Peru Day 2 - Lima

Forgot to mention a few things one must know about traveling in Peru.

1 - always carry tissue or a 1/2 roll or toilet paper in your pocket or pack. The bathrooms here usually have no paper, and you're actually quite lucky if there is a seat on the toilet! Many times you have to squat and hover, and you never put the paper in the toilet - always in the little bin on the floor. Yes - always!

2 - had my first Pisco Sour yesterday. Is the drink of Peru but Chili and Peru each claim at their own and that theirs is best. I don't know about the Chilean version but I LOVE the Peruvian ones. Most restaurants offer one free one with dinner.

3 - there are internet cafes everywhere and for about 4 soles an hour you can get access. (that's about $1.30/hr)

Now, on to day 2, Friday September 14th. Had to move to another room at the Hostal today. Michele is arriving tonight now. Jenni is flying out to Cusco ahead of us to get set up there.

My day started with a freezing cold shower, there was no hot water. Didn't do much today, we all had coffee and lunch then Jenni was off. Washi was missing so she took a taxi herself to the airport. We found out later he was sick the night before and did go to the airport last night and waited for Michele. Poor Washi!

For lunch I had asparagus soup and tacos especiale (beef, chicken, sausages and beans). They make good Mexican food in Peru. The garlic sauce is pure garlic and is to die for!

I had a nap in the afternoon. I hit a wall finally and had to just rest. Feeling very positive about doing well physically at the high altitude in Cusco. I will be 100% fine, I have just decided.

So here is my second room at Hostal el Patio. I didn't have a peep hole, I had a "peep window" LOL.

QUOTE: "The world is a book. Those that do not travel, read only one page" author unknown.

Learned a lot about Diana and Washi today. Diana and Jenni have traveled a LOT, done some scary things, been to many spiritual places. They seem fearless - my heroes! Next year they are adding trips to Nepal and Diana is going there on October 23rd with her husband. She invited Washi along and said she'd pay for his trip. He was like "are you serious" with his cute Spanish accent. She was - and he's going! He was over the moon, he said he's always dreamed of going there. Rob is completely jealous. Is on my list now too. Red Lotus adds it to the repertoire for 2008, and I'm SO there. I also found out I know Jenni's fiance, Greg Masuda, who's a photographer in Calgary and used to be a Queensberry client of mine.

For fund raising between Diana, Jenni and myself we have almost $3000 US in cash, plus we each brought a huge bag of school supplies. I'll be so glad when we can give all that away and not have to haul it around.

Diana and I did a bit of shopping today. I did some on my own and I helped her get a top for Jenni - we're about the same size, so I had to try it on. Do you have any idea how hard that is when you're wearing 4 tops and a jacket and have a backpack on too? Not fun, let me tell you! But I did manage to buy a cute pair of slip on cowboy pseudo boots, and a very bling bling pair of latina jeans. When in Lima . . .

Here's Diana buying a pair of fuzzy boots for 60 Soles ($20)
It was like boot heaven! Why didn't I get a pair again???

Here are some street scenes from Miraflores area in Lima. I did some walking around and noticed that there are a lot of people kissing in the parks there always! Made me miss Rob even more. He could text message me on my phone for free but I couldn't reply. That was kinda weird but good to be connected to him somehow.








Had a weird allergic reaction of some kind to something I ate for dinner and my throat was all scratchy. Cleared it with Calli tea and more Sunrider foods. Had picarones for dessert. Is a kind of donut made from fried yams served with chancaca (a very sweet cane syrup).

Diana and Washi and I set up the other 2 rooms with t-shirts, candies and candles for the other ladies arriving tonight. Then I hit the sack and they went to the airport at midnight. Michelle snuck in about 2am or something and we ended up talking for about an hour. She had quite the journey and I warned her she'd be freezing at night so she wore her toque to bed. There was very load music playing from some bar down the street so we had trouble falling asleep. Thank god for my iPod and relaxation audios!

Peru Day 1 - Lima

Sept 13th, 2007

I had no idea Lima was so big. Over 8 million people live there! It is a big city, with no subway, one freeway to speak of, lots of old cars and trucks, and LOTS of smog!

So I finally met Jenni in person, I liked her right away. We are a lot alike, but she is completely fearless. She's my idol, I want to be like her when I grow up (even though we're only 2 years apart LOL). I also met Washington our guide for the tour. He is a native Peruvian, 25 years old from Ollantaytambo in the Sacred Valley. He has so much pride for his people and his country, it's awe inspiring. He also has vision for it and plans on being mayor of his town next election (3 years) and president of Peru in 15 years. With his ambition and personality and what he's overcome in his own life to get where he is - I have NO doubt he will do it and I'll be visiting him in the presidential palace in 2022!

Breakfast at Hostal el Patio consisted of one piece of white bread (round bun), one piece of fruit and coffee or tea. I used my Sunrider foods to keep me fed and took the fruit to go. This is the hostal in the daytime. It is a very cute little place with a great courtyard. My first room overlooked the courtyard.

This is the view from my window.

Oh, did I mention I was freezing in Lima every minute I was there!? I had so many layers of clothes on, slept with a sweater and hood on, wool socks - I could barely move. It was about 15c during the day and about 5-7c at night - BUT - they don't have heat indoors! I got extra blankets and a heater on the second night after I learned it was available. The heater itself was a bit scary - propane! Only got it for an hour then it got taken away.

The day staff spoke good English though. This is us with one of the desk girls Janice.

(Me, Diana Love, Janice, Jenni Lund)

Okay, so the money changer guy came and I got some Soles (3 for every US dollar), stored my passport in their safe - and off we went to lunch.

This is about 5 blocks from our hotel. This street is all restaurants, no traffic. The area of Lima we're in is called Miraflores. It is a relatively safe, touristy area close to the ocean.

This is Washington (we call him Washi) and we all love him to pieces.
How can you not with that smile?!

My first Peruvian beer! Salut!

This guy came and played for us while we ate. We gave him tips
of course. I found out later, he comes every day. Saw him many times.

Beginning of great food in Peru. This is Diana's salad. The avacados there are totally amazing and huge! I was told was safe to eat salad in Lima. We did and didn't get sick so there you go.


This is my first lunch - ceviche, which is raw fish marinated in chili and lime juice.

That is giant corn on top. I thought I'd get something with it like rice, or veggies - guess not. But as I soon discovered, we all love to share our food and try new things - so I got some of that salad and Washi got to eat what I didn't.

After lunch we had a driver take us downtown to Cathedral de San Francisco. It is in the heart of Lima, very Spanish looking. We had some fun with pigeons outside, then we went in to see the catacombs. There are 3 levels of them under the cathedral and over 25,000 people buried there in the 1500's. It the 1850's or so it was discovered and they wanted to try to count how many bodies were there. So they started arranging the bones in groups.

Washi took about 17 shots like this of us! He loves photography and had camera envy of mine. He loved when I let him use it.

Amazingly enough, none of us got "shat upon" shall we say!

Is that a bit creepy or what?!

Lima architecture, very Spanish.

The presidential palace, guards with guns and all.

Plaza des Armas in Lima


Traffic in Lima - going back at 5pm was NOT a good idea!
Took us 20 minutes to go like 5 blocks.


Hostal el Patio at night.


That's my room open on the left. At least for one more night.

After that we went to dinner on that same street as we had lunch and Michelle was supposed to arrive that night but had travel issues and didn't get in. Diana was trying to reach Washi to tell him not to go to the airport and was back and forth to the internet cafe and using my cell phone. In the mean time - Jenni and I went salsa dancing at this place.

I don't have a lot of photos at night cause my camera is too big and obviously expensive I left it in my room most of the time for safety reasons. I have some from everyone else's photos and we have to compile them all together yet.

Tomorrow - Jenni flies to Cusco, Diana and I go shopping.

Life after going to Peru

Well! So here it is 4 weeks later and I'm a changed person. Going to a third world country and seeing ancient ruins and such abject poverty will do that to you.

How do I begin to write about what I saw, experienced, people I met, the whole thing? At the beginning I guess, so here goes. I'll do piece by piece.

Sept 12th - man I LOVE using my airpoints to fly first class! 5 hours in Toronto airport in the nice quiet lounge with free snacks, salad, soup, internet, magazines, etc. Oh yeah - booze! I had a glass of wine, so there. I arrived in Lima and had a "Holy shit, what have I done!?" moment at the airport. It's a bit chaotic there to say the least. A driver from my hotel (hostal) met me and took me there. So here I was at 1am in the morning, driving through Lima's scummiest areas (there aren't many that aren't that way) with a strange man that doesn't speak my language. "Hmm, is this a good idea?" went through my head - but after what I was told about taxis by my tour leaders, the hotel driver seemed a good option. This is Hostal el Patio:


I got to my room and boarded up the door - I was SO tired! There was a pitcher of water on the desk, but when I asked if they had bottled the guy just said it was good to have that water. I wasn't convinced. Then another man comes and is speaking Spanish to me through the door and I so wasn't getting his message. I didn't want to open the door but was on the phone (rented a cell phone for $10 for 3 weeks in Lima airport) with my Mom at the time so I figured if she heard screams she'd notify authorities, LOL. I was actually in the wrong room.

I ended up in this room with 3 beds, as Michelle was supposed to arrive the next night and share with me. When I got there I had a note from Diana and Jenni who were still in Lima and did I want to go to a cathedral with them and our guide Washington tomorrow - so YES! I was so happy to see her note, from someone I knew - in ENGLISH!



Dig the key to this room!!! Cool or what?!

So I slipped a message under their door (after a crazy search to find it, there is no rhyme or reason to how the rooms are numbered here) to tell them to sign me up for the tour Thursday.

I will write about my next few days in Peru one at a time. Like it was happening - just 2 weeks later. So, stay tuned for more stories and photos! ;-)