Peru

I have a lot to catch up on, so pay attention.

Thursday, May 11, 2006
We were way behind on packing and cleaning. The kitchen was a mess, we had a lot of laundry to do, and the bathroom needed to be cleaned. So I started on the bathroom. I was spraying down the shower with a product called Scrub Free Shower. Actually, this product did not spray so much as it squirted. Squirted off the tile and right into my eyeball. I tried rinsing out my eye in the sink, but that didn't really help, so in the midst of all of the cleaning and packing that had to be done, I went to the health center. I had to, my eye was burning. It makes my eyes water just to think about it.
At the health Center, when they realized I had a chemical in my eyeball, they rushed me to the back and took good care of me. First, they numbed my eye with some drops, and then they put this plastic cup over my eye (as pictured above), hooked that up to a bag of solution and rinsed out my eye. It was pretty exciting.

Friday, May 12, 2006
We got to the airport with plenty of time to check in, and our flight to Miami was uneventful. We arrived in Miami at about 11:00pm and by the time we got to the gate for our departure to Lima, it was about midnight (hence the Friday date). It was here that we learned that our flight was delayed for about five hours because the plane could not leave Lima due to bad weather conditions. What these bad condiditons were, I will never know. It must have been fog because the only weather Lima ever has is hot and fog.
Five hours in a freezing cold, humid, smelly, ugly airport is not fun. I hated every minute of it. It was especially bad because the gate was closed and so we had to wait for it to open at 4:00am. When the gate opened and we got through security, we headed over to our gate and found about 150 people lounging around with pillows and blankets that had been handed out by the airport for their comfort. Isn't that nice? They all got blankets and pillows and sleep while Brad and I couldn't even get in the gate. I was so mad; I cannot in good conscious write the things that were going through my head at that moment. Needless to say, they were not polite.
The plane ride sucked too. It was freezing cold, and when I asked for a blanket, they didn't have any. Turns out the first class flyers each got two.

Friday, May 12, 2006
We finally arrive and get our bags and our taxista and get the heck out of the airport. It actually took a lot longer than that, but I will spare you the details. The taxi ride to La Molina was terrifying. There were a few times that I honestly thought we were going to die. I thought taxis in New York were bad. But we didn't die.
Our apartment is awesome. I love it. It is about 400 square feet, terra cotta tiles, two bathrooms, a vertigo-inducing spiral staircase, tiniest kitchen I have ever seen, and a little loft for our bedroom. We are right next to a HUGE building that houses bank offices (El Banco de Credito del Peru), and we feel really safe because there are always security officers patroling outside our house.

This is the street we live on from our front window. It looks nice and quiet, but it is a pretty major street and our windows are not insulated, so the traffic gets pretty loud. Drivers here use the car horn for everything; it can mean "I'm coming, get out of the way," or "I'm a taxi, I can give you a ride," or if they are dirving the opposite way it can mean "I'm a taxi and if you need a ride I will turn around and pick you up." It can mean "This bus will stop for you," or "you are a pretty lady," or "don't hit me," or "hi." I am sure there are a bunch of other meanings that I am missing, but that is all I can think of for now.

This is our apartment from the front door. To the left you can see the alcove that was built around a Eucalyptus tree; nice of them to not tear it down for a house. Also pictured is our diningroom table, a bathroom, and in the very back, our kitchen. More on that later.

This is a little sitting area right in front of the front door. It looks out onto the street, and is surrounded by windows. This whole apartment has so many windows that during the day time, there is no need for any artificial light. It is beautiful.

Ah, our kitchen. This is it. We have a water filter, some shelves for storage, a sink that is smaller than most bathroom sinks, a hot plate, a toaster oven, a microwave (and we are lucky to have it too!), and a mini refrigerator. It is nice, but I think that any longer than five weeks and we would be looking for another place. We don't do much cooking because to go out to eat for the two of us is only about $5. And the food is good (just don't drink the water).

This is the trecherous staircase I mentioned earlier. It goes upstairs to a little loft that is our bedroom. Behind the staricase you can see the alcove that was built around the Eucalyptus and behind that is the sitting area pictured above.

Our bedroom. Out the window, if you look real hard, you can see the bank that we live by. Seriously, it is huge. We have a nice little bed, two closets, and a pretty big bathroom up here.

The view of our bedroom from our bed. The window looks out on (again!) the Eucalyptus.

This is the water heater for our apartment. It works really well, but it is only hooked up to the two showers, so if you want hot water in any of the sinks, you have to put it in a bucket and lug it to the sink. And it does not run all the time. If you want to take a hot shower, you have to turn on the water heater and let it heat up for about 30 minutes before you can take a shower. It definitely is an adventure. Right now I am washing clothes in a bucket, and then I will rinse them and hang them up to dry all over our apartment.