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Published: February 9th 2008
From CA to Lima...
...via a few stops on the way. Our adventure started early in the AM in San Jose, CA where we caught our first flight to Dallas. In Dallas, we got stuck in one of those midwest weather holds. There was about 50 MPH winds, so we sat and sat in the plane, which was queued up with all the other planes waiting to use 2 of 6 runways available. We were lucky enough to be able to take off and take a due south detour around what looked like an impressive storm system that stretched many hunderds of miles. Later we heard that these storms resulted in several destructive tornados.
Arriving 2 hours late in Miami we were happy that we had many extra hours before we caught our Peru bound flight. The Miami Airport is undergoing what appears to be a several year renovation and decent food and seating is scarce when you have 4 or 5 hours yet to wait. We finally found the one restaurant and had some mediocore food while watching Super Tuesday results. Finally, the bartender turned on American Idol which saved us from the idle chatter from cable talking
Why, Barney?
Everywhere we travel, that darn purple dinosaur is lurking, and in this case, leering!heads.
We finally arrived in Lima and met our taxi driver ´Herman´ that we arranged to have pick us up and deliver us to El Hostel Pukara which thankfully allowed for a 7:30 AM check-in!!! We quickly crashed and caught up on some much needed sleep. We were tired enough to mostly sleep through all the noise of the hostel undergoing a major remodel. Thankful for earplugs, we finally got up, got everything together and ventured out to see the sights of the Miraflores area.
We stayed in the Miraflores part of Lima, which is said to be the nicest part of what many call a big, dirty city. Walking through the neighborhoods and down to the beach, it was obvious that this isn´t the way most Lima residents live. It was pretty chi-chi.
As is usually our routine, we quickly set out to figure the best way to get OUT of the city. We had done next to no planning from home for this trip, so decided somewhat on a whim to book a flight to the 2nd largest city in Peru, Arequipa. It is in the southern part of the country and in a far
The Coast
This was looking down at the beaches and the road from the crazy fancy shopping center (complete with Starbucks AND Hooters..ugh!) in Miraflores. more beautiful setting. We had heard very good things about it, and we were happy to have a neat and clean exit strategy planned.
We spent the rest of the day and the morning of the next just roaming around more or less aimlessly. We saw lots of fancy houses, fancy hotels, fancy restaurants, fancy cars, etc.
Our host suggested we check out the coastal area and the large fancy pants shopping and restaurant area. We marveled at the view of the ocean and the architecture of the massive building perched on the side of very steep cliff. But we were pretty bummed to see the usual US consumerism in the form of Tony Roma´s, Starbucks, and...wait for it...Hooters!
So, this is it, our first rather bland entry. But it´s off to more exciting locales and hopefully more exciting tales, people.
Until next time,
K&D
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Dad
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Pictures don't tell the story
The pictures you posted of Lima sure make it look pretty but I know big cities are not your idea of fun so glad to read you have headed south. I did some reserach on Arequipa and it sounds beautiful with the mountains and canyon. Looks like the camera is working well. I am getting Mikie's room set up this weekend (the bed and desk are back!)