¡Bienvenidos a Perú!

After a very long flight that included a 10 hour layover in El Salvador, I finally made it to Lima! And before you ask, yes the layover was every bit as awful as you would imagine, especially when you can walk the entire airport in ten minutes...boredom at its finest. On the bright side, sitting in a common room for that long period forced me to be social and I made a new friend from Ecuador! She runs a nonprofit school for low income/ rural kids and invited me to come visit the school, her town, and the Galapagos! I see another trip in my future...sorry, not sorry mom and dad 😉 

On my first night here I had a typical Peruvian dish called "a la parilla" which is a bunch of grilled meat piled on a hot plate passed around the table. On this plate were normal things like, chicken breast, ribeye, sausage....and less normal things, like intestine, liver, stomach, heart, and morcilla (blood sausage). If this looks like the odds are not in my favor, it's because it totally wasn't and that's how I accidentally ate "anticucho"...in other words...cow heart😱. It was actually really good...so thank you Spanish skills for being so rusty I thought I was eating veil instead of cow heart 😂. 

I am traveling with Uncle Ron and his friend Steve (and his family). Steve's wife Luisa is from Peru and her brother is a general in the military. If you're wondering why I'm telling you all this, it's because the family has been super hospitable and with their connection to him we have been rolling high in Lima! How high? I'm talking hotel room with a jacuzzi tub, free waters/soda/candy, bubbles for the jacuzzi left in a wine glass, and breakfast delivered to my room status. I felt like a princess! 👸🏽 Don't worry, my head hasn't gotten too big since we moved into one of his apartments this morning where it's all self service. 😂

The apartment is right in the best part of town called Mira Flores and there's this huge park nearby filled with stray semi domestic cats!! You name it and they'll be there in every size, shape, and color. I'll see if I can snag some good photos tomorrow because if you sit on a bench they'll legitimately jump right on it with you! I explored the gardens, which also included one named John F. Kennedy...why? No clue, and the locals don't really know why he has a park dedicated to him either. I still found it highly amusing. 

In true Uncle Ron fashion the rest of our afternoon was spent at the markets hunting down different herbs local to Peru...unfortunately none were to be found, but we did get cool exotic fruit that we can't wait to try! Including lucuma, cherimoya, and aguaymanto. 

Finally our day ended with a visit to Luisa's family's home to meet her father (Big General), her brother (the General), sister, and two kids, Natasha and Stephen (who are older than any 5-7 years). If trying to get my Spanish back wasn't hard enough this first day, keeping up with multiple conversations in multiple languages (English and Spanish)  with that many people just about used up all my brain power. Nonetheless I powered through until 1 am! (Niurka would be so proud lol) I even think the Big General liked me because even though he didn't talk very much, half way through the night he brought me one of his collectible magazines all about Cusco to use on my trip. I'm scared to even take it out of its protective sheet but I have a snaking suspicion I might be quizzed when I get back, so looks like I have some reading to do on the plane ride over! Lol. 

Anyways this chick is pretty tired and off to bed. I'll keep you updated, haven't figured out if I have wifi or even data in Cusco yet but hopefully I'll find out tomorrow as our plane leave 8 am Friday. Eeeppp!!

Love ya lots,

Carolina