Day 10, Stranger in a Strange Land

The following takes place on December 7, 2010

Having connections are great. It’s even better when it is your first time in a foreign country completely on your own. While the first week visiting Ottawa and the GTA were nice, they were by far baby steps. Once I stepped off that Delta airplane in Lima, the rules changed. I was in a completely different country. I was on a completely different continent.

After my initial reservations about my ability to do this trip before I fell asleep, I woke up feeling a bit more refreshed. The neighborhood I was in is not the safest. Indeed, I was told by Mauricio(Saul’s brother) that I should not leave once the sun starts to set as it’s a very dangerous neighborhood.

Great!

I met Mauricio and Saul’s parents who don’t speak english very well, if at all. Through hand gestures and charades we figured out that they wanted me to eat breakfast which consisted of buns and cheese with warm soy milk. The soy milk here is way better than the soy milk back home. This stuff is amazing. I’m totally hooked.

When Mauricio got back from his English class he took me in his taxi down to the Miraflores area to let me wander around on my own. Miraflores is much more the tourist area and therefore a lot safer to wander. And wander I did.

I wandered through the downtown shopping district, stopping briefly to check the internet cafe for nearby hostels. I wandered down the streets, slowly getting used to the lack of rules when it came to drivers. There are crosswalks, but really you just wait until there are no cars coming long enough to let you across.

After a bit of wandering I got my first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean. The smell of the salt water was a strange smell. Definitely a new sensation, but refreshing at the same time. I wandered down the extremely long staircase to the waters edge and just sat on the breakwater for about an hour, taking it all in.

Eventually, as the sun started setting over the water, I made my way back to the the business district to meet up with Mauricio, his girlfriend Korely, and his friend Jose. We all drove back to Mauricio’s place, made a very late supper and some Maracuya Pisco sour, and drank to our hearts content.

All in all, a great way to start my journey in Lima, Peru.