Peru Spring 2015 Day 3

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.

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.

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.

Last Trip Information Delay

Sorry everything was so late from the last trip. I arrived home starting being sick and had to start teaching immediately.  I slept through the first weekend before I started considering working on the material.  Then I got tied up in being busy elsewhere as well.

Peru Christmas 2014 Day 15

We woke up kind of latish. We stayed around the house for the morning and then had to get ready and went to Donna and Edwin’s house for lunch.  I was still not feeling great to my stomach.

They served ceviche for a starter followed by arroz con pollo.  We brought along a bottle of wine but I didn’t drink. I had the chicha morada they provided and also some tea.  They had some cookies for dessert.  Daniela’s brother did not make it to their house but her mother did if a little bit later than they had hoped for. I didn’t take pictures in their house though probably I should have because it is very nice.  The food was really good and fortunately I didn’t have any adverse reactions to it. I wonder if it was just Daniela’s family from Arequipa that was the issue?

After we ate dinner we had tried to make plans to meet up with Dan from NY in Lima downtown. He was staying near there he thought so Daniela and I took a taxi to get there to meet him for six but due to her mother’s arriving late we ate later than we expected and showed up at 6:15. Apparently Dan had already given up on us so we ended up waiting around till about 7:00 before deciding to head back to the house.  We were able to trade emails with him and found out that he just panicked that we weren’t showing and left after a couple minutes of us being late. I was surprised primarily because of how late we were compared to what we said on New Year’s Eve.  I thought he might have figured that out.

At the house we primarily got me packed up and ready to get on the plane that night but we also relaxed a little bit while waiting.  After all was said and done we had to get a taxi to the airport. My first flight out of Lima was to be delayed by weather in the US but we were told to go in for the normal time just in case. So we got to the airport. My check-in was quick. The lady at the desk told me the delay shouldn’t be a problem for my flight from Houston so I should be ok with my already set flights.  I met Daniela in the open area and we stayed at the food court of the airport until it was time for me to head in. My flight remained delayed by some time but I still needed to make sure I got through security and immigration without being too delayed. We didn’t eat anything or even do any shopping. We just sat and talked until it was time for me to go. The security line was a bit rough but immigration was quick.  So probably I left a few minutes earlier than I needed to. Of course we wanted to be together as long as possible.  I think in some respects we are getting too used to this part of the trip. I don’t like it much but it won’t be for much longer I hope.  So I got in and found they were a bit more delayed than they said and spent a couple minutes shopping but not long. That covered the difference and when I got back we were basically lined up and ready to board.

The flight boarded reasonably well. I was in the inner aisle and had a Chinese couple next to me. They were quiet I think. As soon as I boarded I fell asleep and didn’t really wake up until less than an hour before we arrived to Houston. The plane was a 767-300. I didn’t even make it to the safety briefing before I was asleep.

We arrived in Houston. I go through the Global Entry kiosk and had an added step of being checked for ebola by a live officer but that was quick. Luggage wasn’t too bad and I was able to get myself through customs (the non-Global Entry folks were pissed at our speed through the line) and on my way to baggage recheck and then on to my gate (no security recheck needed as I was in the same terminal).  I didn’t have to wait too long before we were boarding. I did buy a snack for the morning because I really didn’t eat on the other flight and this flight wouldn’t have any food. But it was only some bugles that I ate most of before we got on board.  The boarding was quick again but I was literally surrounded by children. Some were quiet and some were obnoxious. The family with 3 kids and another on the way had no control over their children. I was still so tired I was able to sleep through most of that as well.  We landed maybe a little bit early. My bag was one of the last off the belt. Still Dad was waiting for me and we were on our way home with basically no traffic in short order. The Bruins were playing and lost in a shootout before we got home.

Pictures from Peru Christmas 2014

The remaining unposted pictures from Peru Christmas 2014 can be found at the following links.

Day 7 http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AbM2bZq2cuWjWJg

Day 8 http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AbM2bZq2cuWjWQA

Day 9 http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AbM2bZq2cuWjWYg

Day 10 http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AbM2bZq2cuWjWjA

Day 11 http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AbM2bZq2cuWjWrg

Day 12 http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AbM2bZq2cuWjWyA

Day 13 http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AbM2bZq2cuWjW6g

Day 14 http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AbM2bZq2cuWjXFA

Day 15 http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AbM2bZq2cuWjXNg

Peru Christmas 2014 Day 14

We had to wake up in time to get mostly packed up because we had a city tour in Arequipa for the morning but we would be flying back to Lima at 9 in the evening that day. The hotel was kind enough to let us leave the stuff in the room for the day because they had not sold the room and did not charge us for it.  We had a brief breakfast in their restaurant in the lobby which was South American version continental breakfast. I had coffee, orange juice, toast and some fruit. Daniela mainly finished the lamb she took back from the day before which the kitchen was kind enough to heat up for her.

At around 9am our guide for the day picked us up at the hotel lobby for our city tour. It was private. I am sorry I do not remember her name.  We started in a private car that drove us up to a couple different scenic points of the city first. In those points she explained a bit about the history of the city as well as the local area which again had tons of pre-Incan steps around as well as 3 volcanoes, one of which is still active though if I understood her right hasn’t erupted since 1450 or so just before the Spanish came.  The city used to have 2 main bridges over the Rio Chili but nowadays there were a real lot of them.  At the first point there was a statue of an Incan who was supposed to provide good luck.  She also explained about a local potato called maca and the local Arequipan papaya which is small and very different tasting from normal papayas.   The second site was also mostly scenic and we got a bit more detail about the city. 

We saw a church built in the 18^th century that was made with the local white volcanic rock. Volcanic rock in the region of Arequipa is either white or pink. The pink is not as sturdy as the white so most structures using volcanic rock are made with the white with maybe some pink for decoration. Though it was a catholic church it was set up on the outside with a really gothic/Incan look. The guide explained that most people out these ways didn’t fully just convert to Christian or Catholic but I will say hedged their bets and wanted to continue to work with their own gods.  I am sure that was the case for the vast majority of the peoples in South America being force to be Catholic by the Spanish. 

We headed to the Plaza de Armas and she explained to us about the square and the cathedral which was neo-classical style though made of the volcanic rock.  We didn’t go in that one but did go into another church built by the Jesuits.  This had some impressive decoration in the section that was built by brick rather than volcanic stone on the inside because apparently the plasters used don’t stick to the volcanic rock. The Jesuits had initially had the whole church painted in a style representing the jungle that was still in this one chapel/room.  Unfortunately they wouldn’t let us take pictures in there.  The outside was also a gothic/Incan mix.  The main part of the church was more baroque style at this point.

After that church we walked our way to the Monasterio Santa Catalina which was a convent founded in 1589 or so. It is still active with 15 nuns now. The place is termed, “A city within a city.”  This because the nuns were originally permanently cloistered in there with only contact to the outside world from a couple speaking rooms near the entrance.  The inhabitants were typically the girls of rich families who were sent there at age 12 or so as novices and were made into nuns by 18 or sent back out to be married depending on the family’s choices.  I don’t think the girl typically got a say.  It would be easy to say that in those days the women lived pretty well with servants and large spaces because they came from families who paid dowries to the convent to keep them there. If there family didn’t have enough money then they had to work as a servant to pay off their dowries on their own.  The convent was really huge and covered a few different “districts” that were built up in different centuries: 17^th, 18^th and 19^th.  By this point we had switched over to a guide form the convent instead.  The primary guide of the day left us inside the convent and was done with her part of the day.  Also, outside we met the “Most Kind Peruvian” as voted by a contest. I believe he used to be a policeman but now worked for the convent as a crossing guard for traffic so visitors could get in without getting run over. He said hello to everyone in different languages including English and was always smiling. We took a couple of pictures with him before we entered the convent.

The convent had a nice garden as well as an interesting laundry area. There were several chapels though most of that was converted into other working areas when the convent was turned into a standard convent of equality rather than the place of status it had originally been. There was one beatified mother superior at the convent. Her two miracles were explained to us. First supposedly after she died and was buried her remains were exhumed 9 months later and were still perfect. Second a person with cancer supposedly ate the dirt from her grave and was cured of the cancer. So John Paul II beatified her when he visited Peru in the 80s. I think we spent about an hour inside the convent.  You don’t get to see the active nuns who are cut off (but apparently can get permission to leave by the mother superior these days unlike before). Daniela bought some sweets made by the nuns in the convent too while we were there.

The tour car took us to the travel agency that Daniela works with to provide people tours in Arequipa. They had provided all we took that day.  We met with the owner for a few minutes and she explained about her company and provided some wisdom to Daniela because her business had been around for over 20 years.  After that few minutes the owner drove us to downtown Arequipa to meet up with Daniela’s family so we could have lunch. They were all waiting anxiously. It was her aunt and uncle and cousin.  We all piled into a taxi that drove us out to a restaurant that was a fair bit out of town.  The treated us to lunch. They ordered us a mixed plate that had chicharon, rocoto rellenos, pastel de papas (it was like au gratin potatoes), estofada (beef stew), lambs’ feet (pata de cordero) as well as rice and some other snacks. It was far too much food. The lamb foot was rather unpleasant to me being like rubber with a flavor I didn’t care for.  Her uncle ate a dish of meet from the nose of a cow served in a sauce with tomatoes and onions. They ordered a second dish of that and asked us to eat some of that as well. It wasn’t really that bad honestly. I was stuffed already by the time that came through. The got us some local chicha (which is fermented like a sort of corn beer) and some anis acholado which is like anisette.  We ate and talked for a couple hours before we had to return to the hotel and get our stuff ready to leave.

We packed up and had maybe another hour and twenty minutes so walked to the downtown area and talked and took some pictures before returning in time for our private transfer to the airport.  We got checked in and the plane boarded on time (we met Dan the guy from New York getting ready for his flight also and spoke to him briefly).  The flight was uneventful except for a few bumps and a harder than expected landing. We had a snack on board somehow.  Daniela had prearranged a safe taxi for our arrival. The luggage took forever still we got back to the house around 10:30 or so. Daniela’s mom was waiting outside for us and we talked for a while but I had another incident where I had to run to the bathroom though I had believed I was better by then. Maybe about 11:30 we called it a night.

Peru Christmas 2014 Day 13

I am sure that we woke up late. I think it might have been around 10:30 or so but since we got to sleep some time deep after 3am it made sense in a way. I don’t think we really drank that much so neither of us really had any sort of hangover but I had an emergency trip to the bathroom in the night and I was hoping I was better by morning.  We got cleaned up (I was pleased to find out the shower worked better) and headed out to a restaurant that served farm raised (on the premises) trout as a primary dish to meet her friend Elisabeth Yenny (call her Jenny) and her husband Fulvio who is originally from Italy. Jenny also worked onboard the same cruise ships Daniela did back in the day and that was how they met.  Jenny lives in Arequipa and the couple had a pizza shop that they were deciding to close and open a different one due to location issues.  Also to come along were there friends Lucecita and her boyfriend Andrea (also an Italian) and another couple that I am sorry I really can’t remember their names but they were more quiet than I was.  The wife was pregnant.  Fulvio was sick from eating bad calamari during their New Year party wherever they went so he really didn’t eat or drink much. 

Guess what, I had to again run to the bathroom (which didn’t have a seat and only had paper towels outside of the stall) because I again had an emergency. I had had a little bit of beer before this and I stopped immediately.  Apparently the restaurant was on some sort of holiday menu which meant it only had about half of what it typically serves and everyone got upset and we decided to go somewhere else.  So they settled up the beer and we all piled out and walked to a new restaurant about 7 blocks away with a short ride from a local family’s van. 

The new restaurant was on what Fulvio called Calle de Cholesterol.  Their specialty was also chicharon and all sorts of other deep fried things.  Daniela ordered lamb ribs. I had a dish of white rice because of my stomach. They had a lot of beer amongst everyone but I just had water. We had spots of dancing as this place had live music that continued throughout the time that we were there. I think we met at the first restaurant somewhere between 12 and 1 and left the second restaurant around 6:30 or so.  They were all very funny people but it was of course very difficult to follow everything because there were only a few spots of English in the conversation. I did my best to keep up but at times I had to tune out because it was too much concentration with all the people talking and the music in the background.  They were definitely a partying sort.  It was a long day for me.  After that Daniela had hoped to have dinner with her family but I begged off and she agreed probably because she was full from the lunch. We went back to the hotel and took it easy for the night. 

Peru Christmas 2014 Day 12

We once again woke up early and got cleaned up and packed because that was the only night we were spending in Yanque.  We had a brief breakfast at the hotel restaurant (which was included) and then hung around watching the animals until the bus came to pick us up.  The bus brought us to Yanque’s Plaza de Armas and we did a bit of local tourism in Yanque where we watched local children dance and looked at all the stall selling stuff on the square.  After a few minutes we all got on the bus and were brought to another small town nearby called Maca where we visited the town and the church and even had our picture taken with animals.  During this tour we met a Canadian couple from Nova Scotia and I talked hockey for a bit. Mike was a Bruins fan. His point being it is the nearest NHL city to Nova Scotia and we don’t speak French.

The tour continued on to the Colca Canyon where the primary target was to see condors flying. We had a few different stops along the way. Getting there they gave us a bathroom break and then we arrived at the canyon where we waited for about an hour and a half or so before we started to see a few condors flying around.  As we had only seen a couple at the scenic point we started on our way back towards Chivay.  However on the way we got out of the bus at least once because we spotted more along the way and the guide stopped and let us get out and take more pictures.  We were able to get some really good ones. Aside from those stops we had a couple more scenic stops. In one Daniela bought a couple of cups of frozen sancayo ice cream. Sancayo is a fruit from a cactus in the region. It is tart like a lemon and filled with lots of black seeds. The kind without milk started to look like saliva as it melted but the one with milk was more like ice cream.  I liked the one with milk more. So did Daniela.  With the scenic stops and one more bano break we were able to get to a local restaurant near Chivay.

It was a buffet restaurant. I took more than I ate. We split a beer. It had a variety of foods but I was still not feeling very hungry possibly from being sick or from the altitude.  After lunch we redistributed passengers and then took a ride on to Arequipa. There was little guide talk on this about 3 hour ride and we took turns falling asleep some. When the bus arrived in Arequipa it dropped most of the passengers off at their hotels if they wanted or at the Plaza de Armas.  Before we got out we made a deal with the Canadians, the couple with the Japanese and the guy from New York to meet at 11pm right at the Christmas tree in front of the Cathedral.

We got settled into the hotel room and immediately went on our way downtown to meet Danielas cousin Marita at her Ice Palace ice cream shop.  It was on the way to the Plaza de Armas from the hotel.  She gave us some ice cream to try from the shop. Her family has four Ice Palace shops around Arequipa.  I had coffee and coconut and Daniela had some fruit flavors.  Marita came out with us to help us shop for New Year’s Eve. Daniela needed some accessories and we needed the Peruvian traditional yellow underwear for each of us.  We walked around all over Arequipa it felt because her cousin knew all the places to shop for what we needed.  When we were done with that we went back to the hotel and got cleaned up and dressed up for the evening.

First we were invited to her Aunt and Uncle’s home to have dinner. We walked down to meet her cousin and then we took a taxi to their home.  They were already dancing when we got there. There were several friends and relatives.  We of course started dancing right away and they served a few different drinks in the course of the night. I think there was some Bailey’s, followed by champagne and then when we had dinner, wine.  One of the guests worked for Es Secur as a radiologist and was familiar with Hologic’s products which was kind of neat. We had our plans to meet the people from the tour at 11 but the night was going by pretty fast and they insisted we eat with them so we did and ended up leaving a bit late.  They served two types of salad, apple sauce, chicharon, some rice and potatoes.  I took a bit of everything except too large a chunk of the pork.  I ate most all of it except for the pork I ate all the meat and left the fatty stuff behind.  There was a lot of it.  We left I think around 11:30 to meet people we were supposed to find at 11.  They got us a taxi and we took it to the main square.

At the main square, near the Christmas tree, we did find the two Canadians and the guy from New York. They were already a couple to a few beers into the night and of course by then the fireworks had already started. We watched all the local people shoot off their fireworks. There were professional grade bombs going off but they were just being set off in the crowd sort of randomly.  Of course some openings like mosh pits had formed and people were mostly staying out of those points. There were a couple that set off really low and even one I think that exploded just off the ground. I know I saw an ambulance waiting in the square but as much as I teach Daniela I am not sure any did actually get hurt. It is just an assumption based on all the chaos.  After the new year turned and everyone wished each other Feliz Ano we stayed for a little while longer watching until a dog that was going nuts by the fireworks kind of made us decide it was best to get out. There was a point he tried to attack some exploding firecrackers. 

We walked out of the square to Calle San Francisco and eventually found a bar/club called Carusso on the second floor of a small plaza on the street and paid 15 soles each to get in. They said they had no tables left to sit at but the goal was dancing anyway.  So we bought some beers and started dancing. They did a DJ mix of Spanish and American music. After a couple of hours the other 3 foreigners had their fill of dancing and decided to leave. We escorted them out and continued on dancing for probably another hour before deciding to leave ourselves. Daniela was wearing new shoes and her feet were killing her. We took a taxi to the hotel and crashed for the night. We had asked the hotel if we could switch rooms from the first because the shower didn’t function great and the lack of any light blocking curtains made the room bright at 5am. When we got back to the hotel they moved us down a floor to a room that was almost identical except it had a sheltered window which meant not as much light could get in.

Peru Christmas 2014 Day 11

We had another early day for the idea of taking tours so we had to wake up at around 6am or so.  After we got cleaned up we had a short breakfast in the hotel. We were picked up by a tour bus that brought us through the region on our way from Puno to Chivay.  We had to cross through the mountains and go to altitudes of 4920 meters at one point on the trip. We had a few scenic overlooks along the way but it was a couple to three hour drive between the two points.   We met a couple (not sure if they were really a couple or just traveling together) that was a woman from Arequipa in Peru and a Japanese man from Saporro who is living in Chile.  They were very funny. The Japanese guy spoke Spanish and a little bit of English as well.  We also met an American guy from New York named Dan who was traveling alone through Peru and didn’t really have set plans so asked us what we were doing to have a good idea what to do.  We told him we would meet him at 4pm to try to get him booked on our tours for the next couple of days.

Actually we spent the night in Yanque not Chivay. Yanque is about 15 minutes away from Chivay downhill.  The tour bus dropped us off at Chivay’s Plaza de Armas and we immediately took a taxi to the hotel called the Eco Inn Lodge.  We asked the taxi driver to bring us back to the city at about 2pm.  This gave us enough time to get settled in and take a brief nap before we the taxi actually did come back and pick us up and bring us to Chivay. We ate a quick lunch at a restaurant suggested by the taxi driver which was primarily a buffet place but we ordered off a menu because neither of us wanted buffet. Daniela had a set menu that had quinoa soup along with medallions of alpaca and all the tea she could drink.  I had spaghetti with hauncaina sauce with fried beef. I ate most of the spaghetti but the meat was a bit too much for my stomach still so I left a fair bit of it behind. The guide for our next couple days found us at the restaurant and told us we needed to be at the bus for 3:40 but we were a few minutes late.  We had told the guide about Dan and fortunately he found him and signed him on so he would go through the Colca Canyon on to Arequipa with us.  We had to do some shopping because Daniela needed a swimsuit.  That was what put us a bit late.

The tour for 4pm was actually a visit to a local hot springs. Daniela remembered a specific springs but that was not where we were brought. Apparently the one she remembered is much nicer but that had a few pools under maintenance and was too crowded to bring tours to with its now limited number of pools. So instead we went to one just below our hotel Yanque that I think was called Chacapi.  We did spend a fair bit of the hour in the water. It was very windy and the springs were open air mostly so we stayed in the sheltered pool.  The water was warm but not boiling hot. It actually turned out to be reasonably pleasant even if we spent our time at the deeper part where Daniela could not touch the floor and I could barely tip toe to reach it.  I didn’t take any pictures of the hot springs.  After the hour was done the tour bus brought us back to the hotel where we got cleaned up and then went to the reception area/restaurant and had a dinner of only dessert. I had quinoa ice cream with some sort of fruit sauce on it and Daniela had a banana crepe. They were both very good. We accompanied those with a pitcher of hot chocolate.

When we finished that we went back to the room and watched a movie on TV that was in English but they only gave the title Votas de Amor in Spanish for some reason. There weren’t even subtitles in Spanish for it. It was a romantic film starring Channing Tatum as a guy whose wife gets a brain injury in a car accident and loses 5 years of her memory.  She apparently never regained it but they fell in love all over again.  It was supposedly based on a true story.  I am sure it was a touch fantasized.   After that we called it a night.

Peru Christmas 2014 Day 10

We had to get up early to get picked up for our tour to Lake Titicaca. We had a short breakfast but the tour arrived early so we had to rush and still they drove away and had to come back for us.

The start of the tour brings you to the port at the lake and we boarded a small boat that held about 25 people.  The guide explained about the lake and about the cultures that existed and exist on and around the lake. The main focus of the tour was to visit the Uros and Taquile Island. First we rode out through the reeds to the floating islands of the Uros.

Yes, floating islands. They are all artificially made using reed roots and reeds. The islands are apparently well designed enough to last 25-30 years.  The Uros moved to the lake many years ago and were originally Aymara, a pre-Incan culture.  I am not totally sure what motivated them to move onto the lake itself. It was explained somewhat as escaping persecution from other cultures. Originally they built reed boats but those only lasted about 3 years at best before they would sink. When they learned how to build the islands obviously they were more permanent.  The thing is every week they have to build up their island with more reeds. This includes raising any of their homes up higher as well. They said it takes about 4 people to pick up one of their reed based homes.  They prop the houses up a bit higher than the rest of the walking surface. It is odd to walk on the reeds. You feel like you are sinking in or destroying their ground on them as you create indentations.  They primarily subsist of fishing. They obviously would have difficulty with agriculture however they do also eat the new reeds which provide a few nutrients and moisture. We tasted them. It was a bit spongy but not terrible.  Their new mode of income now is tourism and they take turns sharing the tourists among the 23 islands they have.  The island we visited was a new island for tourism and their boat was very new comparatively to the others we saw.  They spent some time explaining to us how the island was built and they sang some songs and danced a little.  They were of course very pleasant. We got to visit inside one of the houses.  They sold some handicrafts and we got to take a ride on their reed boat to the other side of the islands.  The men were all off fishing I presume because only the women and children were in town.

After the reed boat ride we got back on the tour boat and took a ride to the island of Taquile. The highest point on that island was easily over 4000 meters.  We had a long climb up from the lake to get to the first stop which was a nice vista where the guide spoke a bit about the culture there. They were of course conquered by the Spanish but their primary language was also Aymara.  They lived off of agriculture and raising animals aside from tourism as well. We ate lunch at a restaurant in one of the communities on the island. Apparently they share the tourists among the different communities where are basically different families (similar to the Uros).  The restaurant served quinoa soup and fried trout and it was very good but I was very low on appetite from the sickness or the altitude or both so I didn't eat much.  The sun came out while we were on the island and by the time we were done I was very badly sunburned. It was mostly a walking tour which brought us up to the plaza de armas then down to a new launch point to get back on the boat. The island was very beautiful and there were many great views of the lake from different vantage points.

The boat brought us back to the port where we met Roxana and got a tour bus back to the hotel. I felt like crap by the end of the tour so I stayed in and went to bed and Daniela went out to buy a few things and to get some food. I fell asleep early still trying to recover from all that was wrong with me.

By this point I suspect pictures will be posted when I get home.

Peru Christmas 2014 Day 9

We woke up at 3am to begin our journey through the highlands. We were out the door a little after 4am to be at the airport. It took a bit of time to check our luggage. Peruvian does not do luggage drop off for internet check-in.  After that we screened security and then got hot chocolate at the cafe near our gate.  I think Daniela got juice.  We boarded and the flight left on time and arrived on time but it took forever for our luggage to get through to us.

We took a taxi to the bus station but unfortunately the slow baggage claim kept us from reaching the ideal bus to Puno. So instead we bought tickets for a 10:30 bus that they claimed was direct but was not in actuality we found out later.  In any event we had a couple hours to kill so had breakfast at a small restaurant at the bus station. I had a hamburger and Daniela had a chicken broth.  After we finished we found a place to sit and wait. Daniela bought a sorochi pill because she thought she was feeling the effects of the altitude. Oh yes and we had mate de coca.

The bus was set up with big reclining seats for the ride to Puno. We had the back two. We were both exhausted and fell asleep through most of the ride. Unfortunately we found it made several stops after the fact and what could have been 5 hours direct was instead 7 hours total ride.  We arrived in Puno to the hotel Conde de Lemos by taxi from the bus station.  It was just beginning to get dark and also it started to rain a bit.

We got settled in and then went out for dinner because we hadn't really eaten all day. It started to really pour out and it was a cold rain. The altitude lets the temperatures get down to near zero though I don't think they ever get snow or ice.  We found a restaurant off the main square which was only a couple of blocks downhill. It was called Mojsa which is a Quechua word but I can't recall what it meant.  It was very crowded all the time we were there. We had to wait a few minutes to get seated. All the time more and more people kept pouring in. It must be the most popular restaurant in town.   I had rocoto rellenos which are stuffed spicy peppers. The stuffing is beef with raisins, olives, peanuts and a few other things that has been slow stewed. They were very good. They came with salad and potatoes with cheese but I really only ate the peppers. Daniela had a quinoa soup. We both had a coca tea infusion which included honey and lemon. By the end of the night I had a fierce headache and totally dehydrated feeling. I am not sure but I think it was a combination of the cold and the altitude all at once. We ended up going to bed early. It stopped raining somewhere in the night.

Pictures from today will again be posted later. The internet speeds up in the high mountains were terribly slow.

Peru Christmas 2014 Day 8

Daniela was still not feeling well and I was coming down with it as well by this point so we had a late start for the day just in time to get cleaned up and checked out of the apartment.  The owner of the apartment was very nice and met us on the way out. They apparently live in the same building.  We commented that blackout curtains would help as it gets light at 5 and they have only a sheer curtain which works somewhat when it is dark out but not as soon as the sun comes up.

From the apartment we headed to Daniela's house where I really wanted to just back in bed but they made a family trip to La Punta for seafood. Lucho drove his car there so we didn't have to get a taxi.  We chose the restaurant Santa Pesca probably because of the guy handing out business cards on the way into La Punta.  We split an order of ceviche to start and I had chicharon de pescado which is small pieces of fried fish.  They had a guy singing live entertainment at the restaurant and when he learned it was my mother-in-law's birthday he made sure to mention her every song and he also had a fake cake and sang happy birthday in English and in Spanish.  We split lemonade pitchers and everyone ordered their own dishes.  The food was really good.  After we finished eating we drove back to the house where I hoped to get in bed for some time but it was not to be.

Daniela and I went out to Minka to do some shopping for her mother and to get our airplane tickets printed and some money changed.  This took a while and by the time we got back I was given maybe 20 minutes of nap before everyone came over for her mother's birthday. Donna cooked the food except the cake which her mother made herself. Donna made spaghetti with tomato sauce and leftover turkey.  We had a couple pisco drinks and a bottle of wine. The attendees were Daniela's family and Yanina and her mother.  It was a nice night and there was some dancing and stuff like that.  We finished up somewhere past midnight and I went to bed almost immediately but we had to wake up at 3am anyway so really I didn't get much sleep.

I will post all the pictures at a later time.

Peru Christmas 2014 Day 7

We got started late because Daniela was fully with a cold by the morning. Still she felt bad about being sick and wanted to get out to a drug store to buy something for it. So after a brief breakfast we rode out on the bicycles in search of lunch and a drug store. This was going fine for a while. It is definitely much safer to ride on the sidewalks here so that is what we tried to do as much as possible. In our efforts to find a drug store we drove past the John Lennon statue and continued on towards San Isidro.  We stopped to get some water and that shop owner explained where there was a drug store and Daniela bought what she needed a couple blocks away from where we were. We were heading on to finding a place for lunch when I misjudged the height of a curb and slid my front tire along it causing me to crash full on into the sidewalk. I spun the handlebars around and knocked the seat out of position. I got road rash on my right knee and my knuckles are all scratched. I severely bruised my right hand around the palm and wrist. I did not hit my face fortunately.  Probably because I damaged my hands instead.  A local helped me get up and helped with the bicycle. We rode back to the lady where Daniela bought water and washed off the worst of the wounds and put a couple bandages on those.  

After cleaning up we decided to continue on to a restaurant and went to La Baguette in San Isidro which was maybe another 15 blocks away from where we were.  I had meat raviolis with meat sauce and Daniela had a Thai salad.  Then we walked across the street and I had a Duet at 4D which is an ice cream shop mainly. The duet is like a large ice cream Oreo with chocolate sauce and caramel.  It was really good.  After that we made a quick stop to change some US money to soles then on to the apartment.

We got in and I made Daniela watch most of Guardians of the Galaxy but she fell asleep during it a few times.  In any event that got us to the point where we needed to get ready to go back to Lima downtown to see Donna act in a play put on by her acting school.  So we got ready and got a taxi. We were expected to be there at 7:30 (as everyone agreed the day before) but we got there around 8. We were the first to get there all the same. The doors didn't open until 8:30 I think. In all including her family and friends 13 people showed up to see Donna.  The play probably started around 9 and was about half an hour long.  I had a hard time following it at all. I can say it was conceptual in nature. Donna did very well and was only one of two women in the troop. The other woman was a sort of narrator which meant that Donna did all the rest of the female parts.  After the play ended we waited out in the courtyard for her for a while as she changed. Everyone pretended like she was a movie star and took pictures of her as she got outside.

We all went to Hotel Bolivar which is a short walk away from where the theater was. This hotel was once the premier place to stay in Lima but has waned a bit since.  They have a huge bar and are credited with being the place that invented the pisco sour.  We went there to have celebratory drinks.  Daniela and I had two pisco sours and some grilled chicken skewers.  While we were there.  There was a bit of confusion on paying the bill and we had a small gathering outside but finally I paid with my credit card and everyone else gave money into the bill to me.  

After all was said and done their friend Jacko drove Daniela and I back to our apartment. It was past 1:30am and we went immediately to bed.

I will publish the pictures from day 7 later.

Peru Christmas 2014 Day 6

We woke up fairly late due to the extremely late night/early morning (however you would like to put it). Everyone was up and about and we had a breakfast of panetone and coffee (for me anyway).  I was still full from the evening but everyone else had some Chinese rice and more turkey.  I was not able to eat any more than the one slice of panetone.  After we ate breakfast Daniela wasn't feeling great so we relaxed a bit longer then got cleaned up and headed back to the apartment. Edwin arrived so we were able to get a ride from him.  I took my shower at the apartment because I didn't have a change of clothes but Daniela had showered at the house.

We watched a bit of Monster House (in Spanish) while killing some time. I eventually ate the leftover pizza we had because by then I was hungry also.  When it got to about 5:10 we headed out to Lima downtown because we were going to see The Nutcracker with her whole family and their friend Mechi and her daughter Mishelle who was in our wedding.  We arrived in plenty of time and had a cup of coffee each before the start. Her family and everyone else however was late in arriving and the show was already slightly started before we all got in. Edwin and Donna were the latest of the bunch.  In any event we all got in not too far into the show.

The show was nice. It was the first time I had seen The Nutcracker live. They used children for the first part of the show before the intermission. They played all the rats and some of the soldiers and it was very cute. After the intermission they had all the real professional dancers. I would say the guy who did the Russian dance was probably the best though of course the lead female was excellent as well.

After the show everyone went their own ways. We walked around Lima downtown to find someplace to eat and happened into the cathedral where we found they had a boys choir singing Spanish Christmas carols (South American primarily I am sure).  I took a video of one of the songs.  They were probably mostly done because we only saw about 4 or 5 songs.  Then we walked around a bit further and found a place called the Atlantica and had sandwiches. I had a hamburger and Daniela had a chicken sandwich.  They were kind enough to make us food even though they initially told us the kitchen was closed. After dinner we got a taxi back to the apartment. By the way, the central square had one of the ugliest Christmas trees I've ever seen.

At the apartment Daniela had been coming down sick all day and we just got her some tea and wrapped her up in blankets and called it a night while playing a bit of Fantasia on the computer.

The pictures from today are located here.

Peru Christmas 2014 Day 5

Remembering that Christmas is really Christmas Eve around here. Well it is and it isn't all at once.  The celebration really happens at midnight between the two days. The idea after we woke up was to get cleaned up and head to her house from the apartment where we would drop off some stuff then go out to get a lunch and do some shopping. We originally tried Plaza Aventura which is right near their house but there was no place either of us really wanted to eat so we instead took a taxi to Plaza San Miguel which has better restaurant options.  We ate at Trattoria de la Bodega which had just opened the Friday before. It is a restaurant that we have eaten at before in Miraflores and in Larcomar.  We each got a glass of house wine. Daniela got a bife ala parilla which is grilled steak and I got raviolitos de gallinas which is fusion dish of Italian and Peruvian foods. It was little raviolis of aji de gallina which is a shredded chicken dish. It was served with a sauce made from mild chili peppers and had parmesan and walnuts sprinkled on. It was excellent. The steak was very tough however and Daniela didn't really end up eating much and they took it off the bill.  It is a shame because it looked very nice and even had a good flavor but you had to chew for hours with it cooked to medium.   I tried to eat their apple pie ala mode but I couldn't make it half way through because it was gigantic and there was no way I could finish it even though it was really good.  Daniela had tocino del cielo which is a custard that has coconut and caramel and a strawberry sauce.  That was also huge and made up for her steak.  She had a tea and I had a coffee to go with the dessert.

After eating we spent quite some time shopping through the very crowded mall and even going into a couple other places.  We had to buy a couple small things but it was not easy to find. Most of the stores in the malls are electronics or clothing. We did eventually find what we needed but it was past 7 by the time we finally got back to the house.

Donna was supposed to cook the Christmas turkey dinner for us but was a bit late in arriving. We relaxed for a while until she showed up then Daniela and I helped a bit with the cooking and we also went out and bought some fireworks (though only one thing).  Edwin was around for a little while but left to go to his parents' house before we got back from buying the fireworks.  As with last year the fireworks started around 9 o'clock and gradually progressed until it sounded like a war zone near midnight. We had a prayer then a toast at midnight as the baby was placed into the manger in the nativity set.  Then we swapped our gifts then went out and lit off the fireworks.  By the time we had finished all the tasks it was around 1:30 I think and we were able to start serving the meal. Donna did a great job with turkey. She also made sweet potato puree, "Russian salad" which is mixed vegetables including corn, beets, carrots and green beans, rice that was cooked with an olive puree so it looked purple and steamed potatoes with a green sauce on it.  All the food was excellent but it was really a lot and I was stuffed by the time we had finished. We had brought a bottle of chardonnay but it was not really a hit with everyone and I think only her brother and I finished our glasses.  I didn't much care for it either but I am not a fan of white wine anyway.

We typically were supposed to have panetone for dessert along with hot chocolate but it was late and everyone was stuff so instead we all went to bed for the evening. I had to put my contacts in a couple of glasses of water because I had not prepared to spend the night there.

The pictures from this "day" are located here.

Peru Christmas 2014 Day 4

Owing to the large amount of alcohol on the night before we really didn't get moving on the day until it was past noon for certain. Neither of us felt fully right.  We ordered pizza for dinner from Papa John's in San Miguel as lunch then relaxed for most of the day. In the evening we went to the movies and watched Paddington. It was dubbed into Spanish but fortunately since it was a children's movie I was able to understand a lot of what they were saying and I understood the plot. It was cute. Daniela really wanted to see it.  I am sure it is more oriented towards children than adults but it wasn't bad all the same.    After the movie we went to a local restaurant near the theater that sold grilled food and pollo ala brasas.  I had 1/4 chicken and Daniela had anticuchos.  Neither of us finished though the food was nice. I think we were still a little but off from the night before. Also the popcorn in the theater was probably more filling than we thought.  After the movie we did some brief shopping in the Metro and the headed back to the room where Daniela had a bunch of work to do and I went to bed early.

The picture from today is here.

Peru Christmas 2014 Day 3

After we woke up we got the water ready to shower. Apparently we were supposed to turn on the water heater for 30 minutes before we start to use it. I am not sure why that would be but that was the owner's request. In any event we got cleaned up and after sorting out being in the apartment a bit better we decided to take the bikes the owner got for us for a ride and get lunch. Ironically the restaurant we chose to eat at was right around the corner but we rode around for a while first anyway.  Daniela had not ridden a bike in something like 15 years and was a bit nervous about it so we gave her the chance to get more comfortable.

The restaurant was named Mi Propiedad Privada which means My Private Property and is apparently in reference to a song of the same name.  The singer of the song marks her man as her private property with her own blood to warn all the other women looking at him.  The staff had US flags on their shirts along with Peruvian flags and we found out that meant they have another restaurant in the US in Miami in The Breakers.  They are a seafood restaurant. Daniela ordered Leche de Pantera to start (it is a citrusy fish broth from making a form of ceviche that has shellfish and other things in it.  It is very black looking. Leche de Tigre is similar but is white.  I ordered a Corvina a la Isla which in English was referred to as croaker. I do not recall eating croaker before but it was nice. It was served with cream and parsley sauces and had bacon and mushrooms. I quite liked the dish.  Daniela had tacu tacu de mariscos which is a seafood rice dish focusing on shellfish.  We each had a beer. Then for dessert we tried the tempura helado which is fried ice cream. It was served with something like a fried cake around it.  The ice cream was strawberry. They gave strawberries and peaches along with chocolate sauce on it. It was quite good but there was far too much especially after the meal and we fell to just eating the ice cream out of the middle.  The restaurant was having a Christmas party for a company so all the employees were there exchanging their secret Santa gifts as we were leaving.  They had a band also and were being served tons of beer. Apparently the company does not invite spouses to these parties like they might in the US so it was only the employees.  

After we left the restaurant we rode the bicycles further out to the John Lennon park which has a statue of John Lennon and a skate park.  Daniela said the guy that put up the park took a lot of criticism for doing it. I think it is an odd thing to have in Peru also.  But we really only were there for a couple minutes then we rode back to the apartment. She was much more comfortable riding the bicycle by the end of the ride.  

When we got back to the apartment we had received a reply from the students I had in training that are from Hologic's authorized dealer in Peru, IDISAC. I had told them I would be in town and they said they could meet up with us that night. We got cleaned up and met them for drinks and piqueos (snacks, bar food if you will).  Daniela had a last minute sale so she had a lot of stuff to do while we were getting ready and taking the taxi and even when we were at the mall where we went to Cafe News.  She had to run out after we sat down and buy some bus tickets for a passenger but she wasn't long.  We had several drinks and I had Chilcanos rather than beer. I think I should have had beer though.  We had a BBQ plate that had wings, chicken fingers and ribs.  The food was good.  However the drinks were very strong. I had a good time. We talked about a lot of different things both work related and not. I think we spent a couple hours there. By the time we left and all of that though I don't have a total recollection of what happened. I know now why I typically stay with beer most of the time. Four beers would not do to me what these four drinks did.  In any event I had a good time even if I don't know how I got to bed...

The pictures from today are located here.

Peru Christmas 2014 Day 2

We woke up sort of late because of the late to bed time. Still I had my typical difficulty sleeping past a certain point and lay in bed for a bit of time before we got moving. We got cleaned up and immediately headed to Makro where it was crazy crowded but we had to buy some wine to drop off as gifts on a couple visits. Fortunately the fast line was not too big. Callao market where Daniela dropped off a pair of pants to be rehemmed because they were too long for her (I suspect this happens a lot). After dropping off the pants at a tailor we got breakfast by way of the market as well. We had pan con chicharon with fresh juice. In this market all the chicharron is made by Chinese people it appears. There are several stalls but one of them was really busy and that is the one we went to. Apparently they have been there for a long time and everyone loves their. I should remind that chicharron is pork that has bee deep fried and cut into bits and is served in a roll with a slice of sweet potato on it. I was expecting I wouldn't like the sweet potato on it but it was good.  I had fresh pineapple juice and she had a mixto which had a bunch of stuff in it.  They were good too.  After the breakfast we traveled further into the market to look for a dress for Daniela for New Years but didn't find what she was looking for there.

We then took a taxi to the port in Callao and went to the submarine museum.  We got there just in time for the next presentation with only a short wait of a couple minutes. The tour starts with a short video about the Peruvian armed forces, mainly the navy and marines. The video is really just demonstrations of their equipment without narration but set to music.  It was only a few minutes long but it was fairly cool.  After that you get to go into the submarine itself which is a German made sub that I think was commissioned in the mid to late 60s.  It is still seaworthy and can be moved out and turned around to the docks each year but cannot submerge anymore.  They have made it into a museum but still it is basically functional. The guide spoke only in Spanish but I did understand a portion of it. Daniela translated some other stuff. I think there were about 10 people on the tour or so including some kids.  I took a ton of pictures including some in the red light.  It was interesting to climb in and out through the ladders and everything. There were a couple of Colombians on the tour and the guy asked a ton about the torpedoes according to Daniela.  I had a hard time understanding him.

After the tour we got back in a taxi to the market and picked up the pants. We walked to Yanina's house an made a brief visit to drop off the wine, say hello and give a belated (not Daniela's fault) birthday gift to Yani.  We tried to walk to another friend's house but she was not home so we took another taxi to Plaza San Miguel and met her friend Gina briefly to give another gift and make a second attempt at dress shopping.  Still we failed.  We got one more taxi to her house where we were expecting to have lunch (at 4pm) but they were doing Christmas decorations. We helped with the decorating for a couple hours. I think it was 7:30 by the time we were done. There was an incident where her brother bought a pizza from a lost delivery guy who could not find the actual purchaser. We had a slice each of that along the way. Then we all got into Edwin's car and rode out to try to eat at a specific Italian restaurant which was closed of course. So we tried another place around the corner. I had fettucini alla pesto. Most everyone had pasta. Edwin had a pizza and Daniela's mother had a salad?!  After dinner we drove back to the house and immediately got to packing and took another cab to our apartment for the first week.

This apartment is in San Miguel which is closer to Callao than Miraflores but still near the water. We met the renters at the place and they gave us a tour and the rules.  We settled in after they left and not long after called it a night.

The pictures from day 2 are located here.  By the way there were no pictures from day 1.

Peru Christmas 2014 Day 1

My flight was at 11:15 or so which meant I woke up around 5:30am (because that is typically when I wake up) and then spent a slowish morning getting ready and cleaned up and all that. We left the house around 8am to get to the airport. Having silver level premier access on United meant that I didn't really have too much issue getting my check in done and getting TSA Pre check also meant that I had a breeze through the security line (though even the standard security line was not too crowded). The guy at the check in desk said they were really busy at 3am but it was not bad at 8:30. I walked around the gates for a bit then bought a coffee and blueberry glazed donut from Dunkin Donuts and found a place to sit near my gate. Gate 22 is at a stupid location for normal seats but it is near where the free charging stations and has a bunch of seats at bar style desks with high stools to sit on. I chose one of those locations and got to killing time. Obviously with the initial check in and security being a breeze I had a lot of time to kill. I wrote some portion of this as well as played a couple stupid casual games waiting for the plane to arrive and deplane.  The first flight would be an Airbus A320 to Houston. I was not 100% convinced I should take this route with what happened on my last trip through this way but I had to use United mileage to get the flight without spending something like $2500 or more to get there reasonably.

We boarded on time and departed a few minutes late because they needed to load two dogs into the rear heated cargo area.  I slept through the majority of the flight. There was no food service and no entertainment at all which I thought was strange for an over 4 hour flight. I would have expected at least the singular overhead movie but not even that.  The plane landed a few minutes early but being seated way in the back it took a while to get off. Fortunately in Houston we landed and departed in the same terminal not too far away. I got Subway on the way to the plane and ate it on the plane because they were already boarding when I got there. I don't tend to like airplane food except for maybe my couple business class trips so I was hedging my bets (correctly).  The plane also boarded on time and even maybe pushed back a minute or two early.  It was a 767-300 and again I was way in the back. Since it was an international flight they had in seat entertainment. I watched Guardians of the Galaxy, Dawn of Planet of the Apes and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in succession until the flight was over. I had a bottle of wine and only the extra food from the tray. I think it was supposed to be chicken and pasta but the smell made me not want to even open it.  I will say that I liked all three movies enough. Guardians of the Galaxy was the most enjoyable of the three.

We landed half an hour early and it took a while to get off the plane. Immigration was quick but it took forever and a day to get the bag before getting through customs. Daniela was waiting for me outside and after a very happy greeting we took a taxi to her house then to get some food which turned out to be at a Norky's because the restaurant she wanted to go to was not closed but the cook left. We had nuggets and fries and some sangria that tasted like medicine.  After we were done we went to her house to spend the night.