We woke up and had a continental breakfast in the hotel. Actually we paid for the tamale to go along with the bread and butter and jam. The coffee was instant but the pack basically gave us 3 cups of coffee. We were given fresh strawberry juice to go along with that. After we ate we walked around the hotel's grounds and then sat in front of the "pool" for a few minutes. I say that with quotes because honestly it could fit maybe 3 people and there is no option for swimming at all, let alone diving. After a little while we went back to the room and packed up. The hotel manager said we could leave our stuff in the room after we checked out and then come back and get it.
So we took a taxi back down the main road to a place called the Hotel Molle where is the Parque Molle. This place has paso horse competitions or at least was having one this Sunday. Since they have a big riding area I am sure they do it fairly often. First things first, Daniela bought me a Peruvian cowboy hat and I wore that for the rest of the day. We then went and found a place to sit to see the show and had a couple of drinks. She had pisco sours and I had what are called chilcanos which are like pisco sours without the egg white and made a bit more strongly. I think we each had three while we sat and talked and waited for the show to start. Also I had my picture taken with some of the local ladies dressed as riders. It was obvious most of the people there knew each other except for that portion of us that were tourists. The show started later than they were intending (surprising!) because the riders wanted to have lunch or something like that. We also got lunch which was a pair of pork sandwiches. Mine was directly from the fire roasted whole pig that we saw on the way in Daniela said. She wasn't sure if I would like that so she bought one with processed pork too. She liked hers though I think she should have gotten both like mine.
The paso horse is a specific Peruvian breed that is trained to dance as it runs so that the front legs lift really high and it sort of looks like the horses are gliding around rather than running. They had quite a few rounds of competitions based on the ages of the horses plus also before that an exhibition by some very young riders. I think we watched the horses for at least a couple of hours until we knew we were going to have to go back because I was to fly home that night. I took a lot of pictures of the horses. Indeed I took few pictures on this trip until we came up to Cieneguilla.
We got back to the hotel and Daniela called the guy who drove us out there and we had to wait a while due to his car having a failure of some sort so so he sent us another driver to get us back to Lima. When we got to Jockey Plaza we took a bus that got us closer to her house then switched to a taxi to get us the rest of the way. We got to her house late (say 7pm) and her mother was a touch upset we missed dinner. Still we spent a short while there talking to her family before Donna's fiance Edwin drove us to the airport.
Daniela waited with me until it was time for me to go into the gate. We had a small slice of pizza from the airport Papa John's as it got late but mostly we just talked the time away. I left her behind sadly and then headed into the security which was a bit crowded. At least immigration wasn't too bad. I got to the gate to of course find out that the plane had mechanical issues and it would be delayed. I chose to shop for a couple knickknacks with this extra time but in the long run the delay turned out to be around 2 hours. I had a flight from Houston that my new arrival time would definitely not reach. When we did board we didn't take too long to get going still it was seriously late. I was put in a middle seat which rather bothered me but fortunately my neighbors were both small and it wasn't much of an issue in the long run. I watched Rio 2 sort of but fell asleep during parts of it. It was cute I guess. Then mostly I slept during the flight and woke up only when they handed me a muffin and a cranberry juice.
When that plane landed I was able to clear immigration and customs quickly thanks to the Global Entry and get my luggage rechecked and on to the gate for my new flight. They had already reassigned my flight (which would be nearly 4 hours later than I was supposed to leave originally). I was hoping to get to work to set up for my class that started on Tuesday but my Boston arrival time would make that too late. Still we were boarding quickly and on our way up in reasonable time. The plane was mostly full except the seat next to me. I had again been put in a middle seat but was able to move to the aisle seat. About halfway through the flight a guy came from the front of the plane and took my original seat because he had a neighbor who was sick the whole flight to that point he said. He was reasonable though and it was not an issue. The flight was uneventful but for a bit of bumps and an interesting landing as it was windy in Boston. I got my checked luggage while realizing I forgot to notify Flightline of my change and had to basically pay for two rides. They did get me a van though and I went straight home instead of to work. I basically got there in time for dinner and it wasn't long before I was completely passed out from exhaustion.
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