Peru Fall 2013 Pictures

All of my pictures have been posted to Shutterfly and the daily posts have been updated with the links for my pictures.

Peru Fall2013 Day 19

We woke up at 3:30am to get ready to go to the airport. Daniela had already arranged a taxi to pick us up and he was waiting outside by the time we were cleaned up and packed to go.  The drive to the airport had no traffic and check in was fairly quick.  Daniela waited for me and we had a coffee and donut from Dunkin Donuts (well she had a hot chocolate).  Then I did a small amount of gift shopping before heading into the security area after a sad goodbye.

The flight ticket said boarding started at 5:15am but of course it wasn’t boarding at 5:20 when I got in nor at 5:45 as I started writing this.  It did not say the flight was late however.  The airplane arrived at 5:45 so I hoped we would start boarding by 6:15 for a 7:03 departure.  That did actually happen and we were off the gate earlier than I expected. All the same we taxied for a long time and it was 7:15 before takeoff. 

The flight itself was very bumpy. One of the most bumpy flights I can recall being on. They played Pacific Rim but I was asleep for the start and the screen was tiny so I didn’t really decide to watch it for real. I was looking at the screen on occasion and I suppose I could explain the plot but I didn’t hear any of the dialogue or anything.  They served breakfast (which is what woke me up) which I chose pancakes. It also had fruit salad of papaya and watermelon, an apple cinnamon cereal bar and a roll. I had apple juice and coffee (though he barely gave me any coffee).   We landed at about 10:30 and I was off the plane by maybe 10:45.  They opened up the back door of the plane as we were waiting exit from the front and it was obvious how hot it was in Panama.  The next flight was already supposed to be boarding according to the boarding pass but of course after I raced over to the gate it was not yet doing so. 

They had a small security check at the gate where you had a metal detector and xray machine. I assume because US security requires it.  Still there was no line as the passengers were slowly trickling in. The flight crew arrived just a few minutes after I did.  We boarded not long after that and since this flight was probably only about 1/3 full we actually closed the door and departed early. For this flight I also had the whole row to myself.  This flight had only a couple small bumps. I watched a travel feature on Toronto. Listened to some music, ate only a little of the pasta they served and did actually watch Pacific Rim which is the movie they also showed on this flight too. I liked it and would like to watch it on a real TV rather than a slightly distant small screen with the woman in front of me opening the window and washing it out with glare every 15 minutes or so.  It was not anything high art but it was basically enjoyable. We landed in Boston a bit early. I used my global entry at the kiosk but it probably wasn’t necessary as we were the only international flight arriving at that time it appeared.  I texted David at the baggage claim and he was waiting at the cell phone lot. It probably took 15 minutes for the bags to get through then customs and out the door. The traffic home wasn’t even that bad. 

The cold that started in the early morning felt even worse by the time I got home so I ate dinner then basically went to bed without unpacking.

No pictures taken today.

I have to say that the wedding, which was the purpose of the trip, went off perfectly. I think that the weather was nice and the ceremony and party afterward were both great. I am so happy that I have married the beautiful Daniela. I only hope the process for getting her American residence goes as easily and we can really start to begin our lives together as a married couple soon.

The bad news of course is that it will still be some weeks before we have the official marriage certificate to begin that process.  I really love Peruvian bureaucracy… 

Peru Fall 2013 Day 18

We started out late again. This was our last full day together. We met Donna and Paquita for lunch at a place called Solari which is apparently part of Norky’s not too far from the Pardo’s Doubletree I stayed at during my trip here to teach.  I had the combo of pork ribs and pollo ala brasas along with papas fritas.  Daniela had the pollo with a pasta with a sauce made of Peruvian not spicy chilis. 

We ate and had dessert. I do not know what mine was called but it was 3 layers and had chocolate, cream and either another chocolate or mocha layer in between.  After dessert we stayed and talked for quite a while.  Eventually we separated from Donna and Paquita and did a couple errands before heading to the office for a few minutes to do a couple things on the computers.

After we left the office we walked for a bit and visited a store for a few minutes. Then checked that there were no movies playing I wished to watch before heading back to the hotel. I had brought a bunch of pictures from when I was a kid and showed them to her.  Since my flight as leaving so early and I had to get to the airport early though we really didn’t stay up too much longer and went to bed to try to get some sleep we could before the very early wakeup at 3:30am.

The pictures from today are located here.

Peru Fall 2013 Day 17

We woke up and got started a bit late but eventually got going towards moving apartments yet again (number 9 now) back to the apartment we stayed in when I was here in April.  It is a much nicer apartment all around than all of the other ones we stayed in and it was finally free for us. It is a bit further from the downtown area, but not by much.  The only significant change is that someone broke the big TV in the living room recently so there is only the smaller TV in the bedroom. That and it appears they added some newer silverware.

After we dropped off our stuff and got the key from the guy who was still cleaning it we walked downtown to get lunch. Daniela wanted carne so we went to a restaurant called Che Santiago which specializes in Argentinian beef. We both got mixed grills which had a steak (and yes she did cook my steak rare) and a spicy sausage and a blood sausage along with fries and salads. The yellow stuff is aji not mustard in the pics if you look. The beef was very tender and had excellent flavor. Peter will probably be mad at me we didn't go there while he was in town. It was just around the corner from the apartment they were all staying in. Still, it is a very tiny place so couldn't fit everyone that visited honestly.

After we ate we went somewhere Daniela had to pick up a check from a vendor then spent some significant amount of failed time trying to cash it.  In any event we moved on from there to her office and she did a couple tasks and we talked to Paquita. Paquita had a website where someone had posted pictures from the wedding and we looked at all of those.  There were some really nice and some really funny pictures.

After the office Daniela and I walked out to have dessert from the lunch/dinner we had. We went back to the dessert place we started the trip having dessert at called Dolce Capriccio. I had the strawberry roll and a coffee and Daniela had the chocolate with mint cream roll and a cappuccino.  We didn't rush through it.

After we were done we walked back to the apartment and watched a movie on TV that had Pierce Brosnan, Salma Hayek and Woody Harrelson in it where Pierce was a diamond thief. I am sure I should know the name of it but I don't. It was in English with Spanish subtitles.  Then that was pretty much it for the night.  The internet connections are still bad so posting pictures will be after I get back to the US.

The pictures for today are located here.

Peru Fall 2013 Day 16

We started a bit late but our first course of action was to change from the 3 bedroom apartment to a 1 bedroom apartment on Tarata which was just around the corner from Daniela's office.  We were told we could give the key to the guy cleaning our new apartment and take the key from him so we cleaned up and packed and walked over. It was maybe 3 blocks. When we got there he said he still needed about 2 hours to finish cleaning. We poked around and found the cooking equipment was less than stellar. I wanted a real coffee pot, something I hadn't had except the one night in the apartment with the family.  They didn't have one.  Also there was nothing like a chef's knife. He said he could get a knife and would see what he could do about a coffee maker.

We left him and headed over to have breakfast. We wanted to try the Lima Cafe but it appears it is permanently shut down for some reason. We ended up eating at a Cafe Cafe right next door. We both had the Desayuno Naturalismo. I had mine with a fruit filled crepe and she had hers with a fruit salad instead.  Both came with coffee and juice. The food was pretty good and we took our time eating and stayed there for a bit after.

We then went to the Wong supermarket just a block or two away to shop for something to make her family for dinner. I am sure we had promised I would and there were a few stories about how good a cook I am from different people on the trip, especially from Peter. I was happy to do it anyway.  I don't typically know what I am going to cook until I get to the market and that was the case this time as well.

At the market I saw some Serrano ham and decided maybe I could make something like a stuffed chicken breast. Daniela said she wanted pasta with pesto sauce to go along and I agreed to try to do that too.  So we bought some chicken breast and had the butcher at the market butterfly them (he did a poor job though). I also bought the ham and some mozzarella, bread crumbs, parmesan, eggs, basil, olive oil, some parsley, garlic, salt, butter and lemons for the meal. I also wanted some beer and bought some Cuscena Red. We also bought some stuff for the next day's breakfast too.

When we got back to the apartment with the stuff (the bag boy walked the cart over for us and helped us deliver it for a small tip) I found out we didn't have anything the right size for baking and had to fall to plan b.  Fortunately the blender worked so I started on the  chicken and the pesto right away. I minced the garlic with some salt and chiffonaded the basil and chopped a little bit of the parsley and pulsed it in the blender till it was ground then added the olive oil and emulsified it. Then I added some of the parmesan and a little bit more pulsing. Then it was scraped into a pan and put over low heat. I added more parmesan and half a lemon to it there.

For the chicken I decided to spit them for the damage caused by the butterflying and would pick the five best pieces and fold them in half. I did that and inserted some mozzarella and ham and then whipped 2 eggs and dunked the chicken and then breaded it with the crumbs that had been touched up with some pepper an oregano.  Then I let them sit for a bit while I heated some of the olive oil in a frying pan. I browned the chicken in the frying pan. Then we found one pie plate that would fit them all (surprisingly) and they rested in the low temperature oven until they were cooked and to keep warm until her family arrived. The water for the fresh fettucini was boiling when they arrived and I started it right away. They didn't bring the wine so Donna and Luis went out and bought 2 bottles of rose which gave me time to finish everything off.

I apologized for the quality of everything based on the limited cooking equipment. We only had 4 actual dishes and 2 knives for 5 people too. They either were very polite and ate everything out of niceness or they really did like it as they said. I am sure it would have been nicer to have more.  I thought things tasted reasonably good myself but still I know I could have done better with the right equipment.  We also had some cake Daniela's mother made and served it with some Turkey Hill black cherry ice cream.

After we were done eating we talked and looked at some of the pictures from the trip for a while. Eventually her mother was falling asleep so we walked them to the bus stop and waited for their bus to arrive before heading back and washing a lot of dishes.  After that we settled in for the night. She found The Lion King in Spanish on the Disney Channel. This time I fell asleep before it finished.

In the rush I didn't take any pictures of the food and even forgot the initial pictures of the apartment which I will have to remedy for day 17.  By the way I have been in 8 places for different nights in the course of the 16 nights so far.

The pictures from today can be located here.

Peru Fall 2013 Day 15

We woke up maybe a little bit late and then had a breakfast of basically what we had left in the bungalow. I made eggs for Daniela and ate the leftover pasta basically. We finished off the coffee and that was pretty much that.

Daniela spent some time sunning herself while I organized my pictures a bit and did a little bit of work on the computer then packed up my stuff. We took our showers and Daniela packed and then we called for the moto-taxi to bring us to the shop where our combi would pick us up. The moto-taxi took a longer time than usual and we arrived really only a couple minutes before the combi did.

The combi ride was again 3 hours to Piura. This time I slept a lot less during it as it was daytime. November 1 was a holiday (basically All Saints Day) and the police were out watching the cars and due to that we had 2 less people in the combi than there would have been on another weekend which meant we had a bit more room. The landscape really could be out of American westerns being all desert style with low bushes and a lot of brown sand.  We passed some oil derricks on the way. Some were actually drilling. Daniela wasn’t sure how much oil they have. We also passed an area where they were starting to build very large wind turbines which is neat. There unfortunately was a lot of trash along the way and there were a few points up and down hills with switchbacks that I was wondering if I was going to be sick. All in all the ride was almost exactly 3 hours to the bus station.

We took a few minutes to get a moto-taxi which took us to a seafood restaurant to have lunch. I had a fried filet of fish and Daniela had ceviche. It was a nice restaurant that was very busy when we arrived. We then took a taxi to the Plaza de Armas of Piura as we had several hours still before the flight which was at 8pm and our combi arrived at 12:30.  At the plaza we took some pictures and had coffee and dessert at a place called El Chalan. Daniela had lemon pie and I had coffee ice cream in a cone which I was able to get them to put some chocolate sauce on. The type of chocolate that hardens up.   We took a couple more pictures then picked up another taxi to the airport.

We checked in a couple hours before the flight was to start and also found out it was going to be a half an hour late. The Piura airport is tiny so we entered the gate area and just found seats and waited. There really isn’t even anywhere to shop there. The flight boarded half an hour late and was basically a little bit bumpy but uneventful overall.  We landed, disembarked, got a taxi to Daniela’s house and picked up some things, took the taxi to Miraflores and got the keys to an apartment we had for the night and then settled in.  It was a three bedroom apartment but the room we wanted wasn’t free that night.  So they gave us the big one for the same rate for the one night. It was on the 18^th floor and had a really nice view.

We ordered a pizza as I was still hungry and I am pretty much the only one who ate any then we went to bed for the evening.

The pictures from today can be found here.

Peru Fall 2013 Day 14

We woke up and had a quick breakfast. Our neighbors had finished theirs and were getting ready to go for a whale watch. They asked us if we wanted to go and we said yes. So we hurriedly got ready and a moto-taxi picked us up. We were driven to Punta Sal (I think it means Point Salt).  Where we met with our neighbors who had already taken a taxi there.  We bought me some sun block as I didn’t get to pack mine to the small bag for this trip.  Then we waited and eventually found out that the trip was canceled because we were the only four people on it.

They suggested we walk back from the point to our bungalows.  By the way the name of the place is Hoja de Palm which means Palm Leaves Bungalows.  They said it would take an hour. We agreed and started the walk back. They walked faster than we did, probably because we stopped and took pictures of a lot of things. We passed the pier and a residential area. There were a lot of birds and unfortunately a lot of garbage on the beach.  There were buzzards around as well as the sea birds which was strange at first but I guess the can eat there too.

We saw some dead animals including blow fish, turtles and sea lions. I hope they all died naturally and not by the fishermen.  The walk was probably a lot longer than an hour. I didn’t keep track of time, nor did Daniela. It turns out our neighbors turned inland and took a moto-taxi some portion of the way.

When we got back we tried to start the grill but had to get the guy who worked at the bungalows to do it because it was so windy. We used a whole box of matches trying. Eventually he got it lit using a candle and I made the chicken we bought with soy sauce, garlic, salt, pepper and oregano over the grill. I also made fried potatoes on the stove with salt, pepper and onions. We reheated the pasta.

After we ate we sort of ended up taking a nap for some time before waking up and going out to sort out our ride back to the airport the next day and buying some junk food for the night. It was a Nestles Crunch bar.  We ate the Crunch bar while watching Wallace and Grommit then The Muppets.  After that I tried to have her watch Crazyheart but it was too difficult for her to understand Jeff Bridges with his mumbling in character.

The pictures from today are located here.  

Peru Fall 2013 Day 13

I woke up a bit earlier than Daniela and walked along the beach for a little bit. By the time I got back to the room she was just waking up.  We took it easy for the day and really didn’t do that much during the morning hours. She reheated the leftover fish for breakfast and we had some coffee too.

We lay in the hammock for a short time.  After a while we met our neighbors who moved in next door. They had some lobsters that they bought down the street and he was starting to cook them for their lunch. I also started preparing our lunch/dinner not long after. I made a fresh tomato based sauce for some pasta. We ordered a bottle of wine from the hotel. Unfortunately for me they sent a very sweet wine and I added some to the sauce and it made it very sweet but it was still good anyway. I would have preferred a bit more balance anyway.

After we ate we went out closer to the water and built a sand castle.  Eventually it got dark and we came in and tried to watch The Lion King but Daniela fell asleep before it finished and we called it a night.

The pictures for today are located here.

Peru Fall 2013 Day 12

We went to bed late so we woke up late of course. This was also the first time we could get some real sleep in several days (the whole trip I think actually) so it was nice.  I started by taking pictures of the bungalow like I skipped the night before. Then we got cleaned up and ready for the day. It was very bright and sunny.  We had the owner call a moto-taxi for us, which is a taxi made by a motorcycle with a passenger attachment on the back. It has 3 wheels.

The moto-taxi took us shopping. First we visited a tiendita (or tiny market) and bought some basic stuff then we left the stuff there and he brought us to the local market (which was small) and we bought a couple more things like some chicken and spices for cooking. There are really no restaurants around the bungalow and we had a small kitchenette plus the owner said we could use the grill so we prepared to cook for the few days there.

The driver then took us to the pier and we picked out a fish just caught off the boat and had the old lady (who happened to be the taxi driver’s grandmother) clean it for us. We walked out and saw the actual pier and the current haul of fish that was being brought in.

We picked up the fish and the other stuff from the tiendita and then headed back to the bungalow. There we unpacked and started to put everything away.  I made some coffee and the attendant brought us the grill. We prepared the fish which was a white fish with garlic, salt, pepper, lemon and soy sauce and I cooked it on the grill with some foil under it so it wouldn’t fall in.  Daniela par-boiled some potatoes with garlic and I finished those off on the grill as well.  She also made herself a small tomato salad.  The whole cooking process took some time but I think everything came out very good.  There was a lot of fish but we ate almost all of it. 

We cleaned the dishes and put things away then walked around the beach for a while and played in the water a little bit. It was still hot and sunny out.  After that we lay down on the hammock for a while then eventually came back inside and watched the movie The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel on the computer before calling a night and going to bed.

The pictures from today are located here.

Peru Fall 2013 Day 11

We got to wake up a bit later than the previous two days but still it was not really late.  Daniela, her mom and I got out of the hotel at about 7:15 and walked to the Plaza de Armas to take a few pictures. We are also able to visit a church that was open that early on the way as well as sit in for a couple of minutes at the mass in the cathedral. We headed back to the hotel by 8:20 and had a quick breakfast and before you knew it the van was arriving for the transfer to the airport. 

This time the plane was only about an hour late which is certainly much better than my previous record for the trip but still it was late. In the airport everyone did a little of souvenir shopping and George and I had empanadas from the snack shop. Mine was accompanied by a coffee.  The moved our gate in the process but the domestic flight area is so tiny in Cusco it really didn’t matter.

The flight itself was short and easy. I sat next to Sara and Sue and we talked the whole time. They served a ham and cheese sandwich with a dulce de leche cookie as a snack for the flight.  Since no one checked luggage disembarking was easy.  Our transfer van was a few minutes late but not really by much. We drove to Daniela’s house and picked up everyone’s luggage then drove to the Hotel Arawi where everyone else would be staying for their last night in Peru.  At the hotel we had lunch. I had a hamburger which was a bit overcooked for my taste, but probably it was safer that way. Daniela snuck out and brought in a birthday cake while we waited and we had that before she and I had to rush out the door and into a taxi back to her house.

We rushed through a very quick repacking while the taxi waited then immediately raced to the airport. The driver was a champion at getting around and  through Lima traffic and every second helped.  Daniela raced in for check in while I dragged the luggage in. The security guard at the door followed me to Daniela who had my passport for check in to make sure I was really who I was. We ran through the airport to security and rushed through that as best we could. Fortunately the domestic lines were not long still.  Then I chased Daniela to the gate where we were sent to a wrong gate and then had to run back to board just at last call.  I do not know if we could have cut it any tighter.

I didn’t stop sweating from all the running and carrying baggage until probably half way through the flight. It probably didn’t help the air wasn’t blowing too hard at first. I was able to sleep a little bit and had tea for my service in the flight. The flight itself was uneventful with only a couple very small bumps. 

When we got to Piura we had to call the hotel for advice on how to get there. We took a taxi to a “bus stop” where we signed on for a combi ride to Mancora. The bus had to fill up before they would depart. When we signed on there were two more spaces after us to fill up. They did but the two guys were armed with a bag of beer. Daniela put up a small protest but fortunately they weren’t really drunk and obnoxious after all.  The drive was 3 hours long in a cramped van. Because my bag had the laptop I kept it on my lap the whole ride as there was nowhere else inside to fit it and we didn’t want to put it on top like the rest of the baggage. I was able to sleep some of the ride. I thought I was going to be a bit nauseous during a couple spans where the driver took some switchbacks very rapidly but I did survive it after all.

We made it to the hotel at about midnight or just a little after and the attendant checked us into our bungalow.  We did a quick unpacking and then it was immediately to bed.

The pictures from today are found here.

Peru Fall 2013 Day 10

We woke up again at a stupidly early hour and were out the door to our transfer van by 4am.  The ride to the train station at Ollantaytambo was probably an hour and a half or so and I slept through almost all of it.

The train was basically boarding when we got there and it departed at 6:10am I think. The train ride was slow but nice. I stayed awake for the whole ride. We were in a panoramic car which has windows at the top too so you could see more. They served a drink and a snack. I had a coca tea (though I suppose I shouldn’t have) and a muffin.  The ride took also probably about an hour and forty-five minutes.  We arrived in Aguas Calientes at a little bit before 8am.  We met our guide Patrick at the entrance to the train station.

Patrick loaded us onto a bus and we took the half hour ride to Machu Picchu directly after getting off the train.  The weather was nice at this point but with a bit of clouds around. Patrick was a good guide. He had a funny and dramatic way of saying everything. And everything was “the famous Machu Picchu” and “the famous Inkas” and “the famous whatever”.   It was really quite amusing. He explained about the general layout. We saw the Sun Temple, the Sun Dial, the Condor, the arena and pretty much everything. Where this was my second time through Machu Picchu I wrote all this up before and I don’t really have the time to go over it all again.  Please reference my earlier post from my trip in 2009 for the details.  Towards the end of the tour it started to rain a little bit and it picked up a bit more as we rode the bus back down to Aguas Calientes.

At Aguas Calientes most of us went to Indio Feliz which is a French and Peruvian fusion restaurant owned by a Frenchman.  I had a set menu which started with Creole soup, pepper chicken with a pisco sauce and an apple pie with custard and ice cream (I think the ice cream was actually grapefruit sorbet).

After lunch we got to the train and it was another hour and forty-five minute ride to Ollantaytambo. There we exchanged to our van for another hour and forty-five minute ride. We had to stop for a few minutes because George didn’t feel well.

By the time we got back to Cusco it was pouring rain out. Everyone got situated and then we bade them a farewell as we walked up to Plaza San Blas and had a coffee and soup before heading back to the room and getting some sleep for the night. I am not sure what time it stopped raining but the whole time we were out it as a solid cold rain and even with the umbrella we got soaked. The coffee and the soup were both very good.

The pictures from today are located here.

Peru Fall 2013 Day 9

We woke up at 4am to get ready for everyone to drop off their stuff at Daniela's house by 4:30 then we would catch a taxi and follow them to the airport for our 6am flight. We thought we were running tight but it turned out we had weather delays in Cusco so we weren't going to take off on time. We had breakfast in the airport. I had a ham and cheese sandwich and coffee.  Then we had to wait. Or flight was about 5 to 6 hours later.  We had plans to fly to Cusco get a transfer van to Ollantaytambo and ride the train to Aguas Calientes but those fell through with the flight delays because we missed the last train to Aguas Calientes even before we arrived in Cusco.

The flight itself was easy and had basically no bumps. It was a full 737-500.  Our transfer van was waiting for us outside and we were driven to Hotel El Portal where we were going to stay for the two nights since the change of plans.  We loaded in and unpacked and then slept for a couple hours before meeting in the lobby around 5pm for dinner. Not everyone came to dinner. Both George and Daniela's mother were too tired and stayed in their rooms.

We went to a restaurant Daniela was familiar with called  La Retama.  I had a beer and a Sopa de la Criolla followed by alpaca served with a potato and quinoa puree. The food was excellent. We stayed long enough to watch their show too, which was traditional highland Peruvian music and dance and was really nice.  After that it was back to the hotel and to crash for another early morning departure to catch the train to Machu Picchu.

Pictures are here.

Peru Fall 2013 Day 8

Today was the day. I woke up probably around 7:30 and had some toast and coffee for breakfast. I think I had about 4 or 5 cups. I did sleep reasonably well but I knew it was going to be a full day. We started getting ready probably around 11 because the photographer was supposed to come in and get some posed and candid shots of the preparation. We were to be picked up by a van at 12:30 and he was pretty close to on time. Daniela's friend Diana came just a few minutes before the pickup and was there to help out with getting us there and ready.  The ride there was easy and without any real traffic.

We had the invitations printed with 2:00pm for the start time knowing that most people would arrive by 2:30 and that was the official start time. I was a bit confused on a couple details but I spent a few minutes greeting people as they came in and then eventually it was time to start. Sue was the eldest representative female from our family so she walked me down the aisle. They don't just have the groom wait up front like we do.  Dad and Daniela's mom came after then the bridesmaids then the flower girl and ring bearer girl (who were Michelle and Sara respectively).  Then finally the beautiful bride. She looked incredible and her dress was beautiful. I could feel nothing but happiness.

The father was a Polish man who spoke Spanish and Polish but not English. The mass went off quite well. I will not explain all the details as there will be tons of pictures and video. We split up some of the time in English and some of the time in Spanish.  We exchanged our vows combining English and Spanish, for example.  I could understand a lot of the sermon though it was given in Spanish.  He spoke slowly and clearly and joked a lot.  I think the mass and Catholic wedding went of perfectly.

After the mass we ran over to the beach and took a few pictures before time ran out and we needed to be present at the restaurant for the civil wedding.  We were able get a lot of good pictures and a lot of people congratulated us as we or they passed by.

The civil wedding was a lot quicker but still had quite a few details for the municipal officer Senora Milagrito as Daniela called her.  There were vows and signatures and fingerprints to be done.  It was nice and she did a great job.   The restaurant was decorated wonderfully. There were more flowers than I could have imagined and they were all great.  We had a DJ for music and had a toast almost immediately. Then Daniela and I, Dad and Daniela's mom, Gary and Donna (Daniela's Sister) all gave speeches.  We were then able to escape again to take more pictures but our plans changed and we ended up on  a small dingy on the water just outside the restaurant with everyone watching.  That was a lot of fun and I think Gabriel, the photographer got a lot of great pictures.

When we got back in we had our meal quickly, it was roast pork with rice pilaf and a sweet potato.  Then they started the music for dance and I don't recall doing anything but dancing until we left the party. Daniela cried at our song. It was a lot of fun but also exhausting. La Hora Loca came in and made people dance even more. La Hora Loca is the The Crazy Hour. Entertainers come in with costumes and make people dance.  That was also a lot of fun.

We escaped the wedding a little bit early and had our pictures taken at the airport. We had some trouble getting parking but we managed it. Inside we did a scene like I was just arriving in my tux and she was waiting in her wedding dress. We met in the arrivals area and I picked her up and swung her around. The people waiting there cheered and applauded for us.  Then we went up to the food court and took a few more pictures among the clapping of people watching. It was strange I will say but I had fun doing it and i think Daniela did too.

After the airport it was back to Daniela's house where we went to bed for an early wake up to be on an airplane for 6am.

Pictures will be found here.

Peru Fall 2013 Day 7

We woke up rather early and got everyone entered into the Palomino Island trip which I had done on my trip when I first met Daniela. Even Daniela and I were going this time.  We had a bit of running around to get everything working and then took a transfer van from the apartment to the port in Callao where the transfer leaves.

The tour was supposed to start at 11:30 but we were probably 10 minutes late. All the same we boarded and were off fairly easily.  The tour was exactly the same. First a trip around the big island owned by the Peruvian navy then on to the island with all the sea lions.  Outside the shelter of the island the water was a bit rough and it was definitely cooler this trip than it was on the first time I did the tour. There was a fairly thick fog and a lot of clouds at first. The fog thinned out. Daniela was freezing so she borrowed a heavy shirt from my brother which she wore over the life vest.  The roughness of the sea did bother Daniela a bit.

The sea lions were in force and this time they started following the boat as soon as we got there. Daniela, Sue and I all decided to go in the water though it was probably only 14C or so.  We had wet suits for this.  The water was insanely cold at first but we got used to it. It was incredible how close the sea lions came to us, even touching us and jumping through us. I am glad I did it this time. Even though I am not a good swimmer but with the wet suit and the life vest I was ok. I think we were in the water for about 20 minutes to half an hour. Probably closer to 20 minutes.  Then we got out and changed and sailed back to the shore around the far end of the island.

When we got back we took a quick detour to the church in La Punta so some folks could use the rest rooms and then drove back to Miraflores. Fortunately we beat the traffic. We dropped Daniela off at the office and went to Don Bellasario which is a Pollo ala Brasa place just across from her office and the apartment. We had some gigantic sampler platters we couldn't finish and I had a beer.

We brought he leftovers to Daniela and she sorted out some stuff then she had to get on her way back home. We got back to the apartment and had a couple beers and watched the last episode of The IT Crowd then Wallace and Grommit: A Matter of Loaf and Death.  Then pretty much it was bedtime.

The pictures from today are found here.

Peru Fall 2013 Day 6

We had to get up very early and pick up George and Sue and bring them to the church in Brena where they could sign to be our witnesses for the church wedding. Of course the padre gave us a hard time about some of it but eventually he did all the paperwork we needed and we had a signed and stamped document. We sent George and Sue back to the apartments where we had arranged a city tour for them in the afternoon giving them the morning free.

We stayed and talked the priest that would be performing the wedding. Daniela's aunt Silvia came too and we planned out a lot of how the wedding was going to go and what was going to be read. It took a very long time to do all this.

We then took a cab to La Punta to the church there to drop off the paperwork that would allow us to use that church but the lady wouldn't take it saying it was missing one stamp so we had to run to another church to get the official stamp. Of course the priest that could stamp it wasn't there and wouldn't be there until 10am the next day. Daniela had a courier to take the document back to La Punta but arranged instead for him to do it for us after it was stamped.

We then walked to the Metropolitan. It was very sunny at this point. There was a small delay for some reason but we got back to the apartment eventually. We had to get dressed for a pre-wedding photo shoot.  After we hurriedly got ready we ran to El Bosque Olivar and met the photographer. He took our pictures walking around the park for about an hour and fifteen minutes. We then raced straight to Dad's apartment to meet them. Daniela did some quick paperwork for their tours and then we all piled in a van and sat in traffic for well over an hour, I think closer to two, on our way to La Punta for the rehearsal.  We went through the practice three of four times with Daniela's sister Donna leading the proceedings. After we were done in the church we walked to see the place where the reception would be.

From there we took the van to a restaurant called Roky's and had Pollo ala Braza with all the people from the rehearsal which was Daniela's family, my family and George and Daniela's friends Yanina, Pakita and Mechi and Mechi's daughter Michelle.  We had 3 chickens with salads and papas fritas. I had a couple Cusquenas.  The restaurant had a children's play area and Sara and Michelle ran around and played there for almost the whole time we were there. She was still playing until the end.  We were there until almost midnight when Peter finally arrived from his flying in.  We had him brought to the restaurant so we could all drive back to the apartments together and George and I rode with him while everyone else rode back in the van we took out to La Punta.

When we got back it was quick goodnights and then on to bed almost instantly.  I was exhausted.

The pictures from today are here.

Peru Fall 2013 Day 5

I made breakfast as soon as we woke up and then Daniela had to do some work for some passengers for a good portion of the morning.  We went and got the keys to one of the apartments for my family but the other wasn't ready when we tried so we couldn't pick them up yet. Then we had to head back out to La Punta to get some papers from the municipal office. While we were there we walked around the area a bit so she could show it to me in more detail than I had already seen because we were in such a rush most of the day.

After that we had to go to the choir leader to pick out the music for the church as we entered and left and during other parts of the ceremony.  We spent a few minutes there.  From there we headed back to Miraflores and I did some quick shopping for the family then we got the key to the second apartment and caught a cab towards the airport.

The traffic was incredibly bad so we didn't actually reach the airport before the transfer van picked up my family.  It took us an hour and five minutes to get to a meeting point still probably 10 to 15 minutes short of the airport. Fortunately everyone was very cool with it. It didn't help the cab driver didn't take a good route towards the airport.

Daniela met everyone and talked to the people at the front of the van while I sat in the back and talked to the others. They had good flights. George even got put in first class from Panama to Lima.  The explained it was a virus that killed the computer systems for Copa airlines the day I flew.  They said a few flights were canceled the day before but they had no problems whatsoever.

We first dropped of Gary and Sue and Sara to their apartment then brought Dad, David and George to theirs.  We got them settled in quickly and walked over to Gary's place and brought them back to the larger apartment. On the way we stopped in a market right next to the apartment and did a small amount of shopping more than I had already done. At the apartment we ordered pizza and had a couple beers then called it a night.  David walked Gary, Sue and Sara back to their apartment because they didn't understand the way at that point.  Daniela and I got back to the room and it wasn't long before we were in bed.

The pictures from today can be found here.

Peru Fall 2013 Day 4

Today we got to start a bit later than the day before but it was still an errand filled day. I made us some french toast and bacon to start for breakfast. Daniela hadn't had it before. She said she liked it.  Then after that it was off to La Punta to the municipal office again to finalize the paperwork for the legal portion of our wedding. That took us a couple of hours including the notary for some documents and having the town's lawyer finalize the papers with his signature.

We stopped off at Daniela's house and said hello to her mother and picked up some stuff she needed. She also had to do a little bit of work on the computer so we let her do that for a few minutes. I said hello to Forest also while we were there.  After Daniela finished her work up we took another ride back to the apartment where we started to get ready for some pre-wedding photos but it was a bit too late for the photographer so he asked us to try again on Thursday. We then changed clothes and took a walk around town and tried to go to a couple different restaurants before settling on Rigoletto which is an Italian restaurant not too far from our hotel. We were given a free bruschetta and ordered the appetizer of garlic shrimp which was actually more like a langoustine or small lobster. They were good. I had the Penne ala Siciliana and Daniela had the fettuccine frute di mare.  Both were good but the sausages slices in my meal were not Italian sausage which was a bit strange.

After dinner there we walked several blocks away to Dolce Capriccio which is a pastry place which Daniela really loves their stuff. I had a brownie mocha which was a thin layer of brownie with chocolate and coffee mousses on top and Daniela had tocino de cielo which is a coconut based custardy thing.  Hers was a bit sweet for me but good and the mocha thing was really good too. We each had a coffee to go along with that.

We then walked back to the apartment where Daniela had to do a tiny bit of work before we went to bed.

The pictures from today are here.

Peru Fall 2013 Day 3

We woke up early and rushed out the door and headed to San Borja to the medical clinic for our blood tests.  We got those started quickly then had a short breakfast of bread and cheese and coffee then went back and got our results. We visited Daniela's friend Yanina very quickly as works right next door to the clinic.

Next we took the Metropolitan to a Combi bus and out to La Punta where we visited the doctor's office to make the results official.  The combi bus was a very local thing. Stopped a lot and people got on and off all the time.

The doctor's office was quick then it was over to the notary and then to the municipal office. Unfortunately the woman handling the case had her purse robbed and was out of the office so we could only drop off paperwork and come back the next day.

After the municipal office we went back to Miraflores and I got fitted for my tuxedo. We had a empanada on the way. I had beef but forgot to take a picture of it. After the fitting we went to Brena and visited the priest and did more of the church paperwork and begged the father in charge of the records to not give us a hard time because 2 of my witnesses would be coming in for Thursday. He chose not to give us a hard time thankfully.

After the priests we went to the Plaza Real and had dinner at a Pardos Chicken. We didn't have traditional Pollo ala Braza but instead a grilled chicken with spicy sauce that wasn't too spicy. A tour of Chinese people came in while we were eating. The didn't really eat a lot of the food. I was wondering if they didn't like it or it was too much.

After dinner we took a taxi to the barber shop and I got my haircut and Daniela got a spa treatment a couple doors down.  Then we took a taxi to Miraflores and shopped for stuff for breakfast. We got back to the room and almost immediately went to bed after an exhausting day.

The pictures from today will be posted here.

Peru Fall 2013 Day 2

Late start and a lazy day after the nightmare travel to get to Lima.  Truthfully we arrived really early in the morning. So we basically stayed in the room an slept a lot later than I am normally used to then got up in time to get the later part of the mass the priest that is going to marry us performed. He is in a church in Brena which is very close to downtown Lima. He is Polish but mainly speaks Spanish. I think he was raised in Peru.  We spoke to him for a couple minutes about plans for the week.

We then walked to a mall not too far away, maybe 5 blocks and had lunch at a restaurant called Provence. We both had set menu items. Daniela had a beef with 4 cheeses and I had a fried fish dish with yellow chili sauces.  We had a ceviche dish to start that we shared.  We also had a bottle of Shiraz to go along with the meal. The waiter actually brought us Australian chardonnay at first but we were able to get that fixed. The food was really good and we shared both of our dinners.  We had a custard-like thing for dessert.  We sat and talked a long time while we slowly finished off the bottle of wine.  After that Daniela had made arrangements to meet her mother to go visit an uncle to give him the invitation to the wedding. We had a coffee at the Juan Valdez then she called us to say she had arrived at our meeting point and we met her.

Unfortunately the uncle was not available so we just walked to the Plaza de Armas for Lima and sat and talked for a while before walking her mother back to a place to get a ride home. We then walked back to the mall and got a metropolitan bus back to Miraflores. Stopped at the apartment rental place and got a spare towel then bought some water in the market before getting back to the apartment.

We spent a few minutes sorting things out then went to bed.

The pictures from today are located here.

Peru Fall 2013 Day 1

Peru Fall 2013 Day 1

Today started out with an early wakeup for a 9:36 flight to Panama on Copa Airlines where I would switch to a flight to Lima.  I got to the airport at 6:30 and check in and security were quick and easy if there was a little bit of a slowdown at security.  I got into the gate area and found The Earl of Sandwich to get a cranberry muffin and a coffee and made a quick visit to the newsstand to get some snack food for the trip.

The plane was to depart from gate E4.  Only a few minutes after reaching the gates they changed the departure time from 9:36 to 9:54. They started boarding us and it was obvious it was not a full flight. I was on an aisle seat but I had a nervous type guy who was doing the jittery leg thing and I asked if I could move to another empty aisle seat and the attendant said yes. It was the second part of an exit row, so no extra leg room but at least no one next to me.

Of course we were on the plane for about 15-20 minutes when they announced they had to have us all deplane because there was a systems failure in Panama and the entire Copa fleet was grounded. They had no ETA but we had to exit the plane with our belongings and wait at the gate.  They assured us since the whole fleet was grounded that any connecting flights would also be delayed so at least we shouldn’t need to rebook to a new flight.

I chose to start writing this during the wait as there was little else to do. After we were about 45 minutes late they reiterated that they had no idea how long the delay was going to be and they would keep us posted.

An hour and a half later we still had no updates other than there were no updates.  So I chose to go to Burger King and get lunch. I had just finished eating a BK double-stacker which was probably a bad idea they started calling the business class passengers to give them vouchers of some sort. Even though the reposted the flight info on the gate board they said they still had no information about when things were going to start moving and they had no information on what was going to happen to connecting flights.  The activity of course caused everyone, myself included, to think they were going to start boarding the flight.  By this point it was almost 2 and a half hours past original departure time.  Very frustrating to say the least.  Especially when there is perfect weather outside.

Of course after I bought the lunch they gave meal vouchers for the airport to the passengers.  I figured I would have to do something with it but not today.  I spoke to Daniela on the phone through Viber for a few minutes because it had been so frustrating.

At 1:20 they called all passengers to get their boarding passes back so they could reboard the plane properly. The person who gave me the pass said it would be boarding in about an hour and another attendant told me they were waiting for the crew. They said that flights would be going to Lima until about 9pm but all flights are delayed out of Panama.  I should be able to get there tonight but I would be arriving past midnight most likely.  I kept as vigilant an eye out for the crew as I could.  They told us we would probably start boarding at 2:30 to 2:40 but the flight crew didn’t even get back to the airplane until about 10 minutes to 3.  The of course didn’t start boarding right away. I wonder where the heck they sent the flight crew for the wait?  It is nuts that they could be hours away when they are supposed to be flying.  They still didn’t know if we would be able to make connections by the time we were boarding.

It was a reasonably quick boarding process and we weren’t on the tarmac for too long before they departed. Still, more than 6 hours late is fairly too much. In any event the flight entertainment was not individual seat style and they showed the new Star Trek film which I refuse to watch on principle so I skipped on that. They served either arroz con pollo or ravioli con carne and I chose the ravioli with some very rough Chilean red wine I sort of wish I skipped on.  The early parts of the flight were smooth with only a few bumps.  I chose to drag out the computer and watch a movie.  Well actually I chose to watch the final episode of the IT Crowd and I hope I didn’t disturb the people around me too much because I really laughed a lot.  From there I decided maybe I could sleep a bit but I wasn’t really able to so I turned on the various  music stations and cycled through the full set of songs on each.

Eventually we landed and sat on the tarmac for a bit before getting to a gate. We were basically told to go to customer service at gate 21 at our arrival gate which was like gate 2.  When I got to customer service there was a long line and no one working the desk. I started on my phone and on a hunch that I was reading the flight status correctly I was able to figure out that my scheduled departure from Panama to Lima still hadn’t left. I hurried over there and was met with a sign that was for Recife instead but the women at the gate said it would indeed be my flight to Lima. We needed to wait for the crew to arrive and be ready again but we would board as soon as they were.  I thought I had seen some crew come in when I arrived at the gate but I cannot be sure. They were loading in the catering when I got there anyway and that finished a few minutes later.

I took a few minutes to sit down and type this while I used my computer to charge my phone a bit. I didn’t have a charger with me, only the cable. The charger was in my suitcase. Unfortunately the battery on the laptop was also a bit low as I had used it a lot during the wait through the day and on the plane. Still if I could suck out a few % of battery for the phone it would be more helpful for giving Daniela updates and eventually for if and when I arrived in Lima.  I should point out that the weather in Panama was as to be expected. Wicked hot and wicked humid. The massive crowds in the airport beyond normal were not helping things at all. I was hoping the crew would arrive quickly so I could be in a climate controlled cabin soon.  It took probably another 40 minutes before they let us board.

After we boarded the air conditioning was awesome compared to the airport but we sat at the gate for over another hour and a half.  Eventually somewhere around 12:00am local time we were able to get off the ground and the flight was about 3 hours. I slept through almost all of it except the very beginning and landing.  I raced to the immigration line which was empty when I got there and got through as the 4th person so was first in line for 3 agents.  After that it was wait for the baggage at the claim. That took a few minutes. I went through customs and I thought it was going to be easy but the guy picked me out to go through a checking. I was very lucky in that when he asked me why I was visiting I said it was to get married and my fiancé was waiting outside.  He let me go without actually checking.

Daniela was waiting outside. We took a taxi to get the key to the apartment then straight to the apartment where we just went straight to bed. It was basically 4:30am by that point. A very long and frustrating day. But it was all just fine when I finally got here and saw and was with her.

The pictures of the apartment are located here.