Peru Pt. 1
We have returned unkilled from Peru! Yay! I shall recap:
7/17/2008
KAZ drove us to the airport in the morning. Our flights for this trip were with Spirit Air, who must have the most cramped planes ever. They also seem to saving money by not cleaning them between flights... But anyways, the flight left on time and we flew to Ft. Lauderdale for our five hour layover. We opted to not hang around the airport, and instead took a taxi to the Las Olas area. It was an expensive ride and i think she took the long way. Grr... Anyway, we had lunch at an Irish Pub type place and then wandered around the waterfront area, but nothing much was open on a Thursday afternoon. We eventually found our way to the bus terminal and took the bus back to the airport. It was much cheaper! The line for security was way out the door, but it seemed to move pretty fast. Ah... The beauty of incompetence... The flight to Lima was only tolerable because we managed to secure a row all to ourselves since the plane wasn't too full. We got in about 2200 local time and went through customs and immigration with no trouble and found our pre-appointed taxi driver. Some taxi's rob you and leave you for dead in Peru, so you want to make sure you get a reputable one... Wee... So he drove us to the hotel kamikaze style through the insane Lima traffic. There was much, much honking and cutting off and screeching stops and ignoring of traffic control devices. We thought many times that we would die, but we managed to make it to the Hotel Mariel in one piece. The room was pretty small and had two twin beds (lame), but it was pretty serviceable. An open window and ceiling fan made up for the lack of A/C. We wandered out to look for some bottled water, since the water in Peru is poisonous. Next trip is totally to somewhere that the water is safe to drink... Being a pedestrian wasn't too terrible. You kind of had to read the driver's minds to see if they were willing to run you down, but mostly they weren't. We eventually found our way to a sort of Whole Foods like store called Vivanda. Everything there was pretty cheap. We got a huge ass-bottle of water for S/1.75, when the hotel was charged S/5.50 for it. We also got some fruit and chocolate. This included one fruit we had never seen before, but now i can't for life of me find any evidence of it on the nets. If looked a bit like a tomato, but mostly white with some purple stripes. It tasted kind of like a melon. We did a currency conversion here the easy way by paying in USD and getting PEN in return. That's good, cause otherwise we would have had to use the dodgy looking guys on the side of the road changing money. They were legion and always pretty eager, but not as eager as the beggar types who brandished their child or pregnant belly and then put out a hand...
7/17/2008
KAZ drove us to the airport in the morning. Our flights for this trip were with Spirit Air, who must have the most cramped planes ever. They also seem to saving money by not cleaning them between flights... But anyways, the flight left on time and we flew to Ft. Lauderdale for our five hour layover. We opted to not hang around the airport, and instead took a taxi to the Las Olas area. It was an expensive ride and i think she took the long way. Grr... Anyway, we had lunch at an Irish Pub type place and then wandered around the waterfront area, but nothing much was open on a Thursday afternoon. We eventually found our way to the bus terminal and took the bus back to the airport. It was much cheaper! The line for security was way out the door, but it seemed to move pretty fast. Ah... The beauty of incompetence... The flight to Lima was only tolerable because we managed to secure a row all to ourselves since the plane wasn't too full. We got in about 2200 local time and went through customs and immigration with no trouble and found our pre-appointed taxi driver. Some taxi's rob you and leave you for dead in Peru, so you want to make sure you get a reputable one... Wee... So he drove us to the hotel kamikaze style through the insane Lima traffic. There was much, much honking and cutting off and screeching stops and ignoring of traffic control devices. We thought many times that we would die, but we managed to make it to the Hotel Mariel in one piece. The room was pretty small and had two twin beds (lame), but it was pretty serviceable. An open window and ceiling fan made up for the lack of A/C. We wandered out to look for some bottled water, since the water in Peru is poisonous. Next trip is totally to somewhere that the water is safe to drink... Being a pedestrian wasn't too terrible. You kind of had to read the driver's minds to see if they were willing to run you down, but mostly they weren't. We eventually found our way to a sort of Whole Foods like store called Vivanda. Everything there was pretty cheap. We got a huge ass-bottle of water for S/1.75, when the hotel was charged S/5.50 for it. We also got some fruit and chocolate. This included one fruit we had never seen before, but now i can't for life of me find any evidence of it on the nets. If looked a bit like a tomato, but mostly white with some purple stripes. It tasted kind of like a melon. We did a currency conversion here the easy way by paying in USD and getting PEN in return. That's good, cause otherwise we would have had to use the dodgy looking guys on the side of the road changing money. They were legion and always pretty eager, but not as eager as the beggar types who brandished their child or pregnant belly and then put out a hand...