Departing Today

I am departing today for Lima where I will meet my beautiful girlfriend Daniela. From there we will almost immediately be getting back on a plane and heading to Cartagena by way of Bogota. Of course this will happen tomorrow but I arrive late today.  We will have a few hours of time to spend in Cartagena and see the city. It is a city we had not visited in our first trip to Colombia.  At 4pm we will board our cruise.

I am fairly certain if I have any internet connectivity at all it will be a few minutes here or there and I will mainly be out of contact for the duration of this trip.  I will be surprised if any of my daily posts and certainly any of my  pictures are posted before I return so do not be alarmed if I appear to disappear.

South Caribbean Cruise

I have one week to go before I fly back down to Lima to meet Daniela.  From there we are going to get on a flight to Cartagena Colombia. On that Saturday we will Embark on an eight day south Caribbean cruise which will visit Aruba, Venezuela, Curacao and Panama.  All of those are new places for me to visit so they will be something for my country collection.  I have never been on a cruise before and I am curious to see what it is going to be like. I am sure we will have a great time. I will be happy to just be with Daniela.

Peru Spring 2013 Day 17

The day started very early at 5am with getting cleaned up and packed even though we had a very late night the night before.  We had to leave the apartment. Daniela to go home and myself to get on my way back to Boston.   We had a taxi sent to bring us to the airport for 6am and we were out the door on time.  With a brief stop at her house to drop off her luggage we made it to the airport quickly because there was no traffic on a Sunday morning.  Unfortunately things were not as quick in the airport.  I did manage to run into one of my students from the last trip to Peru before I found my check-in line.

Check in took about 50-55 minutes. Daniela waited for me.  It was a long line.  Then we went in to the shopping area pre-security and bought some coffee at the McDonald’s and did a little bit of gift shopping.  We spent a couple minutes saying our good-byes before I was going through security.  Security wasn’t really bad, the line was short.  But the passport control on country exit had a very long line and by the time I was finally through it I had about 15 minutes to board the plane. I think I got to the gate about 10 minutes to spare and honestly the flight attendant asked my name because I was obviously later to get to the plane and they were looking for missing passengers. I should point out the flight was actually run by LAN and not American though I booked through American.

The plane was a Boeing 767-300 and I think as usual it was full.  I was supposed to be on a window seat but fortunately a guy on the inner aisle wanted to sit next to his wife who would have been next to me so I got an aisle seat anyway.  The plane actually had proper in seat entertainment systems and before we even took off I started watching The Life of Pi.  It was a reasonably OK movie and I would say it is worth watching without saying it was the greatest movie I ever have seen.  During the movie they served a breakfast but I only ate the breads and not the omelet  and had some coffee.  After the first movie was over I sort of watched The Adventures of Tin Tin but I did fall asleep during it a little bit.  I can see why it wasn’t that big in the US. It was a bit too scattered and predictable for my taste even if it was directed by Spielberg, co-written by Steven Moffat  and co-produced by Peter Jackson.  When they came around for the snack I guess I really woke up and watched it to the end though I missed a bit of the beginning.  It wasn’t bad I think.  After that was over I knew I had only an hour or so so I chose to put on Despicable Me (because I had seen it before) and it became background noise for me to fall asleep again until just a couple minutes before landing.

At Miami I used Global Entry to bypass the huge passport control lines and then had to wait a bit for the suitcase to come through.  Passing through customs was a few questions but no searches and was easy.  Then I had to recheck my bag and get across the airport to the American concourse which is D from I.  At concourse D I had to recheck into security and then I had to take a skytrain to the correct gate area.  When I got to the gate I found the Islander Bar and Grill and had a couple Bass Ales and a bacon cheeseburger (welcome back to the states).   I wanted a Sam Adams honestly but they didn’t have anything but Bass and crummy beers so I took what I could get.  I had 3 hours from the time I got to the security check in before I was to fly so I took my time then headed back to the gate and wrote a couple of the posts while I had some time.

The flight to Boston was on a 757 and I was moved around to allow another couple to sit together but I ended up on a window seat this time.  The flight was less bumpy than the one to Miami and I slept through most all of it I think.  The plane landed about 10:45pm. I think my bag may have been placed on an earlier flight because it did not come off the belt. Instead it was in a holding area.  My TSA lock was missing when I got home.  It took a while to find the bag. I had a Flightline van with a switch at 125 reaching home at about 12:30.  Thoroughly exhausted I headed to bed straight away.

There were no pictures from day 17.

Peru Spring 2013 Day 16

Partially because of the late night the night before we woke up fairly late and pretty much just stayed around the apartment rather than to do anything very exciting. We talked and watched the movie Brave on my computer. I tried to find Daniela Spanish subtitles to help but the track synchronization would not stay on target which made it a little tough but I think she got the majority of it. The difficulty she had was with the accents which made it harder for her to understand a lot of what was being said.  We both enjoyed the movie a lot but I will say it was not the best Pixar movie ever made (though I don’t think it was the worst either).  We ordered a pizza from the Papa John’s around the corner for lunch. It was pepperoni and mushroom and came with Buffalo wings too.   Both were actually pretty good.

After the movie we relaxed for a little while longer before getting ready for our dinner at La Rosa Marina  which is an upper end restaurant on the water down below Larco Mar and El Parque del Amor.  I have several pictures of it from up above it.  We were a touch late for our reservations but fortunately the place was not full and we didn’t really have to wait much more than a couple moments for our table to be ready.  We shared a bottle of Peruvian red wine called a tannat.  It was the Don Manuel variety from Tacama.  It had a very strong flavor which held up well with the food we got. For a starter I had the 5 onion soup and Daniela had the Niku maki which was a maki roll but made with acid seared beef instead of fish. The soup was good and the sushi was too if the rolls were maybe a bit too big for one bite eating.  For dinner I had the duck breast and she had mandarin style chicken.  I liked the duck a lot but it was a touch tough.  The chicken was tasty too.  For dessert I had the Café de Popa which was a coffee ice cream with coffee liquor and chocolate covered coffee beans and whipped cream.  I will have to ask Daniela again what she had for dessert. It was like a fruit flavored cheesecake but she said it is made with bacon fat instead.  There was a fruit sorbet as well.  I do not recall the name, it was sort of long.  We stayed at the restaurant until they told us it was closing then we took a cab back to the apartment and called it a night. I had to get up the next morning early to get on my flights back to Boston.

The pictures from today can be found here.

Peru Spring 2013 Day 15

We started sort of early because Daniela had to do some work in the office so we got cleaned up and headed there.  I bought us a quick breakfast at Fruta Grande which was a juice shop across the street. I had a coffee and got Daniela a juice of pineapple and strawberry and we shared a fruit salad.  After a few minutes I set out to find the local crafts and tourist markets up the street and spent a while doing some looking around to buy things.

When I got back to her office we had to go back to the hotel and pick up our stuff in order to bring it over to the apartment and we also talked to the apartment owner along the way.  After getting settled in the apartment we went out to get lunch (though it was kind of late for lunch). We went to Lima Café which uses actual Peruvian coffee.  For food we both got a set menu. I had fried yucca for starter and Daniela had a salad. We both had the spaghetti with rocotto sauce on it. I think I have mentioned that rocotto is a type of chili pepper here.  It was not spicy but it was very tasty.  With the meal I had a chocolate milkshake and Daniela had a lemonade.  While we were eating her friend Michelle from Switzerland (who used to live in Peru) came by with her husband and we talked for a while. Her husband Javier is from Nicaragua though he has lived in Switzerland for many years.  They were both very nice people. They also had another friend stop by while we were there because Javier was leaving for home that night.  The lunch also included a cake and we got coffee to go with it. Daniela had a cappuccino and I had a regular café Americano.

After Michelle and Javier left we spent a few more minutes at the café then we headed to do some shopping for Daniela before heading back to the room to get ready for the opera.  We managed to get into a taxi with what turned out to be just enough time to be seated before they started the show.  There was a lot of traffic on the roads and though the distance wasn’t far it took us about 40 minutes to get there. The Gran Teatro Nacional was in San Borja which is where the office I taught in during the last trip to Peru was.  It really only should have taken about 15 minutes to get there if it was not the heart of rush hour still. 

At the theater we were seated and almost immediately they dimmed the lights. The opera was Aida by Vivaldi. This was my first time to the opera.  They had a projector that gave subtitles which of course were in Spanish so I listened to opera singing in Italian while reading the subtitles in Spanish and trying to translate it all as best as possible.  The basics of the story are: Egyptian general is in love with slave woman named Aida. Slave woman is really the daughter of an Ethiopian king.  The Pharaoh’s daughter is in love with the general.  Egypt goes to war with Ethopia and many prisoners are captured including the king. Aida and her father are reunited but not after the Pharaoh’s daughter figures out what is going on between the general and Aida.  Aida tries to convince the general to run away with her but also manages to trick the general into giving up some tactical information that will help her father.  The general is caught as a traitor and is sentenced to death by being buried alive in a tomb. Aida sneaks into the tomb before he is sealed in and they die together in love in the tomb.

The opera was set in 4 acts with an intermission after the second.  When it was over we stayed for a little while and the stars came out and signed autographs so we waited and went through the line and took pictures.

After the opera was done we took a cab back to the room, got changed and went out for walk along the coast of Miraflores. We walked through the various parks we went through several nights before and this time I got to take some pictures.  Then we went to the market and bought some water and snacks and slowly made our way back to the apartment for the night.

The pictures for day 15 can be found here.

Peru Spring 2013 Day 14

We started with breakfast at 7:30 or so to try to leave for 8am back to the airport at Tarapoto.  We left  maybe a half an hour late but all the same it was plenty of time.  Because there were actually several guests this time they served  breakfast buffet style and we ate some toast, yogurt, fruit and had some coffee.

Ivan started the long drive back to the airport at about 8:30. We drove for several hours before stopping at Moyobamba in Restaurante Culturista Milan.  We each had avispa juane for lunch which is meat wrapped in rice cooked in a banana leaf. They served it with beans, salad and fried plantains. I had a Pilsen Calloa and Daniela had a cocona juice. The food was excellent. Mine was stuffed with a chicken leg and she had beef in hers.

After lunch it was back on the road to the airport for another couple hours where we arrived at 3:30 for a 5:30 flight.  We searched the gift shops but unfortunately they basically had nothing. Truthfully we hadn’t seen any gift shops at all during this portion of the trip.  The place just isn’t fully tourism ready yet though it is obvious the industry is growing.  After that it was just the long wait for the plane. It was hot in Tarapoto.

The flight was again on a BAe 146. Although the flight was not full we originally had someone else in our row but fortunately he didn’t want to sit next to us as much as we didn’t want him there. He was American.  He moved as soon as they closed the plane doors.  The flight itself was about an hour long. They served a snack which was a very small chicken sandwich and a muffin. I had a small cup of Inca Kola as well.  It still tastes like bubble gum to me.  The majority of the trip was nice but there was a brief spot of turbulence of note when we passed through some clouds.  A lot of the passengers made sounds about the way it felt including Daniela.

After we landed we had a transfer to our hotel for the night. We took a brief stop at Daniela’s house to pick up some things we left there and then on to the hotel.  We were brought to the Oro Bianco Hostal which was arranged by the people who we were renting the apartment from because we could not get the apartment for tonight.  The hostal was just a one night stay.  After sorting out the lodging Daniela had to run to her class right away.  She was already late.

I pretty much got into the room and crashed and when she got back we basically called it a night.

The pictures for today can be found here.

Peru Spring 2013 Day 13

We woke up very early and headed out the door without breakfast at 6am.  The intention was to get through the pass before they closed it up to continue working on it. When we got to the pass there was a bus that was stuck and Ivan (our driver for the time here) had to guide him through. After we got through we had a 2 hour ride to the town of Maria Ana (if I understood it quickly where we had a quick breakfast of bread and butter and jam and coffee or tea.  After breakfast it was back on the road again to Kuelap.

Kuelap is a fortress and residential and worship area from pre-Incan times. The guide named Leita said the fortress was begun around 2400 years ago and the culture that lived there survived through the Incan times into the Spanish conquistadors and failed when the conquistadors became involved. The culture called the Chacha in Quechua allied with the Spanish because the Incans were sort of enemies mainly on the principle that the Incas practiced human sacrifice and the Chacha did not. The conquistadors basically forced the culture to convert to Christianity and the high priests and those that refused to convert were slaughtered. They found evidence of the slaughtered being left behind in their rooms with head wounds like they were massacred in their beds then the area was set on fire.

The main temple of the fortress did not have an actual door but was built like a vase or glass and they used wooden ladders to get in and out. The guide said she has worked on the excavation and was inside it though visitors of course cannot. She described it like being in a wine bottle.

The place opened up for excavation in 2004 and mainly it receives Peruvian visitors and those foreigners tend to be German or French she said. I will say the place was incredibly impressive. Almost on a par with Machu Picchu.  There were hundreds of residences and basically they have done very little work to restore the location with only one replicated building.

After Kuelap we went back to the same restaurant we had breakfast in and had lunch which consisted of a soup with vegetable then a chicken leg with rice, plantain, potatoes and salad. We had lemonade to go along with it. It was a local restaurant rather than a tourist restaurant and the food was great.

After lunch it was back into the car for another couple hours of driving, this time to Karajia to see the sarcophagi.  The location is about a kilometer out of a small town and as soon as we pulled in we had to walk and some locals tried to sells us horse rides. They even followed us down telling us that we would  need them for the way up. The walk down was very muddy and it was getting very hot with the sun on our backs as we made our way to the sarcophagi.  I didn’t have a lot of understanding as to what was going to be there but Daniela had seen pictures of them in history books and on TV.  When we got down to the ledge where we could see them, there were 6 sarcophagi in a row on a very narrow but sheltered cliff on the mountainside. They believe the people mummified inside them were very important with the most important one having the red markings on the sarcophagus.  They know there are mummies inside because an explorer was able to rappel down and look in without disturbing them.  There were apparently 8 up until two years ago when a significant rainstorm knocked two of them down. They were destroyed in the fall unfortunately.  According to the guide her grandparents grandparents told through oral tradition that there used to be 130 of them but an earthquake destroyed most of them many years ago.  Aside from the 6 on one side there were 4 more of children on another cliff face.  It was interesting to see them.

When we were done looking we had to climb back up to where the horses were waiting and we decided to pay for the ride back because it was very muddy and mostly uphill. The fun part was when the woman handling my horse, named Felipe loosened the strap from the saddle while I was on it looking over a wonderfully steep drop so she could adjust the saddle’s position. Daniela rode a female horse named Rosa who was taking along a juvenile horse through the trip.  We climbed up and got off the horses after a couple pictures then it was back into the van for another hour and a half ride to the hotel.

We got back around 6:30pm picked our dinner menu and then went to the room to relax for a bit and clean up a little. For dinner I had the criole soup and spaghetti Bolognese and Daniela had a salad of potato like vegetables and bacon followed by eggs and rice. We each had ice cream for dessert though Daniela also had a small bit of brownie.  I had coffee and she had tea.  During dinner we met a Belgian couple who were going to visit Kuelap then Gocta over the next two days. Daniela speaks French and I think they were thankful for the conversation not in Spanish. I do not think either of them spoke even as little Spanish as I do.  She helped do some translation for them. 

After dinner it was off to bed for the evening. We were both exhausted. I think all the shaking from the dirt mountain roads were beyond tiring.

The pictures from today can be found here.

Peru Spring 2013 Day 12

We woke up early and were on to breakfast at the hotel which was basically the same as the day before. It was our intention to go through the area where the pass was blocked the day before however though they had opened it for a while they decided it was too dangerous and were not allowing anyone to pass again. Apparently more rocks had started to fall and perhaps they hadn’t moved the giant boulder fare enough.  So we decided to turn around and head to some of the other attractions we were supposed to see on other days.

We started with a bird sanctuary specifically dedicated to hummingbirds with its prize possession being the spatulatail hummingbird.  This is the bird that had a long tail with two little spatula like tips that are far from the body.  It is a tiny bird. We were brought in to a place with hummingbird feeders and probably sat there for at least an hour though I didn’t keep track of the time.  I took tons of pictures and a few videos. The sanctuary has 14 varieties of hummingbirds. I did not manage to catch the spatulatail in any pictures but I did get it in 2 videos, however brief. It was not around for long. The emerald breasted hummingbirds were very aggressive and protecting the feeders.  After a while we left the spot and visited their museum quickly then it was on to visit Pomacochas  Lake.

The lake was just getting geared up for the influx of dry season guests and it had not yet opened. We got to go out towards the dock which is used by the families that fish on the lake. We were allowed to get on the boat for a few moments as one of the families came in while we were there.  After a few minutes at the lake we also got a brief tour of the not yet opened for the season Puerto Pumas which is a hotel that belongs to a chain. The owner is an art lover and there were a lot of paintings by local artists all of the place as well as many antiques in the colonial style building.  The caretaker was very nice enough to show us everything really.

After the hotel visit we drove on to lunch at Herradura which is a trout farm and restaurant. We were able to help catch our lunch fish out of the farm pools and then they took them to the kitchen and cleaned and cooked them. We had fried fish. The meal was incredible. The fish was so very tasty and properly prepared. It was crispy and not soggy. They accompanied with rice, yucca, plantain, salad some local herbal tea called Lucia Herbia.

 After lunch we tried again to get though the pass but it was still blocked so we were brought back to the room where we relaxed for a while until dinner where I had a quinoa croquettes for starter followed by breaded chicken breast and fries. Daniela had the soup I had the day before then a grilled chicken breast with boiled potatoes. We each had ice cream for dessert. She had pina colada flavored and I had three colors which didn’t have chocolate in it, but I am not sure what the three flavors were.  After that we turned in for the evening by first looking at the pictures and videos from the day.

The pictures from today can be found here.

Peru Spring 2013 Day 11

We woke up sort of early to have breakfast before we were supposed to drive out of town to another city where we would see some mummies from ancient times however after we ate and got in the van we found the main road to our destination blocked up with traffic. There was a rock slide earlier in the morning and it caused a giant boulder to block the road in both directions and they were trying to get it moved out of the way.  There had been several days of significant rain just around Easter and we had already seen the evidence of several recent rockslides along the roads both paved and dirt so in some respects it wasn’t a surprise. Ivan, the driver/guide, said we should wait until 10 and if the traffic wasn’t moving we should give up and do the Gocta hike.  After waiting the amount of time with no movement we decided to turn around back to the lodge and start the Gocta hike.

We got back to the room and changed to more hiking appropriate clothes. We rented some rubber boots because they said the trails would be very muddy and would ruin our shoes. We got geared up and headed on our way straight from the lodge.  Our guide was named Leonce and he only spoke Spanish really though we taught him some along the way towards the end of the trip.

The hike to Gocta Falls is 5 kilometers out and the same 5 back from the lodge (I suspect it is a bit further as I think the tracking starts from a different location than our lodge but I could be wrong). It was a bit cloudy and it rained lightly for a portion of the way out to the falls. We had to don plastic ponchos provided by the guide during one stretch of rain.  The guide told us about the history and legend of Gocta Falls along the way as well as pointing out plants and other things along the way. He was a very good and patient guide as we didn’t really move very fast though the ups and downs of the trail.

The story as he said it is that Gocta Falls was discovered by a German economist out on a hiking trip with his girlfriend in 2002. The guy was trying to take a shortcut through an area to another when he came across the falls. In speaking with the locals he found out that they all believed that the falls were haunted by an evil mermaid that protect a large amount of treasure at the bottom of the pool at the base of the falls.  I have taken pictures of the story simply translated to English about Grigorio and the Mermaid and will transcribe it and add it to the blog at a later point. The story meant that the locals were all scared of the falls and would stay very far away from it. There are other stories to go along with it such as men trying to dive to the bottom of the pool to recover the treasure and of course never surfacing.

In 2006 the German along with a series of volunteers came back and the verified along with the Peruvian cultural ministry that the site should be made into a tourist destination. So it hasn’t been open for very long. They needed to convince the locals to switch from farming for very little amounts of money into a tourism oriented trade.  So with a couple years of work the locals started to embrace the idea and they built the trail we took. 

The trail travels up and down in several stretches and arrives to the base of the second tier of the falls (the larger tier).  The falls are broken into an upper and lower tier with two landing points.  By the time we arrived at the falls it was not really raining anymore. We ate a quick lunch of cheese sandwiches and an apple and candy bar at a scenic point in front of the falls then I took the waterproof camera down into it and got very close and took a bunch of pictures. The force of these falls was much greater than the force of the falls we went to in Iceland except maybe for Gulflos (but we weren’t at the bottom of those falls).  The height is 504 meters and it was absolutely spectacular.  A few minutes later Daniela came down and joined me.  We wandered as close as she would dare. The force did scare her a little bit.  After being down there for a few minutes we climbed back up to the guide at the scenic point and started the trek back.  Along the way a creature related to a sloth but not slow came out of the trees but I didn’t have the camera ready and we missed getting pictures before it ran into the woods. Leonce said it wasn’t a monkey because it didn’t scream. The sun came out during the return hike and we got back to the room late in the afternoon. 

We took much needed showers after we were done then ordered our dinner and relaxed until 7:30 when we went to eat (passed out is a better term).  I had the meat lasagna today because they didn’t have the pork loin I wanted and started with a criole soup that was different from the ones I had already. Both were good but the lasagna wasn’t heated up enough unfortunately.  Daniela had sauted noodles with some lomo in them which makes it sort of like a Chinese/Peruvian fusion dish.  She had a chicken and ginger soup to start.  We both had brownies with chocolate ice cream for dessert. She had a tea and I had a coffee.

After dinner we went back to the room looked at the pictures from the trip then crashed as we were both exhausted.

The pictures from today are found here.

The pictures from the waterproof camera can be found here.

Peru Spring 2013 Day 10

The day started very early for our change of location from Tarapoto to Gocta.  We had a quick breakfast at the hotel before loading into the van before 8:00am.  The first drive took us to around 10:30am where we drove through beautiful country, small towns and mountain road all morning. The views were incredible and it was still very hot out in the morning. The driver/guide listened to some music that was a bit techno for me but all in all the drive was fun. Daniela slept a little bit.

Our first stop was at an orchid nursery. The orchids are grown out in the wild but with all sorts of help from techniques they have learned over the years. There are some 3000 species they raise there. Obviously we couldn’t see all of them. Some grow at different times of year and flower for very specific periods. Still we got to see a lot. After the orchid farm we walked higher up the hill to their hummingbird sanctuary.  They have several nectar feeders on the top of the hill with a small porch-like platform that you can get in to see the birds come in and feed. There are at least 10 varieties of hummingbird that come to the area. We probably saw most of them. Even though it is difficult to photograph them I managed a few good pictures by using sports mode and just plugging away at it. It was honestly awesome how close they got and what they sound like. It occurs to me now I should have taken some video but I didn’t think to then.

After the orchid nursery we got back in the van and rode until lunch time. We had a boxed lunch which was a pork sandwich at the top of a mountain pass overlooking some beautiful scenery. It rained for a little bit while we ate.  After lunch it was back in the car where we drove on to Gocta. This did take a little while and we probably arrived around 4pm or so. We got situated in the Gocta Lodge which is where we were staying for the duration of this visit.  Then when we were settled we played a couple games of chess where we each won one game then it was basically time for dinner.

For dinner I started with a criole soup and then had a vegetable lasagna because they didn’t have the meat version. Daniela had the criole soup and a river trout with tomatoes.  Both were really good. For dessert I had ice cream and she had a crepe with ice cream and we both had coffee. The coffee is raised in the local area. It was very rich tasting.  I liked it a lot.  While we were eating a bat came and started eating insects outside the dining room.  It was interesting. Daniela had never seen a bat before.  After dinner we watched a Jacky Chan movie in the common room and then Couples Retreat (both in Spanish).   Then we turned in for the evening.  There are a lot of insects up in this region but with the lights out we were reasonably well left alone. Fortunately it didn’t rain during the night.

The pictures from day 10 can be found here.

Peru Spring 2013 Day 9

We had to wake up early to get the apartment cleaned from the apartment plus pack and then head to Daniela’s house so she could pack for the trip to Tarapoto and Gocta Falls.  It took us a little while to get all the party cleaned away and to pack and get cleaned up but we made it to her house by 10 and then to the airport maybe by 11:30.  Fortunately there weren’t a lot of lines when we go there so we were able check in and through security quickly and were at the gate with plenty of time to spare.  We had to wait a little bit as the boarding was a tiny bit delayed. We had to get on a bus and enter the plane from a stairway. They had stairs in the front and back of the plane for boarding but everyone entered the front for some reason.  The plane was a BAe 146 which I guess is a British Aerospace 146.  I think maybe it held a hundred people or so but we were definitely not full.  They served a snack and we had some orange juice. The snack was a sandwich and small cake.  Then we slept through much of the flight.

When we landed they said it was 34C which is above 90F. There were a fair amount of clouds in the sky but it was unlikely to rain. We had a transfer from the airport to the hotel for the night in Tarapoto.  The hotel was not far away at all. I do not believe Tarapoto is remotely what you would call a large city.  The hotel was named Tucan Suites Aparthotel.  We checked in quickly and they gave us a fresh grape juice drink as we checked into room 12 which is a suite room. It had 2 floors with the bedroom being downstairs and a kitchen and large balcony upstairs.  After we got settled we went to the hotel restaurant and had lunch. I wanted to eat light so had some pollo chicharon which were chicken nuggets and rice and Daniela had a very very spicy ceviche. After lunch we went down to the pool but I was more tired than anything and headed to the room to take a nap (I really didn't sleep the night before). Daniela had also napped just outside by the pool.  After a while she came up to the room and we talked for a bit before we went down to use the pool.

To me the water was cold and I barely was in there for 5 minutes but Daniela stayed in for near an hour while I sat by the poolside (it was dark out by the time we started this). After the pool we got cleaned up and we went to eat dinner.

For dinner they gave us a pitcher of fresh juice. She said it was called carambula.  It was nice. I had a criole soup for a starter and she had a salad of what I think was palm hearts. For dinner we both had grilled fish but she had hers with a garlic sauce on it. I had fries and she had fried banana chips.  I really liked the soup, the fish was good but a bit greasy. There was a lot of food and neither of us finished. Our dinner came with a dessert each and I had a stuffed crepe and she had a grape mousse. The crepe was good and the mousse was very strong flavored but she really liked it. However this is the first time she didn't actually finish a dessert that I have seen.

After dinner, it was fairly late, so we went back to the room for the night. I was exhausted from the lack of sleep the night before and fell almost instantly to sleep. During the night a severe thunderstorm passed through but mostly it was very heavy rain.

The pictures from today can be found here.

Peru Spring 2013 Day 8

Today started out a little bit late but not as late as some others. We first got ready and headed out to complete some errands before finding lunch. She wanted to take me to a seafood restaurant but it was very full and there was a line so we instead decided to try a Japanese restaurant as that was what originally we were supposed to do the first time we went on a date way back in June. Not too far from the restaurant she wanted to go to we found a place called Maido.  It was very nicely decorated and a bit expensive for Peru but I liked what we had.  We started with a sashimi sampler and an order each of tuna and salmon nigiri.  This was Daniela’s first attempt at sushi and I think overall she was sort of lukewarm to it after trying it.  We followed with a braised beef short rib sliced very thin and something they called a tiradito which is a Peruvian dish but was sort of more a fusion Peruvian and Japanese style mixed together. Both were very good. The tiradito had ponzo sauce along with garlic and green onion and a small amount of tomato on it.   We accompanied the meal with a bottle of cold sake that was brewed in California and was decent but not great.  After the meal we each had dessert, she had an assortment of things that included pineapple brule, azuki bean ice cream, tapioca and a yucca pudding type thing.  I had an assortment of ice creams that included chocolate, cinnamon, azuki bean and pink peppercorn ice creams. I had a coffee and she had a tea.

After lunch we headed to the dentist for more work then it was on to Daniela’s office for a while then we had to race out to go shopping for her birthday party with friends at the apartment. When we were done shopping we got back and started to prepare the foods and the first guesst Techi arrived.  She is one of Daniela’s dancing friends. Then Diana arrived, she is Daniela’s cousin. Then after Techi left Dianita (also really Diana but differentiated by the nickname) who is also a dancing friend showed up. Then Donna and after that German. Finally later in the night Esteff arrived with her friend. We had mostly snacks but also ordered pollo a la brasa from Roky’s during the night.  The drink of the night was beer and we finished off what we had before plus some more regular Cusquena.  We had cake brought by Diana and lit a ? shaped candle and sang happy birthday in both Spanish and English to her.

Deep in the morning everyone left and we called it a night leaving all the cleaning to after we woke up.

The pictures from day 8 can be found here.

Peru Spring 2013 Day 7

We spent the morning for Daniela's birthday in the apartment until it was lunch time then we went towards here office where she  had a couple of things to do. We ate lunch at a Pardo's near her office. Pardo's serves pollo a la brasa which is rotisserie chicken. We each had a quarter chicken, hers with vegetables and mine with french fries. I had a Cusquena beer and she had a lemonade.

After lunch she had to go to her office then to her first day of college classes.  I had to go back to Fernando for a little bit more dental work. She put me in a taxi that got me there. He did the work then he called a safe taxi to get me back to the apartment where I cleaned up while waiting for her.

When she arrived we took a walk out towards the waterfront but I didn't bring my camera because we originally had thought we were just going to buy some water for the apartment. It was a beautiful night and the sky was clear and we went through a couple parks that I had not yet been in then on to El Parque del Amor.  Unfortunately the local park services decided that it was a good time to start washing all the trees in the park with giant fire hoses so we decided to leave quickly.  Then we walked to the market bought our water and headed back to the apartment where we had some ice cream we bought the other day and turned in for the night.

The pictures for today can be found here.

Peru Spring 2013 Day 6

Today was dedicated to a second trip to the dentist where both Daniela and I had to have some work done but other patients meant we didn't finish everything. We spent the morning having breakfast in the apartment before heading to the dentist.

We ate lunch at La Casa de Tia Chela which specialized in lomo saltado which is a marinated beef and onions dish served over french fries and with a side of rice. That is what I had. Daniela had her lomo served over a bed of fettuccine instead.  Both were really good and the owner of the place was very nice and friendly.

After lunch we headed back to the apartment where I took a nap and Daniela had to do some work for a while until it was time to head to her house for the midnight celebration of her birthday.  Her mom had made a cake and they were just finishing decorating it when we arrived.  We lit the candles and sang happy birthday in English and in Spanish. The cake was very good. It had fruits and nuts in it and tasted like a spice cake.  They frosted it with a cream frosting that was also very good.  We each had tea to go along with it.

We talked for some time and I helped Donna with her new phone a little (she lost her old one and had to buy a new one) and before long it was about 3am and we left.  When we got back to the apartment I just crashed immediately because I was exhausted.

The pictures from day 6 can be found here.

Peru Spring 2013 Day 5

Daniela had an appointment at the dentist so we were supposed to be there at noon however we didn't quite make it on time. Her dentist is a best friend she has had since college days named Fernando. I haven't been to a dentist in a long time and we decided to have me get a cleaning which unfortunately really took a long time and we didn't quite get to Daniela's reason for visit before he had other clients. We have to go back on day 6 in order to get hers done.  So I sat in the dentist chair for a very long time.

After we finished up there we headed to the Museo de Larco which is the former home of the Larco family (you will have seen the name in this blog a few times before if you have been reading it).  Daniela had never been to it before but her passengers always said it was great and the restaurant in the museum was excellent too. We decided to have lunch/dinner first as it was around 4pm and we hadn't yet eaten. So we bought our tickets and then ate in the museum restaurant. First off I should explain that the house is huge and the grounds are beautiful with flowers everywhere and very nice landscaping and gardening. We sat away from the large noisy tour that was already there and I ordered a beer and Daniela ordered a lemonade. This was the first time I tried the beer Cristal. It was ok. I probably still like Cusquena best (sorry to Daniela as she is a Callao chica).  For a starter we had a sampler platter that had a beef and corn pie that was very good, a tamale that was also very good, grilled beef sticks which were meh, the potato and fish stacked thing which has a name that escapes me that was good and fried yuca which was also good.  After the starter I had aji de gallina which is shredded chicken in an aji (chili, though not hot) sauce over potatoes with rice on the side. It was very tasty and enjoyable.  Daniela had a Seco de Cordero which was a braised lamb shank which was gigantic but very tasty also. It was served with beans and rice.  We did not have dessert we were so full but I had a coffee and she had a tea.  It got dark while we were eating which actually made the grounds of the museum different but very nice as well.

After we finished dinner we visited the museum. We started by the collection of erotic art pieces that are separated from the rest. The main contents of the museum are pre-Colombian  pieces of art that have been found around the regions of Peru. It deals with different cultures from far before the Incas through to the beginnings of the Spanish conquistadors.  There were literally tons of pieces in the main museum which closed at 10. We probably started going through at 7:15 or so and finished when it closed. The last thing we visited was the collection of 'non-remarkable' pieces which were just in a gigantic room categorized and behind glass on shelves that stretched to the ceiling.  It was very impressive. There was information about a lot of the techniques used by the cultures. One interesting point towards the end of the museum is that the natives here were great with gilding techniques and much of the gold the Spanish stole to melt done was actually just gold leaf on copper cores.  Same with the silver. So the Spanish didn't really steal as much gold as you might think at least until they started to mine it.

When we finished the museum we took a taxi to the market and did a little bit of shopping before heading to the apartment where we called it a night.

The pictures from today can be found here.

Peru Spring 2013 Day 4

We started earlier today because Daniela needed to work at the office for a while so I accompanied her to the office where I got to see it (I should probably have taken pictures of it, I am sure I will get another chance to).  Then she had to work so I walked down to Larco Mar and then on to El Parque del Amor then back through while waiting for her.  It is all areas I have seen before but it was beautifully sunny and warm out but with a nice breeze to not make it too hot.  I took a bunch of pictures. Unfortunately it was a bit hazy over the water.

When she was done with work we went to an Italian restaurant in Miraflores called Mamma Lommas. We started with a bruschetta appetizer and Daniela had a minestrone soup.  That turned out to be a lot of soup so that the special lasagna she got was far too much food for her to eat. I had gnocchi with 4 cheeses and prosciutto. It was very good. We shared a half bottle of an Argentinian Cabernet Sauvignon called Finca de la Linda.  The waiter had a hard time opening the first bottle because the cork cracked but we got it on the second try.  For dessert I had a tres leches cake and Daniela had a dessert of pears and ice cream.

After dinner we took a slow walk back to the apartment where we decided to stay in for the rest of the night and watched a movie on youtube called PS I love you with Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler. It was interesting but I didn't much like the main character so I give it a decided meh.

The pictures from today can be found here.

Peru Spring 2013 Day 3

Because of the late night with Daniela's sister and her boyfriend over we stayed in bed till fairly late in the morning before we got up and got cleaned up and had a breakfast that consisted of toast spread with home made guacamole prepared by Daniela.  After we finished the late breakfast we cleaned up the apartment a bit and then later in the day we headed over to Daniela's house for the Sunday lunch (amuerzar) which really happens at dinner time for those of us from the USA.

When we arrived I met Forest which is their dog. He is apparently a very hyper dog who doesn't like people and always barks at newcomers.  He of course didn't bark at me and we were best buddies in a very short amount of time.  Daniela was quite surprised at how much he liked me.

Nomenclature aside it was a meal prepared by Daniela's mother which started with a layered potato dish called pastel de papas and a stuffed spicy pepper called rocotto. The pepper was awesome. I really liked the potatoes too.  The main dish was arroz con pollo where the rice was a green rice. This also was really good and very tasty. We finished dinner with a canned peach with some of the dinner wine in it (brought back memories of my Nana).

After dinner we washed the dishes (actually Daniela washed the dishes and I provided moral support.  When we were finished cleaning up we basically headed back to the apartment. We watched the movie Tangled in Spanish before calling it a night.  She laughed a lot. I have seen it before in English. I think it is a funny movie.

The pictures from day 3 can be found here.

Peru Spring 2013 Day 2

With the late arrival and late to bed we slept fairly late into the morning before we got moving. When we did we walked out to San Isidro where we stopped and got some ice cream before heading to the olive tree park (Bosque de Olivar) to just sit and talk and have a nice sunny afternoon. After a while we were decided to get lunch (which probably turned out to be dinner at a fish restaurant called Punta Sal. We did a cold fish sampler which had ceviche, tiradito and pulpo (which is octopus!) among a few other things. We also got a dish which was fish crochets breaded in quinoa and deep fried and served with a sauce made from a Peruvian fruit called aguaymanto.  This was honestly surprisingly good and though it was sort of more a finger food than fine dining I was very happy to have it. The breading was not oily at all and it was all very tasty.

After the restaurant we took a slow walk back to the apartment and relaxed for a while before going out to shop for snacks for the night because Daniela's sister Donna and her boyfriend German were coming over for the evening to meet me I am sure and have a nice night.  We played a couple games of a cheap reproduction of Jenga (which we did manage to get surprisingly high one game even though the blocks were all slightly different) then played a couple games of darts with a magnetic dartboard (which really helped me think in Spanish numbers). We had a couple beers along the night and a few snacks. It was very late when they left and we pretty much went right to bed after they were gone.

The pictures from today are located here.

Peru Spring 2013 Day 1

I woke up at 4:15am to get everything in order for the trip and we were able to be on our way to Logan by 5:30.  I was dropped off and was quickly able to get checked in to my flights and through security without any issues at all. I chose to just go directly to my gate and start reading The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco (one of my favorite authors) until it was time to start boarding.

The flight to Miami was completely uneventful, in fact I was able to sleep through the majority of it. There is something about being on a plane these days that allows me to do that. It was on a Boeing 757 with only main cabin entertainment.  After disembarking I found my gate for my flight to Lima was one gate away at D22 when I exited gate D21.  I had several hours of layover to go though (the  plane landed at 12:15 and boarding wouldn’t start until 3:30pm.  I found a bar/restaurant not too far away called The Island Chicken Grill and sat at the bar and had a couple of Sam Adams and a Caribbean Chicken Platter which consisted of a fairly spicy chicken breast, rice, black beans and plantains (I still don’t like plantains).  During my time at the bar I met a couple from Massachusetts who were heading home after a sport fishing trip down in the keys and a guy who trains customers how to use blood analyzers from his own company. We got to talk training shop for a bit and the medical instrumentation industry in general as well and swapped business cards.  He was an interesting guy.  Also there was a very sad woman who said she was from California but living in Washington DC.  She seemed to have a desperate need for attention and after the guy left I humored her for a few minutes before I had to move on to the gate.  I felt bad for her because she kept interrupting the conversation we were having to try to cry out for attention.  In the very confused conversation I had with her I got the impression she was married several times and I think I understand why.

From there I moved over to the gate for the flight where I started up some of this to have it done before I took off.  The rest of the wait for the flight to Lima was fairly uneventful if a bit long.  We boarded the plane and I got lucky. It was a 767 with 3 areas of seating and I was on a middle section aisle seat with no one next to me. I again slept through most of this flight. I tried the chicken with mashed potatoes dinner and didn’t end up finishing it.  We arrived on time basically and disembarking and going through immigration and customs was easy. Daniela was at the airport waiting for me and we got our transfer to the apartment.  We got cleaned up and went out for a very late dinner which really was just a sandwich (mine was turkey and was very good) and a fresh pineapple juice.

From there we returned to the room and called it a night.

The few pictures from day 1 can be found here.

Leaving for Peru Today

Sorry the prep posts were a little light due to a lot going on with work and such but today I am departing for Peru for 2 weeks. I am flying in on American Airlines through Miami into Lima where the beautiful Daniela will meet me and we will spend some time in Lima before heading to Gocta Falls for several days then returning to Lima.