We arrived at the Miami International Airport and grabbed a quick bite before boarding. Thank goodness this time around I scored a window seat. At least this was the right 8-hour flight to get window instead of the measly 3 hours it took to get to Boston from Miami. I pretty much slept the entire flight, missing what I heard was a nasty attempt at a pasta and chicken dinner. I awoke to the turbulence and announcement that we were landing in Lima, Peru. I was excited but still a bit in disbelief.
When we got out of the airport we noticed a strong smell of fish and salt that saturated the air. We asked ourselves if the smell was signature to Peru but our tiredness didn't allow us to care too much about it. We took the bus to what we thought was going to be a hotel but we arrived to find we were staying at a Youth Hostel. I've never been in a hostel so I had no idea what to expect. The crazy part was we were all packed like sardines in each of the rooms but apparently it was one of the nicest hostels most people had stayed in. Here are a few pics of my room and the backyard/hangout area:
Now, fast forwarding to the adventures and juicy details of exploring our first day in Miraflores. After napping for a little bit, my roommates and I set off to find a bank to exchange money and some grub since we were next to starving. We walked around town, got lost, and found plenty of nice locals to lead us in all kinds of directions. Eventually one security guard escorted us to where we needed to go. What I noticed about the locals is that they're well aware of the fact that you're a "gringo," a tourist, but absolutely refuse to dumb or slow down their Spanish. Perhaps it was a compliment to us that our accents had tricked them into thinking we were fluent. Anyway, after stumbling around town for hours we finally found the supermarket where we were able to exchange money and eat for cheap. I was excited to try some authentic Peruvian food but to my surprise the food was similar to Filipino food and thus, there was no room for much culture shock. The rice tasted like rice and the different chickens tasted like varieties of home cooked adobo. Oh, and the flan was the same flan my mom made on special occasions. Here is a picture of my meal:
When we got back to the hotel we were told quickly to pack for our 4 day trip to Ica and that we would be sending the remainder of our luggage to our host families. My roommate and I were essentially loaded into a taxi and send to the wrong addresses so it was quite an adventure trying to find our host family, the Hidalgos. The number "239" appeared to us and our Professor, Monica, as "289" so the taxi dropped us off at that address and needless to say we were more than baffled when we saw #289, a garage auto shop. After wandering to the Internet cafe and finding telephone numbers and addresses, we finally made it to our destination. The house on the outside looked beautiful and the grandmother of our host family was both friendly and considerate in her attempt to speak English. The house was bright orange like a lot of houses in Miraflores which according to our textbook, are used as a contrast to bring happiness and color to combat the prevailing gray skies. We stepped into the house and put out suitcases away, all while in awe at how amazing and huge the house was. We met our host mother, Nicole Hidalgo, when she got back from tennis and was surprised to find her husband was six foot seven, from England, with an authentic British accent. Their 3 year old son, William, is the cutest thing ever and I'm so excited to be living with them for the next 2 weeks. Here are a few pics of what I'd call a mansion and the cutest Peruvian/English fusion, William:
When we said our goodbyes and got back to the hostel it was pretty much crunch time. I went with some of the boys to get beers and a cell phone but I ended up going back to get ready for dinner, and came back with none of the two. Dinner was great, we ate at a high end restaurant called Huaca Pucllana. The food was great, definitely fine dining. I took a few pictures. We started off with ample appetizers and the liquor signature to Peru, pisco sour. Here are some pictures of the food we ate at the restaurant:
Since we're leaving for Ica at 10am and it is now 9:21am (this blog was written earlier this morning so this isn't accurate) I shall rush the rest of this blog. In total, after dinner we went searching for "discotecas" or clubs and were harassed by local promoters offering free rounds of drinks for everyone if we'd come and dance at their club. We stumbled upon a strip club and noticed that drink prices for women were about 4x the amount than guys. Weird, right? My current roommate, Kris, says it's probably because it's a strip club and the purpose is to have guys buy the ladies a drink. We ended up staying at this one club where we all danced and partied until 1am which is shameful in Peruvian culture. Usually the locals start getting busy around 2am and don't stop until 8-11am. We were definitely in no shape for that kind of partying. We pretty much stayed within our circle of friends but a local ended up persuading me to dance salsa with him. I danced for about 2 minutes then ran away and hid behind some of the taller kids in our dialogue. I definitely need to brush up on my Spanish dancing skills. Anyway, more updates and hopefully pictures to come.
PS arrived in Ica a few hours ago. I should be blogging another post between now and tomorrow. Adios!
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