We had to wake up sort of early and get ready for Daniela to go to the Japanese embassy to apply for her visa for the trip in May. We had to get to Ave San Filipe by 9:30 when her appointment was set. She was told not to be late. We had to do a couple small tasks before we left but most of the stuff was completed the night before. We took a taxi and with the traffic made it almost exactly at 9:30. We were expecting they would let me in but instead they did not. I had to wait outside. The waiting took approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes until she came outside to ask me a couple questions, wrote down the answers and went back in. She said he woman was very stoic and hard to read. She thought the woman didn't like her. Either way, they took the paperwork and passport and told her she would know by next Wednesday, which is of course after I leave. The nice thing was the morning was sunny but I found a reasonably shady spot to stand and wait. I was not the only person waiting for someone. It appears their standard procedure is to take the passport and not tell the individual if they are getting the visa or not. At least it is not necessary to pay if they reject you (which is different from the US process).
After the visa interview we took a taxi back to the hotel and dropped off some stuff and changed clothes then headed down to the bank and then to her office where we met with her sister and she completed a couple tasks. After that we all went to lunch at the restaurant Danica in Miraflores (there is one in San Isidro we went to for our first date so to speak back in June of 2012) that had opened recently. It was down past Larcomar and we ended up taking a taxi to get there. Donna had linguine with mushroom sauce. Daniela had linguine with clams and I had cannelloni "seco" which is a preparation of shredded pot roasted beef that was served in homemade cannelloni shells with a creamy cheese sauce over it. The seco is actually a Peruvian thing but Danica claims to be Italian/Peruvian fusion so it was not surprising. The food was very good. We each had a glass of Chianti to go along with the food.
After lunch we took a taxi back to the office then Donna went back to work and we headed to the Vivanda to buy food to make dinner for the evening where we invited Donna and Edwin to come over. When we finished shopping and brought the food back to the apartment I decided to do some laundry since we had the machine and dryer and bought some laundry detergent. Unfortunately I didn't notice the drain hose was not aimed into the sink and while I started chopping vegetables and Daniela was heading back down to the office she found the large pool of water that had filled the laundry room and part of the main landing. We had to spend probably half an hour cleaning up all the water. It was fairly embarrassing and annoying. It did clean up though and it didn't appear we had any leaks to the lower floors or anything like that after all. With the windows open the remainder dried out over the earlier course of the night.
When the disaster was recovered I went back to food prep and Daniela headed to the office. I turned on the Bruins game somewhere in the second period though by the time they all were in the apartment the game was not over and I did not hear the end. Unfortunately the lost to the Red Wings though they were leading or tied when we turned it off. I made a variation of shepherd's pie which used corn (canned, they don't really have the same corn, their choclo is much bigger), chopped green beans and chopped carrots layered under mashed potatoes and over ground beef that had been cooked with onions, garlic, oregano, parsley, salt and pepper. That all got put into the oven and I let it set until very close to when Donna and Edwin arrived after Daniela had returned. I even had all the pots and pans for preparation washed before they arrived. They came with a bottle of Argentinian Malbec. We had also bought an apple strudel for dessert. They all said the really liked the dish but I think it turned out a bit too dry. I think it was in the oven at a higher heat than I wanted for a bit too long (cursed Celsius based oven). The flavors were good though and if it had just been a bit juicier it would have been better to me. After the shepherd's pie we had the strudel and I made some coffee and we had that too. We talked about a lot of different things. Donna and Edwin are practicing their English and I am trying to pick up more and more of my Spanish (though having a harder time than them). It was a very nice night and I enjoyed having them over and cooking for them. They helped wash the dishes and then a little bit later they left for the night.
It wasn't long till I was in bed exhausted. I think Daniela watched TV for some amount of time (we have Direct TV cable here (no NHL package though).
The pictures from today are located here.
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