up the wedding album.  He needed to take a picture of our rings to put in it and we finalized how it all looked. That didn't take too long. It was cool to see how quick he and his assistant Juliana can be.

From there we headed to Daniela's office where she had a bit of work to do. We spent a few hours there. I went for a quick shopping trip and helped out where I can.  She even had a walk up customer who found her because apparently the address also used to belong to a travel agency before hers.  In any event she sold him a hotel around Mancora where we stayed for our honeymoon.  He was driving there (good luck to him).

We had lunch at a Pardo's Chicken, having pollo ala brasa.  I had mine with a beer and Daniela had a lemonade. I forgot to take a picture but I have a few of Pardo's pollo and Cusquena by now anyway.  We had to head back to the office to finish out that sale after lunch then rush to the bank before it closed.  From there we tried to do some shopping for a birthday present from me for Daniela's mother. It was her birthday today. Not having much luck in Miraflores we took a very overstuffed bus ride to San Miguel and went to the mall where we bought her a dress from Ripley's.  We then ran to a bakery just down the street and bought a waybana cake for her at a small bakery named Gaby's I believe. Then it was on to Daniela's house to help out for the birthday party.

I think I mentioned before that birthday parties in Peru happen really late at night and the cake is supposed to happen at midnight.  So Donna was cooking anticuchos of beef heart and chicken plus some grilled beef intestine as well.  I helped peel some potatoes and set up a bit. We had wine and homemade chicha morada as well as the food.  Donna's boyfriend Edwin came over along with Daniela's aunt and great uncle (who is 93 years old).  We all sat in the car park area with the grill while Donna cooked.  The food was excellent but I probably could do without the intestine so much (too chewy).  There was a lot and I gave one of my beef heart anticuchos to Lucho.  Daniela's mom made the guys dance and I also danced with Daniela to various types of music.

A little bit after midnight we had the cake. I think the waybana fruit tasted a bit like green bananas but Daniela thinks I am crazy about that. I have no other comparison for it.  I had more cake than I needed though. I was stuffed. I danced a bit more then helped to clean up and Daniela washed the dishes while I helped as much as I could.  I think we finally were done about 1:30 to 1:45am where we immediately got outside and got very lucky catching an empty taxi right out of the gas station across Faucett from their house.  It was a quick ride back to the apartment as there was no traffic then immediately to bed as we were both totally exhausted from the day.

The pictures from today are located here.

Friday, December 27, 2013

Peru Christmas 2013 Day 3

We got going a bit late in the morning as we were up fairly late. We had our left over pizza and some tea and/or instant coffee for breakfast.

Our first thing to do was to travel far to the northern end of Lima where Daniela's mother's market stall was. She just ended her stay in the marketplace after many years and we had to help her pack up and move out.  I am sure it was a sad thing for her and it was involuntary as the owner of the market asked her to move out. We had to take a bus to the Metropolitano to a combi to get to the marketplace.  I think it took us an hour and a little bit.

When we arrived Donna and her mother were already starting to pack things up. Daniela and I went out in search of boxes first then we started to help pack also.  We probably spent the better part of 5 or 6 hours on packing. We had to disassemble a couple of shelving sets she had. They found a truck to carry all the stuff to storage in their old family house in Callao.  Daniela and I rode in the back during the trip. It was bouncy and a little uncomfortable. I think it took us about half an hour to get there. We then unloaded the truck and packed it into the rooms.  When all of that was done Daniela and I took a different combi than Donna and her mother.

We took the combi to just the edge of Miraflores then switched off to a bus which brought us to the Vivanda just down the road from our apartment. We did a quick bit of shopping for the apartment then immediately started getting cleaned up and ready for a nice dinner at La Rosa Nautica for our 2 month anniversary.  A guy from the apartment came in and replaced the missing TV that had been destroyed while we were getting ready. He finished just in time.  We caught a taxi to the restaurant and arrived probably a few minutes late.  It is not really far from the apartment but down on the beach obviously.

We were told we had to wait a couple minutes so went to the bar and ordered a couple of drinks. I had a Glenfiddich 12 year Daniela had a piskini which was a pisco based martini.  We actually didn't finish either of them. We had barely been served them by the time we were seated to our table. We ordered a starter of shrimp in deep fried Chinese noodles. They were good. Daniela ate more than I did.

I had a stewed rabbit dish which had potatoes, mushrooms, bacon, baby onions, leeks and rice.  It was extremely good.  Daniela had a steak with an egg based sauce over pasta.   It was cooked less than I think she asked for but it was really good she said.  We accompanied the meal with an Argentinian merlot which was very nicely flavored.

Daniela was too full for dessert which had me worried she had been replaced by an alien.  I had the cafe de popa which is what I had the first time we went there. It was coffee ice cream with coffee liqueur, whipped cream and chocolate covered espresso beans. It was very good. Daniela didn't want to try it.

From there it was back to the apartment by taxi and call it a night.

The pictures from today are located here.

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Peru Christmas 2013 Day 2

Being on so little sleep from the day before I let myself stay in bed for a lot longer than I typically can. Of course I woke up a bunch of times and there were stretches where I was awake but wishing I was asleep but I think we managed to be in bed until 10:30 which is unheard of for me typically.

We got up and had a quick coffee for me and tea for Daniela. We really didn't do too terribly much during the day except relax and talk and such. Donna's boyfriend Edwin came over after a time and they were going to have lunch with us which was Chinese spaghetti made by Daniela's mother.  We tried to go out find some dessert for lunch after we showered unfortunately the places that were open didn't have anything worth buying and most places were closed. It ended up that Edwin and Donna brought some ice cream that they had at his apartment over for dessert as well.  After we ate we watched the movie the Lorax which is animated of course but was fortunately still subtitled rather than dubbed which is unusual for animated movies. It did however mean that all parties were able to enjoy it as I had not seen it before. It was cute and enjoyable but certainly I have seen better animated movies in my life. I think that it was better than Planes for what I saw of that though.

After lunch we eventually got packed up and headed over to Miraflores to our apartment on Varela which we have stayed in for some amount of time on each of my trips to Peru since I met Daniela. It was newly repainted and they do not appear to be replacing the big flat screen which a guest had broken before the last trip but still it is a nice place and has one of the best kitchens of any of the places we have stayed.  We got settled in and relaxed some more then eventually ordered pizza fro Papa John's for dinner. A pepperoni and hamburger pizza. I had a beer of the two we brought from Daniela's house. We also watched most of the movie Catch Me if You Can during the evening before settling in to sleep a bit after midnight.

Merry Christmas. Feliz Navidad.

Only 1 picture for today. No new pictures of the same apartment as I have taken enough of it by now.
Here it is.

Peru Christmas 2013 Day 1

I started out waking up at 3:00am and after a quick shower it was almost directly to the airport for a 6:30am departure to Newark. When I got to check-in however the woman at the desk said that flight was a bit late and asked if I would like to get on the 6am flight instead. I said sure. This was United.  The flight was only a couple minutes late which was still early compared to the other flight I should have been on. It was a 737-800 and I slept through almost the whole thing except for the couple minutes to drink my cup of cranberry juice. I think it had a few bumps but not that much.

After landing I had what was theoretically an 8:45am departure to Miami. I know, 2 stops? It was reasonable anyway especially compared to the pricing of other flights. I also do not have 2 stops on the way home making it easier. I said theoretically because the flight ended up being very slow to board and there was some person with ticket troubles that slowed it up an extra ten minutes besides.  The plane departed 45 minutes late which fortunately wasn't a problem with my 3 hour layover in Miami before heading on to Lima. The flight was mostly uneventful, a few small bumps. I watched Despicable Me 2 on the overhead CRT TVs of which the ones nearest me flaked out a few times.  I also had to hold the headphones into the jack in a specific way to get sound which I was able to do successfully for most all of the movie. It was cute but certainly the first one was better.  This plane was a 757-200 and we ended up with only a drink for free (they offered food at a price). I had coffee only.

We arrived to Miami about half an hour late. Of course the landing gate and the departure gate were on opposite sides of the airport and I even had to exit from concourse G to reenter into concourse J which meant rescreening security. For some reason I got a bit lucky here though and was sent through the TSA Pre check line so I didn't have to unload or undress.  I did get the double hand swab screening both before and after the metal detector though. The first might have been random. The second was really chosen by the machine.  After I got into my gate area I found the Corona Cafe and had a cheeseburger and a couple of Key West Ales which weren't bad. They were light and not too hoppy but not too sweet either.  The cheeseburger was reasonable since it was basically all I had eaten for the day.  I spoke to a guy living in Miami heading back home to Philly for the holidays and a guy from NYC of Puerto Rican descent heading to Colombia to be with his girlfriend for the holidays. Like me it was his first time not being home for the holidays.  That basically killed off the 2.5 hour layover and I headed to the gate right as they lined up to board and got on rather quickly actually.

This flight was on an Airbus 330 and was operated by Taca (Avianca) The flight did have a lot of bumps in it. I watched The World's End with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost to start out and thought it was funny enough and enjoyed it overall. I then turned on the movie Planes but almost immediately fell asleep to it (by the way it was in seat entertainment here). I did get woken up when the plane was in a serious bout of plane shaking turbulence and ended up watching it to the end though. The turbulence probably lasted about 20 minutes.  I was in the ass of the plane at the second from the back row which probably made it feel worse.  In any event after that bout it appeared to calm down enough.  They served a meal which I picked at and ate the snacks mostly. The actual meal was supposed to be some form of ravioli I think.  I had some red wine with that.

We arrived to Lima a bit early. Immigration processing had small lines and I found the one that was filing into 2 stations so I got through super quick. However my suitcase was among the last to come off the belt unfortunately.  I got outside and apparently Daniela had sent a text to the wrong number (my house number) to text her when I landed which of course I never got but I texted her when she was not out in the arrivals area.  No duplicating some of our wedding pictures I guess...  She and her brother arrived about half an hour later due to a couple of accidents along the way of the typically 10 minute drive (I know my curse affects this).  We got to their house probably at about 10pm.

I dropped my stuff into her room and said hello to the family including Forest.  I had to quickly wrap up all the Christmas presents (bags of course, real wrapping on short notice would have been tough).  Then we went out for a quick trip down to the market to pick up some fireworks we never ended up using. I don't think this was an issue because the rest of the city was setting off enough for 17 Fourth of July's in the US just in the 5 minutes prior to through the 5 minutes after midnight alone. We had champagne at midnight and there was a little prayer held by her mother before we ate. Their tradition is to put the baby Jesus into the manger at midnight and say the prayer.  We had a merlot with the dinner.  We opened up presents right after the champagne. Donna got me a running tech shirt and Daniela a dress shirt. Daniela had cooked a turkey for the traditional Christmas dinner, along with mashed potatoes and a bean salad of some sort. It was all very good. After the main course it was paneton which is a sweet bread with dried fruits in it for the traditional dessert. With that we had chocolate that was supposed to be hot but had cooled down.  This was all very good. I begged to get some sleep after that as it was 2am and I really hadn't had much sleep up until that point so we went to bed.  It was definitely interesting to experience Christmas in a completely different way than I have always done it and I enjoyed it very much.  I was exhausted by the end though. It was a very long day.

The pictures from today are located here.

Monday, December 23, 2013

Peru for Christmas

I just realized I never put together a slideshow from the last trip on the blog. I will have to get cracking and do it tonight because I am flying tomorrow to be with my beautiful wife for Christmas and New Years.