aventura de peru. dia 15.

Its been awhile. The last week and a half has been pretty nuts.

I said goodbye to Paracas

Demon-eyed blondies behind the bar...farewell party with my Dutch girls.

and took a 13 hour bus ride to Arequipa, the second largest city in Peru, behind Lima. I was sitting on the upper level of the bus in the front row, which was cool because I was surrounded by windows and had VIP views of the coast, which was honestly magical come sunset (when we were actually driving by the coast) but mid-day whilst riding through the deserty brown-ness, with the sun glaring in at me as if I were some plump and juicy pig needing to be roasted, yeah that was rather uncomfortable. And that is precisely what happened. Picture me and my roasted piggy-ness trying to get comfortable while the Peruvian gentleman beside me tries in vain to watch the Spanish version of that sci-fi movie with Will Smith and his kid. Woe is me.

We arrive in Arequipa about midnight and I catch a taxi to my hostel where I literally roll around in my bed for 2 hours before its time to rise and attempt to shine for my Colca Canyon trek.

A little background on the Colca Canyon...its supposedly the second deepest canyon in the world, behind the Cotahuasi Canyon, which is also in Peru...but after some recent measurements, it turns out Colca is deeper...Cotahuasi is 3,354 meters (11,001 feet) and Colca is 3,501 meters (11,488 feet).

So with that said, I climbed in and out of that shit in 2 days, without acclimating, with a heinous cold!

Let me tell you about it.

We were picked up by our lovely guide Marcos at 3:30 am and proceeded to drive 3 hours to Chivay where we had breakfast...bread and eggs...standard for Peru...I´ve had it every morning I´ve been here. From Chivay we head to Cruz del Condor to peep some giant birds. We learned how to tell the difference between males and females and that condors mate for life. Marcos made a joke that when the mate dies, the other commits suicide, maybe not so true, but I enjoy learning about animals  that are faithful.

Juvenile condor.

All the peeps taking pics of the birds. Myself included.

From Cruz del Condor we head to the beginning of our trek where we learn about the various villages in the canyon and Marcos gives us the run-down of our agenda for the next 2 days. While he is sharing about the villages (ranging in population from 60 to 100 people) he shares about the tiny trails zig-zagging up from the towns- alpaca and llama trails. Someone in our group asks if you can milk the llamas and alpacas. Marcos responds, “Oh no, only the cows...and the guinea pigs.” As you can see, Marcos is a jokester. (Mid-way through our first day, I ask Marcos if his name is Marco or Marcos, because I can´t quite tell...he replies, “ Marcooossss Jackson” and then attempts to moonwalk and almost lands in the irrigation channel running along the trail.

We proceed to hike all the way down into the canyon...approximately 2000 meters in elevation change over the course of 12 kilometers. By the last kilometer my knees are toast and my toenails feel like theyre going to fall off. Not to mention my nose is leaking all over the place as Ive come down with a terrible cold, and the screaming in my lungs everytime I try to take a deep breath is over-whelming.

Once we get to the very bottom, we cross the river via this big awesome bridge and then its time for lunch. Lomo saltado, rice, and french fries. Every meal I´ve eaten here has been served with rice and french fries. White rice and what appears to be russet potatoes. Quinoa and sweet potatoes are big here but I´ve yet to find them. And turns out the lomo in this dish was ALPACA! I ate alpaca. Yup, I did.

After lunch, Dwight aka Whitey, whos actually quite brown, offers to carry my pack the remainder of the trek. My knight in shining armor!

 I casually oblige.

My knight is there with the teal green pack.

We make it down to Sangalle, aka the oasis,

 Yeah, we hiked all the way down into that ish.

Here´s a slightly better view.

at sundown, take a quick dip in the pool and then get ready for bed. During the first 5 minutes we are in this place, my bed breaks and someone finds a scorpion in the bathroom (although I dont know how valid the scorpion sighting is considering it came from High Maintenance Boy...an American fella who chucked a tanty ((an Aussie expression I learned that means to throw a tantrum)) when there was avocado in his lunch. Marcos had asked previously if there were any dietary restrictions amongst the group and no one said anything...so maybe he just saw an over-sized roach). Scorpion makes things more fun though.

I take a quick nap before dinner and wake up to a boat load of pasta. I shove it all down and head back to bed as we have a 4 am wake up call.

Throughout the night I wake up several times with leaky face syndrome. My eyes are secreting this goopy shit and my nose is a faucet.  Oh, how I love being sick. Especially when I have to climb 1,200 meters out of this canyon at 4:30 in the morning.

And then its 4 am and were psyching ourselves up for the nuttiness that´s ahead. Of course, I could just pay 80 soles to ride a donkey back up but that´s for pansies.

Slow and steady, for a solid 3 ½ hours, I walked. Up. And up. And up. I can honestly say that was the hardest thing I´ve ever done, and I´ve run 17 marathons. Minus the elevation and the sickness I think I could have been just fine...but as it was, I´ve never faced a more mentally trying time. There were times I thought I was going to fall over the edge from sheer exhaustion. And other times I thought my lungs were going to explode. But I did it.

Making it to the top was rather anti-climactic as I had gotten separated from my group since we were all trekking at different paces. 

This is where it gets good.

So here I am in this tiny town, Cabanaconde, alone with mediocre Spanish-speaking abilities. It´s about 8am and kids are walking to school, people are heading to work, and here I am, giant white girl wandering amongst these tiny brown Peruvians. 

Shit. Shit. What do I do? 

So I start walking toward the edge of town thinking that´s where my group will rendezvous, and I come upon two English girls backpacking in. They help me find the main square, saved my life in fact. And I waited there in hopes that my guide, Marcos Jackson would be there, and through my trials and tribulations, he was.

I knew that had I not been able to find my group, I could have made it back to my hostel in Arequipa, but my main concern was that the group would spend their valuable time looking for me. 

But my worries were all for naught my friends. Marcos saved me!

After a delicious breakfast of, you guessed it, bread and eggs, we head out for the rest of our tour through the Colca Canyon (via bus mind you). Oh, and did any of you catch that we hiked 1,200 meters straight up without having eaten anything. Yeah, awesome. I bought a banana and some oreos from the bar the night before though. Breakfast of champions!

Throughout the rest of the day we saw some Pre-Inca ruins:

I bought some souvenirs, attempted to barter and failed, went to the hot springs (of which High Maintenance Boy would´t partake in due to fear of disease). I had an eagle on my head:

and we frolicked with some alpacas:

Also, highlight...while driving through an indigenous village of Peru what song should come on the radio but #Selfie. I almost died laughing. Classic. These people have no running water or electricity but should they happen upon a radio somewhere they´re getting their dose of pop culture.

Towards the end of our tour we stopped for lunch in Chivay. Let´s just say Peruvian buffet=several unknown foods consumed=instant bubble guts. As I was walking down the line for the third time, my crush decides to walk down the other side.

Yes, I´ve found myself a crush here. He´s Belgian. And his name is Wauter (like Walter I suppose). I asked if I could call him Wow. He wasn´t into it. Anyway, he´s tall and handsome, remarkably fit...he sped past me on our hike out of the canyon...I had previously met him in Paracas so it was nice to run into him again.

So when we met in the middle of the buffet line, me with my bubble guts and leaky face, him in his post workout glow, he decides to bestow some advice upon me...¨get some rest. You´re never gonna get well if you don´t sleep.¨

Thanks Wow, but I got shit to do here.

From Chivay we head back to Arequipa where I grab a quick headache inducing shower due to its coldness, and then grab my overnight bus to Cusco.

All the while I´m thinking about how I´m going to crash so quick due to my outrageous exhaustion. Yeah, not so much.

I ate some food...the buses feed you well here, and listened to the instrumental version of Oh Holy Night over the speakers and then put my eye mask on...well first I blew up my inflatable neck pillow and put my ear plugs in, then the eye mask, now who´s high maintenance? All of my attempts to block out the world around me failed miserably. Here´s why:
-My nose is leaking and my bowels are unhappy
-My seat is near the bathroom so I can hear the constant going´s on of said bathroom
-The shocks on this bus are non-existent
-Buses like to overtake slower traffic and then slam the brakes when they can´t make it
-The ghost in the bathroom won´t stop throwing the toilet seat up and down

Literally the most miserable 10 hours of my life.

But I made it.

Slept for a bit at my new hostel and then woke up to find Miren and Kelsey here, the girls I went sand-boarding with.

We caught up for a bit and I convinced Miren to go bungee jumping with me.

We jumped the highest bungee in South America at 122 meters and it was pretty damn great. But we could´t possibly do the jump without preparing for the plunge with some intense stretching as seen here:

Also, after me making a joke about my gorda-ness (weighing in at a lofty 80 kilos) the young man harnessing me in for the jump proceeded to tell me I was beautiful and suggested we go dancing later. He was over a foot shorter than me, spitting game whilst pulling my harness tight around my thighs. I was amused.

The day after jumping I went rafting down the Urubamba River and also caught some zip lines. My guide Roger was simply the best. Quite the sense of humor. He made the whole experience 10 times better.

The day after rafting I hit the Inca Trail. A more detailed enactment of that adventure will be up soon enough. 

aventura de peru. dia 9. las cosas pequeñas.

I leave my sleepy beachside home of Paracas tomorrow morning. Time flies when you´re lying around by the beach. Nothing too notable has happened in the past couple days, but I wanted to share some small stories that have made my time here quite special.

The other day I commissioned a gentleman named Franco to make a necklace for me out of Andean stones. He had a table full of beautiful rocks, some in their natural state, some that had been sanded and shaped. I chose five stones and asked a friend to help me explain to him how I wanted the necklace to look. Two days later, I receive my treasure:

Isn´t she lovely?

My exchanges with Franco were very brief but fun. He´s a very sweet and talented man and not only am I thankful for what he made me, I am thankful for his patience and willingness to engage in a couple shoddy conversations full of broken Spanish.

The next small moment involves a young girl at a restaurant where I was buying lunch. While I was waiting for her mother and grandmother (I presume) to get my meal together, the little girl saw my necklace and ran up to me. She started counting the stones uno, dos, tres, and every time after 3 she would get a little jumbled up, so I would count with her. She was so adorable, and kept doing it over and over, just to touch the pretty stones I´m sure. I was able to ask her name and how old she is (because I have the Spanish vocabulary of a 3 year old, naturally) and it was so sweet to get to engage with her. Dani, or Daniella, three year old sparkle in my Paracas adventure.

The other day during shift, Sophie (my new friend from The Netherlands) asked me if I wanted some fresh fruit juice from down the way. Umm, yes, of course because that sounds absolutely delightful. And this is what Sophie brought back:



Well the first image is what she brought back. And the second is obviously how it is consumed. Everything comes in plastic bags here. Juice, condiments, leftovers. There is a Chinese food restaurant down the way (they´re popular here) and they literally just threw my leftovers in a small plastic bag and sent me on my way. Classic. Small pleasures here in Paracas.

Another thing I really enjoy about this place is the bird life. I went out kayaking yesterday...and here is my rather sad attempt at a panoramic photo of the beach from my kayak:



I could use some practice...for now, I´ll just blame it on the rocking of the kayak.

I paddled out for about half an hour or so and then just laid there. Watching the birds. The Peruvian boobies are the best (no not those boobies, ya pervs) the birds. They dive into the water at like 50 mph to catch their food and then they bob up about 1.2 seconds later. Over and over they´re just diving all around me. And the pelicans are rad too. They just glide over the surface of the water, so close, without touching it. It´s really neat to watch. I caught these guys just chillin´:




Unfortunately, I couldn´t catch any gliders with my amazing kayaking camera skills.

My time in Peru is a time of trying new things, practicing open-mindedness, and attempting to challenge myself in overcoming fears.

With that said, I tried a new fruit yesterday...la granadilla. It looks like fish guts inside of an orange peel. I tried it, despite how foul it looks, and I didn´t like it. I won´t be having another, but hey, I tried it.



I´ve also been trying a lot of seafood dishes that I wouldn´t normally ever even consider. But I am in Peru, a country that exports 10% of the world´s fish, so I gotta try shit.

I´ve had fried rock fish that was served up whole with the teeth still intact...this is basically what it looked like:



I´ve also tried muscles for the first time, I know, crazy considering I´ve lived in Santa Barbara for 9 years now. I´ve had chupe de pescado (fish soup) with shrimp, squid, and octopus among other types of fish. I´ve also eaten ceviche, which is raw fish. So I´d say I´m doing pretty well on the trying new things front.

Another small thing...the equivalence of Groupon in Peru. I had expressed interest in para-gliding to my friend Ana (my couchurfing host) and she began scouring the internet for a discount. This is what she found:



Dias Lunatic!! Para-gliding in Peru for 70 soles...the equivalent of about $24. We´re heading out on our adventure when I get back to Lima! So stoked.

Panoramic pictures are cool. I haven´t taken many in my life, but I´m going to start. Here´s one from the dunes, and I´ll be sure to share some more later:



Rest in peace sweet safari hat.

My challenge for today, figure out how to transfer money into the bank account of the tour guide for the hostel I am arriving at tomorrow night at midnight. I am attempting to head out on a two day trek of the Colca Canyon (supposedly the world´s second deepest canyon) that departs at 3 am the morning I arrive...therefore, I have to schedule and pay for the tour before I get there since I am at the hostel for less than 3 hours in the middle of the night. The website of the bank is entirely in Spanish. Should be fun.

I´m going to miss this view:



But only until I get home, seeing as I have a very similar view around the corner from my house. Neener neener.

Paracas, it´s been fun. Time for the next adventure.

aventura de peru. dia 6.

Man oh man. Life is good.

So I had my first bartending shift on Wednesday night, at Kokopelli Backpacker Hostel in Paracas, my home for the week.So much fun to be behind the bar again. My fellow bartenders for the evening were Callam, cute little Aussie boy, and Courtney a UCSB alum like me! Although she finished her studies just last year. Getting old here (kidding).

The night was great, full of people from all over the world, pausing for a night at this beautiful beachside hostel. A lot of the locals come through as well, as this is one of the few bars here in Paracas.Towards the middle of my shift, all the other girls that are volunteering with me (there are 7 girls and 1 guy, go figure) came to sit at the bar and we all got heavily involved in a game called Cheers Gov´nor which is basically a numbers game where everytime you get to 21 you make a rule for one of the numbers leading up to it. If you screw up on your way around the circle, you drink. The tasks for each number get progressively more risque as most drinking games often progress. This particular round combusted before any clothes were shed though. Phew. The night ended with a load of salsa dancing. I was asked by a beautiful Argentinian girl to dance, so of course, I obliged. She´s traveling with her boyfriend and doesn´t speak a lick of English. Had a blast! We closed up the bar around 1:30am and then off to bed.

The next morning I woke up for sand-boarding. Feeling uncertain about how I would get back in the evening, I caught my transfer bus to Huacachina with Miren (from Spain) and Kelsey (from the UK) where we checked in at their hostel. They are moving on in their adventures and I would be heading back to Paracas after sand-boarding.

After arriving in Huacachina we had some lunch and wandered around the lake, or pond rather, and we actually decided to have a row for 15 soles...the equivalent of just over 5 bucks.



After our row, we wandered around the lake a bit more,



climbed a tree,



and then headed back to the hostel to pack for our dune-buggy adventure.

Our tour was set to begin at 4pm and would last two hours, taking us through sunset on the dunes. We were obviously very excited for the trip, but little did we know our expectations would be far surpassed.



Our buggy driver, Julio, is a nut!! The ride was literally like a roller coaster, except with a roller coaster you can somewhat predict what is going to happen next because you can see the track prior to getting on the ride. With this ride we would come up on these dunes with nearly vertical drops and he would gun the engine over them so that we would literally fly out of our seats. And Miren labeled my seat as ¨the fat person¨seat because the seat belt was outrageously large with no means of adjusting it. So this ride was rather dangerous, which made it all the more enjoyable.

We arrived at a summit and Julio let us get out to take some pictures before we would start our sand-boarding adventure.





From there he took us to where we would have our first three rides. The first dune was a baby, with each one getting progressively more nutty. I chose to ride down face first on my belly because I just don´t have the snow-boarding skills to bomb these dunes like that. And the boards literally had some velcro straps to attach your feet to, no ankle support, no lush boots to strap into. So I chose to save my ankles for the Inca Trail, and went head first instead, which proved to be much more terrifying as you get a lot more speed.

Unfortunately, I don´t have any pictures of actually boarding because I didn´t want to take my nice camera out in the sand. But if you look closely in this next picture you can see the tiny people at the top of our last ride. I went head first on a board down this giant. Nuts!!



That dot just below the ridge is a boarder.

After the sand-boarding commenced we rode the buggy back to Huacachina where we were able to get some beautiful photos of the sunset before I had to head back to grab a taxi and then a bus back to Paracas.

The tiny town of Huacachina

Kelsey, me, Julio (our driver) and Miren!

All my worries were in vain as the means of getting back was cake. I´m getting more and more comfortable with this traveling alone thing.

And then we reach the end of another magical day. The only con to the whole trip, I lost my sweet safari hat. It flew out of the buggy when Julio was coming to pick us up from our last run. Boo.

I am currently working the morning shift at the bar. Which is why I have all the free time in the world to upload pictures and such. After work I may head out for a kite-surfing lesson...the problem is you are at the mercy of the wind god. And I am only here for a few more days...you have to get 6 hrs worth of lessons in before you get to go out on the water. So there´s a chance there will not be enough wind in the amount of time I have left here in order to finish my lessons...so I´m not sure whether I´m going to try for it or not.

Did I mention I´ve commissioned a local jeweler to make me a necklace from beautiful Andean stones?! Gah! It´s stupposed to be ready today. Pictures to follow.

Ciao for now folks. 

aventura de peru. dia 4.

I have fallen in love with this place and it's only day 4. My couchsurfing experience was honestly beyond belief. Ana, my lovely host, spent the entire two days with me, the first I have already shared with you. After sharing a few drinks together Monday night, the five of us in the stache pic decided to head to Plaza de Armas in Centro de Lima the next morning. We got to visit some beautiful buildings and we took a tour of a cathedral in which the remains of the founder of Lima are stored. As much as I'd rather be jumping off of or out of things, I do appreciate some historical context once in awhile you know.

Turns out there were many private chapels in this cathedral, reserved for the wealthier folks of course, and all of the remains of the families who "owned" each chapel so to speak, were buried just beneath. And of course the remains were happened upon by accident during renovations and such. There you are just digging away and rebuilding or re-enforcing the structures and oh hey, you find several coffins with the remains of archbishops and their families. Nuts.

After spending some time in Centro de Lima, Ana brought us back to her place for lunch where we had some Pollo Pardo, which is Peruvian fast food. Basically some rotisserie style chicken and fench fries. From there we drove to Pachacamac, which is a town with some Inca ruins that are still currently being excavated. The site is right near the coast so the views were spectacular. After wandering around a bit, Ana took us to her friend Toto's house. His real name is Carlos but for some reason he goes by Toto. I doubt he has any idea about Dorothy and Kansas. Toto's pops owns a quail hatchery. Quail in Spanish is Coroniz and the eggs of the quail are sold just like chicken eggs here. We went into the hatchery and got to see some 40,000 quail in their cages. Not so great but still rather interesting. Also in Peru, rabbit and guinea pigs are primary sources of meat in many parts of the country. So along with the quail, Toto's family raises rabbit and guinea pig for meat. I took some pictures and felt terrible all the while.

After Toto's we headed back to Lima for a night on the town, but not before Ana and I shared a home-cooked meal. Ana's mom made us some delicious meat and rice with this sauce that is unreal. Muy delicioso. After dinner Ana and I rested for half an hour before heading to El Jardin Secreto, aka the secret garden. We had a blast playing Jenga and drinking a cocktail called La Piscina...which means The Pool. Think about it. It was a giant glass with all different kinds of alcohol. Whoever made the Jenga fall had to take a shot of it. Our group had grown from 5 to 9 by that time. We had recruited some Korean folks and a German guy. From the secret garden we made it to another bar where there were tons and tons of prostitutes just hanging around. Although it was less than satisfactory we did have fun dancing. Got home around 3:45am...slept for 2 hours and had to get up to catch my bus to Paracas.

I made it to my hostel and crashed for a couple hours. Woke up to the most magical sunset. I sat there, on the water, in total quiet, with a gentle breeze, just thinking how lucky I am to have the opportunity to do all this and be in this moment. Rather surreal.

This morning we took off on a trip to the islands, Islas Ballestas, where we took too many pictures of too many birds, and learned what bird shit smells like as we were enveloped in it. Now, I am just chilling, trunquilo as it is called here. I work tonight at 8 and will be laying on the beach until then.

Tomorrow, sandboarding.

aventura de peru. dia 1.

I´m here. I made it to Peru safely and although I´ve only been here for 24 hours, I already have three contacts in my new Peruvian cell phone.

Girl gets around.

It took me two days to arrive, but I´m here. I had a 24 hour layover in Georgia where I succeeded in consuming at least 12,000 calories worth of fried food. Let´s just say there were fried pickles and tater tots on my tacos one night and chicken tenders on my waffles the next morning. Also, during this 24 hour southern extravaganza, I managed to overwhelm Miz Ashley with explicit content (via the movie Neighbors) and play witness to an explicit account from Miz Ashley Sr. (Miz Ashley´s mom for those of you who missed that) when she said and I quote, “She´s a little bit heavier than me and she pole dances...I just wanna poke my eye out thinking about it,” (all of this in that sweet southern drawl, in reference to a mutual friend she shares with her daughter).

Good times in the ATL. #southernhospitality

Finally, it´s time to board my plane to Lima. Dude, Delta Airlines knows what´s up. Not only did they distribute eye masks, ear plugs, headphones, and hot towels, they fed me twice in 6 hours and poured me some complimentary wine. I mean, all the rest was nice, but free wine too? Dang Delta, you got it goin´ on.

So I land in Lima at 11:05 and it takes me roughly an hr to get through immigration and customs...not due to any complications...simply because apparently midnight is the busiest time of day at the Lima airport...so my cab driver (aka my new best friend) Liliana shared with me when she picked me up.

I come out of customs to hundreds of people standing at the exit to the airport with their little signs waving, all with various names, beckoning their tourists to swim their way over (me being one of those tourists, frantically searching for my name). When I find it, I am overwhelmed with relief (as I´m sure you can imagine). Not only have I found my name, my driver speaks English! And she´s funny! She goes on to tell me how crazy I am for all of my solo plans through Peru. The Americans and the Peruvians both think I´m crazy. Hmm.. I suppose it must be true.

We arrive at my hostel for the evening and again I am overwhelmed. We have found a little pocket of paradise in this very dangerous and rather ghetto part of Lima, just outside of the airport. The district of Callao is maybe not the safest place for a tall blonde white girl like myself to be wandering alone, but hey, I have Liliana to protect me now.

After sleeping soundly, I wake up to Yahir, cooking me breakfast and attempting to hold a conversation with me and my rough Spanish. She is so sweet, asking me what country I am from and whether I have brothers and sisters, you know, that awkward small talk when you´re sharing a conversation with someone who doesn´t understand you. It was awesome. I felt so accomplished for being able to moderately understand and in turn, communicate proper answers to her questions.

I am learning.

After breakfast, I catch my cab to Surco (one of the nicest districts in Lima), where I will be meeting my couch host (I am surfing her couch, or rather her air mattress). My cab driver is Rosenverg and he does not relent in making sure that I know that. Several times throughout our hr long journey he repeats “Rosenverg es el maximo,” in a rather sing songy voice. Not only is he dramatically entertaining, he teaches me la idioma de Inca after he learns that I will be hiking the Inca trail. He also throws on a CD and asks “cantar en Ingles?” And proceeds to sing a kid´s song in English..the words, “say good morning to your teacher” to the beat of The Addams Family song. It was absurdly awesome.

Here is a photo to commemorate the experience:

I meet my host Ana at Starbucks and we proceed to have the most adventurous day wandering around Lima. I´ve met her whole family in the course of a day, parents, sister and brother in law, godmother, and maternal grandparents, all overwhelmingly sweet. Mom bought us lunch at Punta Sal today where I tried the traditional Peruvian ceviche and delighted in a Pisco Sour as all tourists are supposed to.

Here are some pics of what I ate: 

Ceviche esta en la derecha

Este plato tipico se llama tacu tacu con lomo saltado sin las papas fritas

After lunch we bought my bus tickets for the remainder of my trip, got me´z a cell phone (so I can chat with all three of my new friends), and then wandered over to Miraflores and Barranco. We watched the sunset in Miraflores, and entertained the idea of going para–gliding like these folks:

Until we found out that it was almost $80 bucks...we´re gonna try and find a groupon. After watching those guys for awhile we went to Barranco where we sat and had a Chilcano de Maracuya (another popular alcoholic beverage) along with some Picarones (a delicious donutty dessert):

Can you tell the difference between my iPhone photos and my DSLR photos? Classic.

After Barranco, Ana and I head back to Miraflores to meet up with Liliana for a couple drinks at Huaringas (a super classy bar with various levels for your enjoyment). Once there, not only do we find Liliana, but we happen upon a couple that took the flight over from Atlanta with me. Now we´re a group of 5, laughin´ and stachin´, making plans for the next day together:

Tomorrow, the five of us, will be wandering around Centro de Lima checking out La Plaza de Armas, and once the day of historical encounters has commenced, we will make our own history at karaoke, Peruvian style, before I have to catch my bus to Paracas early Wednesday morning. 

Should be a hoot.