We woke up and I made coffee and Daniela had some juice. We then got dressed and walked out to El Parque del Amor and then over to the lighthouse and then back to the apartment. I think the walk is about 2.5 miles with almost no elevation changes. So not too bad but also not too tough. It was very sunny out except for at the actual coastline where it was quite foggy. We walked into the fog at the park and then back out when we cut back inland.
After the walk I prepared some grilled cheese sandwiches for breakfast for us and we had more juice and coffee. Daniela showered while I cooked then we ate then I showered while Daniela went down to the office (tough commute for her for work this week). I finished cleaning up some things then eventually headed downstairs also. There we decided I would make lunch for everyone (Daniela, Donna and Dianita who is helping at the office for a bit). They requested pasta (or at least Donna did) so we bought the ingredients at the Vivanda then I headed up to the apartment and Daniela went back to the office to work.
At the apartment I started by sauteing some yellow onion, adding garlic, then I added diced fresh tomatoes and let those simmer for a couple of hours to reduce. I didn't peel or seed at this point because I thought I had a good sieve but I had to use the regular pasta strainer when it was done. While the sauce was simmering I made meatballs by pulsing some Italian bread in the blender to make crumbs. I added that to sauteed onions, fresh garlic, the ground beef, salt and some Parmesan cheese. I thought this apartment had more seasonings but later guests must have used up a bunch and not replaced them or something. I rolled out the meatballs and sauteed them over lower medium heat. Meanwhile I also cooked some sausages (which were not Italian style). When all of the meatballs were cooked (it took 2 batches for proper space in the pan) I added them to the sauce I had then strained for the skins and seeds by that point. I cut up the sausages then made garlic bread with more of the Italian bread we had in the oven. By the time I was starting the garlic bread and the actual spaghetti I told them to come up and they brought up a bottle of wine. Overall the food was reasonably good though I made too much pasta for the amount of sauce I got (I could have stretched it by not straining but I didn't want all the peels. In a perfect world I would have had basil and oregano and black pepper at least (if not some crushed red pepper flakes too) but I did what I could. All the time I was cooking I had 2 Barbarian Brewery 174 IPAs to keep the creative juices flowing. We also finished up with dessert as vanilla ice cream and some coffee. My mother-in-law showed up towards the end of dessert time and we gave her what we had left for food and she ate though there were more meatballs than anything and she left the last 2 behind.
They stayed for a while longer then Donna and Dianita headed to the office and Daniela and her mother stayed in the apartment to work on other things. I set up a tablet that should make it easy for her mother to use to communicate with Skype. We set up email addresses and everything else too. It is an old Surface RT tablet left in tablet mode (though it has the keyboard attachment too). They continued to work for quite some time after I got all of this set up and Daniela started teaching her how to do things. I ended up doing some basic things. When my mother-in-law left Daniela still had a fair amount of work to do (we took too long eating) so I went to bed for the evening and she joined when she was done working.
I didn't take any pictures though I should have taken some of the food at least. My bad.
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Peru Spring 2015 Day 2
We woke up and had a quick breakfast with the family. It amounted to bread and jam or cheese and some coffee. After that Daniela and I started going through sorting the stuff she would be sending back with me so we dug through her closets and dressers and she decided what she could send to America, what she could leave behind and what she wanted to donate to the needy. Her mother also gave us some kitchenware from the old shop she used to have in a market and we had to sort through all that and decide what I could use right away and what would be better for later trips.
After sorting through most of it we had lunch which was lomo saltado made by her mother. She showed me a few tips about proper preparation along the way. I know I need cumin and salt for primary seasonings. Typically some red wine is splashed in (not a lot). I also will need to julienne red onions and thinly wedge red potatoes. The meat is cooked in a bit of oil then let to sit for a bit. It is removed from the juices in the pan and sauteed on higher heat for a bit then the seasonings are added and the red onions. After they have started to soften a little (but not too much) the tomato is added. Also technically spicy pepper (rocotto) should be added though I will have to find a substitute for that. Previously she had prepared home fried potatoes (I will need to find a good yellow potato for that). The juices are added back along with the splash of wine. Finally when all is done the potatoes are added in and it is served with a side of white rice. My mother-in-law made whole grain brown rice which disappointed Daniela. Nonetheless, everything was quite good.
After lunch we started packing up some of the stuff and that took a while (lunch is late here remember) until we got packed for heading to the apartment and took a taxi there. We quickly got cleaned up and then had to run out to see a show where her friend Dianita (the woman who escorted the male side of the family to the church on the day of the wedding) perform in a salsa exhibition with the dance school she is attending. She is taking 3 or 4 different types of dance classes right now. She was quite good as were most all of the performers that night. Some were downright incredible for non-professionals. The show started probably at 8:30 and I think we left the club at about 11:30 or so after a small bit of dancing when the show was over.
At the apartment it was basically just finish unpacking a couple things then get to bed.
The pictures from day 2 (labeled as day 1 which is fine) are located here.
After sorting through most of it we had lunch which was lomo saltado made by her mother. She showed me a few tips about proper preparation along the way. I know I need cumin and salt for primary seasonings. Typically some red wine is splashed in (not a lot). I also will need to julienne red onions and thinly wedge red potatoes. The meat is cooked in a bit of oil then let to sit for a bit. It is removed from the juices in the pan and sauteed on higher heat for a bit then the seasonings are added and the red onions. After they have started to soften a little (but not too much) the tomato is added. Also technically spicy pepper (rocotto) should be added though I will have to find a substitute for that. Previously she had prepared home fried potatoes (I will need to find a good yellow potato for that). The juices are added back along with the splash of wine. Finally when all is done the potatoes are added in and it is served with a side of white rice. My mother-in-law made whole grain brown rice which disappointed Daniela. Nonetheless, everything was quite good.
After lunch we started packing up some of the stuff and that took a while (lunch is late here remember) until we got packed for heading to the apartment and took a taxi there. We quickly got cleaned up and then had to run out to see a show where her friend Dianita (the woman who escorted the male side of the family to the church on the day of the wedding) perform in a salsa exhibition with the dance school she is attending. She is taking 3 or 4 different types of dance classes right now. She was quite good as were most all of the performers that night. Some were downright incredible for non-professionals. The show started probably at 8:30 and I think we left the club at about 11:30 or so after a small bit of dancing when the show was over.
At the apartment it was basically just finish unpacking a couple things then get to bed.
The pictures from day 2 (labeled as day 1 which is fine) are located here.
Sunday, March 29, 2015
Peru Spring 2015 Day 1
Ok, so I admit my pre-travel blogging has suffered over the last few years and that I have not been updating people as to when I am traveling. This trip is of course for Daniela's birthday and to bring back some of her stuff for the eventual move here. It was planned for her birthday as we didn't know how long it would take to get to the visa needed to get in. We have only basic plans and are not doing anything for travel inside of Peru. We are only staying in Lima in the apartment that my family stayed in for the wedding. It is right above her office. I arrived to the airport a bit early by getting a ride from David. He brought Murphy along and Murphy wanted to do the whole sit on me and lick my face thing but fortunately he calmed down after a couple of minutes. I brought two bags for this trip but I also was upgraded to business class seats (I guess the flight may not be full for a change. I picked Copa Airlines based on price and timing of the flights. I have a long layover in Panama which is a small airport but realistically I deal with that versus later arrivals to Lima. I guess my Star Alliance Premier status gave me the free instant upgrade (apparently for both flights which quite rocks). Copa departs Logan from terminal E but the place was a ghost town on this Saturday morning so the check-in, security (with no TSA Pre) and such was very fast and easy. I got to the gate more than an hour before boarding was to start. The plane was waiting on the tarmac but not on the gate yet. I assumed unless there were other reasons for a delay we could probably get out on time. Fortunately there was just a short de-icing delay but nothing more than a couple of minutes. Of course it was snowing as a last statement from the winter in Boston this year.
The plane was a 737-700 and I was in seat 3A at the back row of the business class section. I got on quickly and had no issues with getting my backpack in the overhead. The flight was about 6 hours long. They did not have individual seat entertainment even in business class. The movie on the overhead was The Theory of Everything which I wanted to watch but the video and sound was screwed up so it became difficult to enjoy missing so much. I do wish to watch it for real because it seemed legitimately interesting. I had red wine and the meal had 2 courses which were served rapidly in succession. Unfortunately the first course had a sandwich which was good and that was followed too soon by a pork medallion which I didn't end up finishing. The food was good and tasty, just too much. There was also a salad, roll and butter (olives in the roll) and ice cream with caramel sauce for dessert. I slept after the movie finished for quite a while after turning over to a music channel with about an hour loop of songs and listening to that repeatedly. The flight had a few bumps on the way down as we passed through a brief rain storm.
Panama airport is really small. Ironically I landed at gate 31 and needed to go to gate 30 but 4 hours or so later. I chose to wander the whole airport and found the upstairs food court where I had a couple of Cerveza Panama drafts (it was an average beer at best) and a Cheeseburger in Paradise. The name of the bar/restaurant was Margaritaville Air so I guess that makes sense. The burger was ok but not spectacular. Really eating was about killing time more than anything. After a while I wandered the airport again and then after the previous plane departed gate 30 I found a seat there and waited out the last hour or so.
Not many folks boarded at group 1 so I was on quick again with a spot for my backpack up top. I stole the window seat instead of the aisle seat which worked out well for the family that was together in the business class area for this flight. I was in seat 4F where I should have been seat 4E. This plane was a 737-800 and had one more row of business class so I was still in the back row. They had a full course meal also but I mainly nibbled on things. The main was chicken with jasmine rice and the first course was a cream of tomato soup that looked like ketchup so I didn't try it (it was far too thick to be right to me). I had mostly water and one glass of red wine here too. They showed Gravity on the overhead and I basically watched it though I didn't much like it. Couldn't believe what was going on or care much about the character. I fell asleep for a bit after that listening to the same loop as on the first plane. This flight was 3 hours and 10 minutes long. It was bumpy most of the way but not horribly so.
When we landed I got stuck in a stupid line for immigration (my fault, Chinese kids who couldn't fill out the forms correctly or communicate in either Spanish or English well). Still it wasn't too long and my bags were both among the first off the carousel. I had already texted Daniela and she picked me up with Edwin and Donna. Edwin drove and I met them outside and jumped in the car quickly. It was definitely better than finding a taxi.
Everyone was awake still at 11pm and Edwin and Donna stayed. They made some chilcanos and we toasted then watched a news program for a short while. After a bit they went to get something to eat (at around midnight) and they all got soups at an open 24 hours restaurant named Rico Rico. I didn't eat because I was stuffed. When they finished we came back to the house and got cleaned up and went to bed for the evening.
The plane was a 737-700 and I was in seat 3A at the back row of the business class section. I got on quickly and had no issues with getting my backpack in the overhead. The flight was about 6 hours long. They did not have individual seat entertainment even in business class. The movie on the overhead was The Theory of Everything which I wanted to watch but the video and sound was screwed up so it became difficult to enjoy missing so much. I do wish to watch it for real because it seemed legitimately interesting. I had red wine and the meal had 2 courses which were served rapidly in succession. Unfortunately the first course had a sandwich which was good and that was followed too soon by a pork medallion which I didn't end up finishing. The food was good and tasty, just too much. There was also a salad, roll and butter (olives in the roll) and ice cream with caramel sauce for dessert. I slept after the movie finished for quite a while after turning over to a music channel with about an hour loop of songs and listening to that repeatedly. The flight had a few bumps on the way down as we passed through a brief rain storm.
Panama airport is really small. Ironically I landed at gate 31 and needed to go to gate 30 but 4 hours or so later. I chose to wander the whole airport and found the upstairs food court where I had a couple of Cerveza Panama drafts (it was an average beer at best) and a Cheeseburger in Paradise. The name of the bar/restaurant was Margaritaville Air so I guess that makes sense. The burger was ok but not spectacular. Really eating was about killing time more than anything. After a while I wandered the airport again and then after the previous plane departed gate 30 I found a seat there and waited out the last hour or so.
Not many folks boarded at group 1 so I was on quick again with a spot for my backpack up top. I stole the window seat instead of the aisle seat which worked out well for the family that was together in the business class area for this flight. I was in seat 4F where I should have been seat 4E. This plane was a 737-800 and had one more row of business class so I was still in the back row. They had a full course meal also but I mainly nibbled on things. The main was chicken with jasmine rice and the first course was a cream of tomato soup that looked like ketchup so I didn't try it (it was far too thick to be right to me). I had mostly water and one glass of red wine here too. They showed Gravity on the overhead and I basically watched it though I didn't much like it. Couldn't believe what was going on or care much about the character. I fell asleep for a bit after that listening to the same loop as on the first plane. This flight was 3 hours and 10 minutes long. It was bumpy most of the way but not horribly so.
When we landed I got stuck in a stupid line for immigration (my fault, Chinese kids who couldn't fill out the forms correctly or communicate in either Spanish or English well). Still it wasn't too long and my bags were both among the first off the carousel. I had already texted Daniela and she picked me up with Edwin and Donna. Edwin drove and I met them outside and jumped in the car quickly. It was definitely better than finding a taxi.
Everyone was awake still at 11pm and Edwin and Donna stayed. They made some chilcanos and we toasted then watched a news program for a short while. After a bit they went to get something to eat (at around midnight) and they all got soups at an open 24 hours restaurant named Rico Rico. I didn't eat because I was stuffed. When they finished we came back to the house and got cleaned up and went to bed for the evening.
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