bring on the beach!

I have found that 4 weeks in Lima is about 3 weeks too long. The people here are amazingly friendly, the city is safe, the spanish school is well run, it's just, well, boaring. Lima is too much like any other city in the states. I have eaten more fast food and watched more tv than I have in the last 5 months. I know that is my own fault, but the other options feel touristy and like a rip off. I can't really explain it, but I know I can't wait to see some other parts of this country.
We are headed to the northern coast of Peru, to a town called Mancora, on Friday. It is a 17 hour bus trip; I look forward to looking out the window and seeing some new landscapes.
We have 3 more days of school, unless the learning god strikes me with lightening I have not learned nearly as much spanish as I thought I would. I feel that I tried really hard but language does not come easy for me. Hell, I have a hard time with english pronounciation! ( Just ask Brent the story of Cheyenne.) We hope to continue taking classes in the states because I don't want to forget everything I fought to learn on this trip. Speaking of learning it is time for class so-
Later!

In sickness and in health

On Friday Brent woke up with a sinus infection and was pretty miserable for most of the weekend. After class he came straight home and went to bed. I felt fine so Sarah and I went out for manicures and pedicures- only about $15 total! One of the girls was learning english so we had fun correcting her pronunciation of difficult words, like sausage. Listing to a young woman trying to say sausage over and over cracked us all up. She had a good time trying to fix my pronunciation as well. Sarah's pronunciation is fine, but some of the things that come out of her mouth...A 50ish balding american man came into the shop with two 20something, spanish speaking girls, one on each arm, and Sarah asks, "Are they your daughters?" Oops!
After our day of beauty we returned to the apartment to pick up Nate for dinner. We went to parque Kennedy to a restaurant we had been to before and apparently had tipped too well the last time, becuse we had 2 waitresses fighting over serving us. Unfortunately after the battle was over, the girl who won kinda sucked. Sarah and I ordered margaritias and when we got them, about 15 minutes later, they were so strong that we couldn't drink them. We sent them back for more mixer and didn't see them again until we were done eating. They tasted the same, except strangely a bit colder. Oh well.
There is a tiny bar across the street from the apartment that had a band so we stopped in on our way home and listened to a Beatles/Rolling Stones cover band. Sarah was the first to call it a night at around 12, I headed in about 1:30, and Nate headed to the casino and did not return untill 4ish! Good times.
Saturday after a late lunch we had to say goodbye to our friends. They caught a bus north to continue on their trip to Equador. Hopefully we will meet up again back in the states! Brent seems to have recovered from his illness and we will probably go out for dinner and then get ready for our last week of spanish classes, I can't believe they think I am an intermediate!
Later!

The whirlwind that is Lima

It has been a few days and we have been fairly busy. Our friends decided to prolong their stay in Lima. We have been having fun with them at night and working hard at school during the day, so something had to give- sorry!
This week we went to dinner with a couple from Lima who spoke minimal english. You would think that would make for a pretty quiet evening, but fortunately Sarah is getting pretty good in spanish and at the reduced rate of speed I was able to understand most of it, and even participate a little. We went to a parrilla in Barranco and had a great meal, I think I like the meat (especially the chorizo) better here than Argentina. Blasphemy!!!
Wednesday was the highlight of my week. After class a group of us met up and headed out for a little parapente-ing. For those of you not in the know, a parapente is similar to a parachute, a hanglider, and a kite. You stand on the edge of a cliff attached to a guy and parachute thing already full of wind. Then you take a few running steps off the cliff and you are flying! I had a great time with spectacular views and a few scary moments- my guide decided to do a few acrobatic maneuvers- and a beautiful landing 15 minutes later right back where I started. Amazing! Others, however, were not so lucky. Brent and Nate both took off smoothly but apparently had eaten too many cookies, because both of them ended up down on the beach and had to cab it back up the cliff with their guides. Needless to say they got a bit of teasing. My guide was Marco Antonio Mercado www.tandemperu.com and I would recommend him without a doubt. Interestingly, there were no releases signed before we took the jump. I have a sneaking suspicion that all casualties from this sport are drug out into the sea and never mentioned again-that would be bad for the tourist trade! Anyway our group made it back safe and sound.
The rest of the week was spent preparing for our test today. Brent and I both passed with flying colors, Brent flew a little higher than me and brought in a 94, I didn't hit the beach, but I was a bit lower with an 87.4. I am not as good as Brent in the oral section (that's what she said...ha), but do a little better with the grammer.
Tonight unfortunately Brent is not feeling well and has a bit of a fever so he will be unable to join the rest of us for a night of celebration and carousing; we will just have to have fun without him!
Later!

Felize Pascua

We spent Easter weekend with our friends in Lima, rather than heading to the beach. After many days of travel and roughing it, Sarah and Nate were very content to stay in one place for a bit. On Friday we headed to Barranco for dinner and then back to the apartment for some cards and scrabble. I lost at every game and called it a night. Brent, on the other hand, won at cards, lost at scrabble, and then decided to head to the casino around 2am. Bad Idea. We will leave it at that.
On Saturday we went down to the ocean for breakfast and looked around the mall a bit. Apparently I should stay away from either raw fish or roadside eggrolls because my stomach was not 100%. Who knew? After breakfast and a nap, Sarah and I went for a walk around and did some shopping. Last night we went to a great restaurant and listened to some music before returning home for a rematch of cards. I lost again.
We began Easter sunday getting back to our North American roots- all you can eat Sunday Brunch. I ate my weight in french toast. We are planning to go bowling this evening after a busy day of scrabble and watching the masters in spanish. Should be fun!
Happy Easter!

Semana Santa? Is he anything like Christmas Santa?

This week is Semana Santa which is the holy week leading up to Easter and apparently has nothing to do with Santa Claus. School is closed tomorrow as well as most of the stores. Since we have a long weekend ahead of us, we are going to do as the locals do and head to the beach! Our freinds are coming in on Friday, and Saturday morning we a hopping a bus to Playa Asia which is about an hour or so away.
Yesterday Brent and I went on a school excursion to the city market which is very much like a huge flea market. If you have a need for any kind of pirated brand name goods from Calvin Klien perfume to Quicksilver skateboards, this is where you go. We bought a few dvds to watch for ourselves and a bunch of kid disney type movies to give as gifts. In total we came away with 12 dvd for $12. Can't beat that, right? The only problem is...All the animated movies are in, you guesed it, Spanish. Oh well I have always thought it was easier to learn another language while you are young.
After the market, we took a cab to a new barrio called Barranco. It lies on the coast and is very scenic. We walked around for a bit and found a restaurant to sit on the deck and watch the sunset. The restaurant is named El Delfin and we had the best waiter,Louis, that I have had in almost 6 months. He helped us with our spanish and brought us samples of local dishes. We tried choclo, which is like eating the half popped kernels in the bottom of the popcorn bag, only bigger, we had our first pisco sour, some delicious ceveche, and a dessert which unfortunately I cannot remember the name of, but was like a small funnel cake with honey instead of powdered sugar. After dinner we joined the staff downstairs to watch some futbol.
Brent has been having some luck at the casino; winning another $100 soles from the house the other night. I let him go on his own, there is no sense in me loosing cash on one side while he wins it on the other.
Tonight we will probably go to the grocery story and have a quiet night at home. We need to rest up for our beach weekend !
Later!

You know you had a good time if you spend the next day in bed

Friday night was a long, fun night. We started the evening at the apartment of one of the students from school. His apartment was a little small, which was good for forcing people who don't know each other to talk and get to know each other. There was music, food and drinks, and a mix of people from school and locals as well. At about midnight the party moved to a dance club called Sargent Pepper's. It was really fun. The space was like a big courtyard with barstools and countertops in one section, and a big dance floor in another. There was also a separate room kind of outside with tables and chairs. The music was mostly from the USA, with a few latin songs mixed in. After we were all sweaty and tired we hopped in a cab and headed to a casino. Brent learned how to play a new poker game and was very successful. I, on the other hand, stuck to blackjack and had my usual bad luck. At about 5am I called it a night and walked back to the apartment. Brent didn't leave till they shut the place down at 6am!
Needless to say, our Saturday was a little slow in starting and consisted mostly of eating and sleeping. I did some laundry and we had indian food delivered.
Sunday we got off to an early start. We walked down to the Larcomar (the outdoor mall on the ocean) and had the breakfast buffet. Oh my God it has been sooooo long since we have had breakfast! Sausage, eggs, french toast- it was great. After breakfast we took a walk down to the ocean and watched the surfers. It is really easy to get lessons to learn, there are booths set up about every 50 feet were you can sign up. Brent and I are both considering giving it a try before we leave. Then we headed up to catch a double decker bus tour of the historical parts of the city outside of Miraflores (our barrio).
The downtown portion of Lima, while it has many old and beautiful buildings, is very dirty. Not with garbage or graffiti, but with the smoke from cars and buses. All the buildings had a black film on them and after we were done, I felt like I had a film on me as well. We got to see a lot of neat churches and palaces, but my favorite place was the catacombs under the monastery. There we piles and piles of bones and skulls- creepy! When we returned home we were worn out and called it a night so we would be ready for our next week of school on Monday. I have a bit of homework from class today so...
Later!

Time keeps on slippin, slippin, slippin...

Holy cow it is already Friday and we have finished a week of school! It feels like we just got to Lima yesterday. I will say we did fit in quite a lot in our first week.
We found a apartment. It is the largest and most comfortable apartment yet if you can get past the lack of ac and no balcony. There are, however, incredibly large sliding windows that open all the way and make me feel as though I should have some kind of saftey harness on every time I walk past them- we are on the 10th floor!
We have been to see 3 bands at 2 different bars playing 3 different types of music. We have made some friends and went with them to watch Peru get clobbered by Brazil in a world cup qualifier. We have walked down to the ocean to see the sunset and taken a walking tour of our barrio. I have sampled some delicious seafood, tried grilled beef heart (surprisingly good!) and drank a soda called Inca Cola which is bright yellow and tastes like pink bubblegum. Tonight we are meeting up with some friends from school to go to a party. I guess I should be saying holy cow it's only Friday!

Wanna make some money? Bring AIR CONDITIONING to Lima!

Well we committed to an apartment today, and we should finalize things tomorrow and possibly move in tomorrow as well. I have to admit, it is not my favorite becasue it does not have a balcony or AIR CONDITIONING! No one has air conditioning here. The school doesn't, the restaurants don't, the hotels don't, no one! But the place has plenty of room, internet, tv, a full kitchen, washer, and all the plates, dishes, etc. and is a short walk to the school. We will actually have enough room to have guests over for dinner, cards, drinks, etc. So, Fran and I look forward to it anyway.

We walked around yesterday after class and found ourselves looking out over the pacific ocean, full of surfers, from the cliffs just a few blocks from our apartment. It was also sunset, so it was breathtaking. This city has really surprised us. Why don't more people break out of the rut and visit places like this? It would change your whole perspctive on other governments, and people that visit us in the states. I'll just stop there.

They have really good food here! Lots of seafood, good steak, cheap lunches, 14 soles for both of us today, that is about $4 for lunch for two. You can only take $100 per transaction out of the ATM, so that is kind a pain in the ass when you need to pay rent. Oh, well, we are glad to have such a great bank that eats those fees for us, thanks Private Bank.

Fran promises more pics tomorrow!