I should have taken Spanish

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Hola from Peru!

Well I have arrive in Lima to a humid hazy city. After being in Ghana then back to Canada and now to Peru in just over a month's time - my body has experienced some extreme temperature changes!

Kristina and I had an uneventful flight and arrived to Lima in good form. We were picked up at the airport by our hostal who had a sign reading Lara Ens and Crystal Parker. Well, I had a Kristina Harder with me and we figured that he might have gotten the names wrong? Crystal - Kristina, Parker - Harder: close enough! Little did we realize that once we got back to the hostal and a Crystal Parker arrived saying that no one picked her up from the airport. Ah well - who knew when I booked the service I also had to supply Kristina's name.

Over the past two days we have wandered all around Peru visiting sights such as the Monestarie de San Francisco and the Museo de la Nacion. Our hostal is right by the ocean in the Miraflores area which is absolutely beautiful. Everything is so lush with the humidity - my hair has also expanded to twice its normal poofiness accordingly. We went down to the beach to watch the surfers and Kristina attempted to enter the water. However she didn't make it past here knees with the strength of the Pacific.

So far everything has been going really smoothly despite the fact that both of us know ABSOLUTELY NO SPANISH. Good place to pick to travel to right? I have never been in a country that I felt so lost with the language. We decided it might be a good idea to buy the spanish phrasebook that we decided not to get back home - and had quite an adventure trying to find that in Lima. Lets just say I could have another career as a mime on the street corner. It will definitely be a challenge once we leave the cosmopolitan area of Lima to the villages of the rural area!

I would also like to note that despite my lack of language skills, the bartering skills I developed in Ghana have definitely come in handy. I can get a taxi driver here to come down to half his asking price with just my tone and facial expression! (probably still twice as much as a local pays!) - Its something people understand no matter what language!

Anyway, we are leaving Lima early tomorrow morning to fly to Cusco where we will start our adventure tour and hike the Inca Trail to Macchu Pichu. I am quite excited as this is the city most people say they enjoy most about Peru.

Hope all is well back home and will update again soon!

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