Peru Spring 2014 Day 2

We had to have an early start because we were taking a trip to Caral which is a series of very old ruins (I have heard it said they may date back to 5000 years ago) about 3.5 hours north of Lima by car.  Well technically as we found out by bus it is really not that far north but it is a lot of unpaved road for at least an hour to get there.  From what I understand the current route there is through private property and the owner does not want it paved. Towards the end of the trip the guide said they may be able to build a bridge over a river from an parallel highway and the access would be much simpler.  In any event, we got up and packed up and got cleaned up and met Daniela's English tutor Robert who is from New Mexico at the lobby. The hotel breakfast was not open but they had prepared us bag breakfasts of fruit, cakes and juice.  We took a taxi to the starting area where the tour bus was waiting. Daniela's cousin Diana was there already but her sister and Edwin were not. They were lost I think and we ended up driving the bus to meet them along the way and picking them up.

The tour was in Spanish so I missed fair bits of information. Daniela translated much of it though.  The guide started the tour with a prayer.  Then after a little bit she handed out some snacks which were little apple pies and chicken sandwiches. The ride was a fairly long ride along the coast for a while in a route called the pasa mayor which apparently in the winter months can get very foggy and windy and is dangerous then. It wasn't too much of a problem for this trip though. We then passed inland and it was pretty much a long ride through the desert. There was not really a lot of change in the scenery along the way.  We did stop at a gas station for a short time and got a cup of coffee while we waited. Then it was back on the road. As I said earlier we had to turn off the roads into dirt roads and the remaining hour of the trip was really that.

At the site we changed from the bus guide to a local guide who took us around the ruins. They did this fairly quickly after we got there. Basically there was enough time for bathroom visits and a quick look around the entry area.  I did not get the name of the guide. This also was done in Spanish. At first our group kept up with the guide and I was able to hear some of what he was saying and Daniela translated most of that but eventually the rest of them got board of the narration and we missed all of what he was saying. The structures were pyramids that were build from rocks that were taken in from a significant distance away. The pyramids mainly appeared to be sacred structures and there were only about 20 domiciles found in the site. They explained that the structures were made of smaller structures built on top of each other. This allowed them to build large pyramids safely.  At the main temple building they said they found evidence of sacrifice. The site had several temples and also a theater/arena though I am not sure what it was used for.

The tour took us about an hour and a half to complete then they brought us back to the entry area where we had lunch made by some locals. It was pollo o pato con arroz (chicken or duck with rice). Daniela and I had chicken and Robert had the duck.  He said the duck was very tough. The chicken was a bit overcooked but probably because they had to transport it in cooked.  The rice was good. We had chicha morada with the food.  After lunch we had a few minutes to look at the trinket sellers then it was back onto the bus to start heading back.

We rode for the hour out of the dirt roads then for maybe another 15-20 minutes where we stopped at a lake very near the ocean. The lake was fresh water even though you could see the ocean so close.  We took a rowboat ride on the lake and Edwin and Donna took their own little boat. Then we went to the small food stands (looked like a beer garden) and ordered a couple bottles of Pilsen Callao. Edwin and Donna had some ceviche and Diana ordered a chicken dinner (I think she got the overly tough duck too).  We finished that up and were back on the road. the guide finished with a sign of the cross because two of the guests were staying in the haunted castle that night. That was Daniela and I staying in the castle in Chancay.  Daniela hadn't heard the haunted story before she reserved the place or she probably wouldn't have reserved it.  She looked so panicked at first.  The guide put on Rango (in Spanish of course) and we made it most of the way through before we were dropped off at the castle.

We said goodbye to everyone and immediately got checked in. There was a small screw up but nothing fatal. We were put in the castle in room C5 which had a balcony and a lot of room.  We had a bottle of local wine too.  We didn't have dinner but we were full. We walked around for a bit and then settled in for the night.  No we didn't find any ghosts.

The pictures from today are found here.

Peru Spring 2014 Day 1

Ok, so today started with work like a few other of my trips before.  I spent the night before at my brother David’s house and he drove me into the office. I had a fairly busy day before finishing out and he drove me to the airport. Yes, we left a bit early, but honestly not much.  The ride to the airport was relatively traffic free and easy. I bet his ride home was with a bit more traffic based on what we saw heading in the other direction. I got to the American desk and checked in without much issue. The guy at the desk offered me an emergency row seat which bumped me from boarding group 4 to boarding group 2 which I was happy for (at least for the Boston to Miami flight).  The line at security was really bottlenecked up but they fixed the issue by opening up a second line and then everything went smoothly from there.  I walked around terminal B a bit finding the gate then seeing what my options were. I chose to go to the Cisco Brewpub which I have been to a couple times before. I had two of their Indie Pale Ales and an order of their kickin’ buffalo chicken tenders to kill a bit of time. Of course I was early.  The Indie was maybe a touch too piney but after the buffalo chicken it seemed to tame down a bit and I quite enjoyed it. The kickin’ level was not really overly spicy to me but I could bet more than a few customers from around here would be horrified by it.  I realize I had just had a couple of days of stomach troubles and this might be a bad idea but I decided to risk it anyway.  After eating I made a quick pit stop then it was on to sit at the gate for hopefully only a short while before we boarded.

My neighbors were two fairly large women that I thought were sisters at first but I later had to guess were friends instead.  Fortunately I was on the aisle and the seats were exit row seats so I was given some extra room but it was still a bit squishy.  The one next to me was panicky about flying and a little bit tipsy as she was trying to cope with it but after takeoff she calmed down and it wasn’t so bad. The real issue was a very long taxi time in a large line of planes.  The flight itself had a few bumps but wasn’t really that bad. I fell asleep for a bit of the takeoff. Woke up and saw there was a movie starring Robert Redford now in his what? 80s? where he was on a sailboat and had a series of unfortunate incidents.  He was the only actor in it. I never tried to plug into sound (they never brought around headsets) but I suspect the 19 words in the script were as obvious as they looked.  For some odd reason I could not stop myself from watching it (I am curious if I plugged into sound if that would have changed my opinion) and reached the end before I took another small nap to basically within a few minutes of the end of the flight.  The plane, by the way, was a 757-11/13 it said on the card.

Being at the exit row meant deplaning was fairly quick but I arrived with American on Concourse D and needed to get zip codes away to concourse J for my departure plane on LAN.  I had to exit and rescreen security at J. I remember this process before. At this time of night it was basically empty in the airport (around 10pm) but I still managed to get the family just in front of me that doesn’t understand airport security at all. They were Spanish speaking and honestly it felt like airport security let a lot skip (they went through metal detector and did not get patted down but I had to go through the backscatter x-ray machine).  I was a touch annoyed with it but still it wasn’t really that bad.  After checking in I found the gate and found the Corona’s Beach House I ate at last time on my trip down. They were obviously getting ready to close but I got a Sam Adams and a cheeseburger before they did (fortunately they had good beer instead of only Corona).  The food was ok but not great. Just as I remembered it.  They were basically done cashing out by the time I finished the beer. Of course I cashed myself out before I finished to help them out. Then I double-checked my gate and found it was staying still at J12 and parked for a few minutes to write up this then maybe nap for the next hour and 20 minutes until they started to board.

The plane was half full and I managed to get a whole row in the back of the plane to myself. They had assigned me center but I decided to take a free window instead. The truth of the matter is I have little recollection of this flight as I fell asleep almost immediately not even taking the food or drink service. Though I woke up here or there I was able to sleep in some fashion for all but say the last 20 minutes of the flight since they announced they were in landing descent.  The plane deboarded quickly.

 I got to and through immigration rapidly too.  I had to wait a bit for my suitcase even with a quick pit stop.  I got out and had to wait a little bit for Daniela to arrive. She did and it was great to finally see her again after several months. We took a taxi to her house and her family was waiting to take us to breakfast.  We took a short walk to a restaurant that sells pan con chicharon which is basically roasted pork sandwiches. Donna and her boyfriend Edwin went along with my mother-in-law.  The food was really good but so soon off the flight I didn’t eat a lot. My stomach was still roiling a little bit.  After we ate we got back to the house and Daniela and I packed day trip bags as we were not staying in the house or at an apartment for the next few days. We packed and took a taxi to Miraflores where we were staying at the Hotel Arawi that everyone else stayed at their last night in Lima during the wedding trip.  We got settled in and then basically it wasn’t long before sleep took over. Even with the sleep on the plane I was exhausted and Daniela hadn’t really slept the night before either.  After a nap we got cleaned up and headed out to take a walk and get some empanadas.

After we got back from walking around and completing a couple of errands we went down to the hotel restaurant and had our free drink each (a pisco sour) and ordered our dinner. We had the dinner delivered to the room. I had the pulpo (octopus) starter. Daniela had the scallops starter. We both had the baby chicken on a bed of new potatoes for dinner. The food was good but the sauce the chicken was braised in was a bit salty.  I had the handmade ice cream which was chocolate flavored but seemed more like chocolate cookie flavored (it was very good). Daniela had a crepe with vanilla ice cream and caramel.  After dinner we relaxed for the evening because we had an early start the next day.

The pictures from day 1 are located here.

Japan and Hong Kong for Training

I have been asked to provide training courses in Japan and in Hong Kong this May to June so will begin the planning process for this single trip encompassing both countries.

The Japan portion will be to teach our authorized dealer about the Dimensions system which is the product I currently train here in the US. It is more cost effective for them to pay Hologic for me to go out there than for them to send all of their students to classes outside of Japan. Very similar to when I taught the class in Lima, Peru for our authorized dealer there.  I do not have all the details for the location of the training yet but I believe it is moderately near Tokyo.  I hope to spend the free days of the weekend in Tokyo instead of the location of the training.

The Hong Kong segment will be to provide 2 Advanced Dimensions classes one after the other for 1 week each.  I teach that class currently in the US as well.  Including travel days I will basically be gone for a month.  Daniela and I are going to do our best to get her out to both places with me.  I am looking forward to this trip for that reason a lot.

I have contacted Marina and Jack from each country respectively as fair warning. Hopefully we will get to see them while we are out there. I think we will be able to.

Less than 1 Month to Peru

I will be departing for Lima in less than a month.  I will be down in Peru for my beautiful wife's birthday.  We are not totally decided on what we are going to do for the duration of my stay but I am definitely looking forward to it.