Fun activities and new International friends!

Friday 22 Feb, 2008

What a crazy day today was! Ha! Last night we were told flights to Cuzco are canceled. Then they give us a new flight to Cuzco. Then this morning they cancel again! We try to figure out what to do and the websites don't work and Chris was getting very frustrated being the only person who can speak Spanish. Gloria and I both felt bad because we couldn't be more helpful. Claudia came back to our hostel because Chris had left his light meter in her car. She is very kind and helpful! After many more attempts to get airline tickets to Arequipa (everything to Cusco was canceled) both online and on the phone... Claudia suggests we go to the airline office which is nearby. We are going to take a bus so we walk a few blocks. Along the way we pass a fruit stand and Chris wants to take some photos. Claudia tells the vendor what he's doing and then the vendor says we must buy fruit. So Gloria says she'll buy some of the miniature bananas. She only wanted 2 of them, but the man insisted she buy 1 kilogram (about 10 minis) for 2 soles.
We got the bananas and kept walking. I had two and Gloria had two and Chris didn't want any. So then we get on a bus and it started off very abruptly and I accidentally hit a woman on the head! I said “sorry” cause I couldn't remember “lo siento” at the time. Hailing a bus or taxi here is very interesting... just stand on the edge of the road and stick out your arm! No real bus stops!
I forgot to mention before we left the hostel towards the airline office, Gloria tried to call a contact she has in Lima (from Cusco. .. visiting Lima) but the number didn't work. Then I called my TravBuddy girl Yadira and she was there! She had the day off from work because her boss was off too! We decided to meet at Larcomar (pronounced like “la coma”) which is a large mall area nearby... at the Starbucks (of all places!) at 5:00pm. I was excited she was available!! :)
We were heading to AeroCondor around 1 or 2 pm and near the office was a McDonald's ad for an “Indian”-style chicken sandwich with curry! (definitely not available in the U.S.) The airline had nothing available to Arequipa for 2 days!... so we went across the street to LAN. There were MANY people inside and after about a 20 minute wait, Chris asked a guy about the wait and he said 1 hour and 20 minutes! Screw that! So we went over to their computers to purchase. Next to us was a gringo and we talked to him a bit. He's here studying Spanish and was from North Carolina!! After entering all our info twice we talked to an agent who said we have to pay for the tickets at a grocery store! Luckily it was close so we made the reservations and headed to the store. It's late! Bedtime!

2:54am Saturday


We went to the grocery store and Chris paid for the tickets. Gloria and I really wanted to try Bembos hamburgers, which Claudia said was the best. Chris was not interested in burgers, and just wanted some fruit and yogurt from the store.  So we said “go get it and we can all leave together” but he told us to go and he'll catch up to us.  So we went to Bembos in an area with lots of U.S. restaurants (TGI Fridays and McDonalds) and it was a round-about with a small grassy area and statue in the middle. Just as Claudia said, the burgers were delicious! My burger was called the Francesa (French) and it had lots of mushrooms but also miniature french fries! I also got some potato wedges... I think they were called Fritas Especiál. When we were sufficiently full and took a few cute photos upstairs, we told the people at Bembos about Chris who hadn't showed up yet. We had to leave to meet Yadira at Larcomar, a large shopping area by the beach, just a lil north of the area with Rustica. When Yadira first walked by I wasn't sure it was her because she had on large sunglasses. She didn't recognize me right away either because I was wearing my glasses. But I guessed correctly it was her and at that point Claudia said goodbye. I told Yadi I was interested in buying a tank top at the store she recommended called Ripley (pronounced like “re-play”). She said it was “very close, just a few blocks”... so we walk... and walk... and about 15 minutes later we finally get there! No big deal, but it was certainly farther than I had expected. I pick out about 9 tops I liked. They had a lot of cute, colorful and random designs! Many shirts had English and one I found said “felling the summer” which was a very obvious misspell! I was a bit shocked at the sizes... I usually wear a Medium but a lot of their mediums seemed more like XS or S! Most of the tanks I picked out to try on were sizes L or XL! I tried them all on and many didn't fit right at all. One was very nice and soft and it was on sale! Only S/. 12.9! After shopping we wanted to go back to the beach to see the sunset. We didn't have much time to get there and even though it was close, we took a S/. 5 (rip off!.. compared to the others) taxi back to the beach. The sunset was beautiful! We took a lot of photos and walked along the sidewalks overlooking the water and it went through some small parks along the cliffs of the beach. The last small park we saw, Yadi said was called “Lover's Park” and it had a statue of people kissing and lots of mosaics! Along his walk we went over a bridge that had large plexiglass barriers on both sides which Yadi said was because people had jumped off to commit suicide. After all the parks we decided we wanted to try the Pisco drink! So we went back to Larcomar to a restaurant called Mangos! :-) We got a GREAT table out on the edge of the deck with a view of a the coast. In the distance was a large lit-up cross which was built back in the 1980's for when the Pope came to visit. I guess they still light it up every night! At Mangos we all tried Yadi's favorite pisco drink (they have about 6 different kinds, depending on the restaurant) which was Maracuyá Sour. This flavor was passion fruit. The drink was very good. We also got an appetizer to share with our drinks which was called Yuquitas a la Huancaína. These were basically little potatos filled with Edam cheese and the huancaína sauce is a special Peruvian sauce. Eventually a friend of Yadira's came to join us. He is from TravBuddy also!! His name is Romain and he is from France. He was very friendly and has a French accent. :) He talked about how he doesn't like France much but when he came to Peru he fell in love with the country and decided to move here! He's from the northern coastal area of France, near Belgium. He is 28 years old and has been in Lima for 8 months so far. I don't remember his job but it sounded like he makes good money. It was fun because he speaks Spanish well and can speak to the people here, also very good English, and of course French. I tried to speak some French to him but it was hard because I've been focusing on Spanish lately. We hung out at Mangos and chatted and had drinks (café con leche!) for an hour or so. All 4 of us then headed to a hostel named Loki where Yadi had some more friends from foreign countries! Two of them were unavailable but Eoin from Ireland joined our group and we headed out to an English Pub. They had a cover and it was too busy so we went to “Yadi's place” which was her favorite bar called Tayta. They had a small 2-member band playing and it was busy but we got a table by the window with a view of the Plaza. I had another pisco, this time with tuna (it's a fruit!) and Gloria had one with orange. The boys had a Peruvian beer called Cristal. Yadi had a pisco with something that made it taste like Bailey's! They also gave us a bowl of the large corn kernels with salt (canchita). The word Tayta is the “chaychua” (Inca native language) word for “sir” or “señor.” The bar was fun, though kinda loud so a bit difficult to talk. They allow smoking here, which was kinda gross, but oh well. Gloria and I were getting tired and wanted to leave by 1am. Romain offered to walk us back to the hostel, which was very nice because we didn't know the roads at all and he could keep us safe.
Oh, so we didn't know where Chris was all day and we got a bit worried. At Mangos, Yadi called our hostel to see if Chris got back. She left her # for him to call if he showed up. He finally called after Romain showed up, but before we left Mangos. It was nice to know he was okay and had fun wandering and taking photos. Yadi works for an oil company from New Orleans (she went to Mardi Gras this last year!) She is also 28 years old and works from home doing transactions in English (she speaks very well!) and does a lot of reserving taxis, planes, etc for her boss. She has connections in this sense, and offered to get a taxi for us from the hostel to the airport in the morning! *yay* -Taxi Movil-
Gloria and I got to bed around 3am and we're flying out to Arequipa in the morning!
P.S. many single Peruvians (no matter their age) live with their families (parents)!

11:40pm Saturday


Note: I shot a total of 87 photos on Day 2!. . significantly less than the first day! :)

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