Arriving in Peru and Touring the Neighborhood

November 13, 2014

I mentioned in my last post that I was a little concerned about the Peruvian authorities letting me into the country. It was a legit concern that I wasn't aware should have been a concern until I was about 2 hours from departing Miami. The agent at the check-in desk was very adament about me having proof of my return to the United States. I told her I didn't have proof but that I planned to leave Peru in 90 days (that's how long I thought was legal to stay on a passport visa). She gave me my boarding pass but I then spent the next 2 hours googling all the info I could on customs and entering Peru without a visa. I sent Sr. Connie (who was to pick me up from airport) an email telling her if I didn't exit, I was probably stuck in customs. She put together a sponsorship letter and had all sisters praying for my smooth entry to the country. To the point: It was not even worth the worry. The border control agent asked me how long I planned to stay in Peru. I asked him how long I could stay. He asked me again how long I wanted to stay. I said 90 days again. THEN he told me I could stay up to 183 days. He again asked if I wanted to stay 90 days and I said if I could, I'd prefer to stay the entire 183 days. He wrote 183 days on a tiny slip of paper and told me not to lose it. And that's all on that note!

Today was such a nice day. The sisters are reallly allowing me to just soak in life as a tourist right now and I can't complain. I slept in this morning and had a nice breakfast and tea on the patio. 

After breakfast, Sr. Rosie (she has to be at least 75 years old) took me on a couple hour walk around the neighborhood. She is born and raised in Lima and had so much to share. We walked all the way to the ocean and back through the slightly dangerous neighborhood. It's not a neighborhood I'll go through again solo but I was safe with Sr. Rosie :) 

We came home and Sr. Helen prepared us a nice lunch of beef shepherds' pie. After lunch, we had some exciting visitors disguised as city water line workers. Good story that added a bit of drama to our day. Add to my list of stories to tell you someday, but I'm not gonna type that one up ;)

Let's see....after lunch, Sr. Rosie took me on a bus trip to La Punta. It's a tiny little peninsula completely surrounded by the Pacific Ocean. It is a neighborhood significantly better off than where I'm living now. Just a 20 minute bus ride away. While our house is protected with an electric fence, there they are iron gates and beautiful historic homes. The bus ride was quite a trip. Some of the buses/large vans look like they're straight out of the 70's while others could probably pass for the 90's. On the trip to La Punta and back home, loud techno or mariachi type music blared from the bus speakers. Each bus had a driver and a money collector who seemed to be half hanging out the door most the time and as we'd approach our stop he'd yell really loud for everyone to hear where we were headed. Sooo different than my Spanish bus experience with the built in wifi on the bus! 

Sister and I walked quite a while (let me say again, Sr. Rosie is pretty amazing!) and near the end of our tour stopped at a little cafe/restaurante. Thanks to my good friend Katie, I was prepared for what came next. There was a huge bowl of skewered cow hearts covered in some red sauce that were beckoning to Sister. I'd heard of these "anticuchos" but was pretty decided not to try one. Sister said, "You don't have to try them, but I'll order 2 just in case you change your mind." Well, I've never really been one to be a picky eater. After Sister took the first bite and assured me they were good, I ate grilled cow heart for the very first time. I honestly have to say, it was really good! I ignored the massive amounts of bacteria that were likely growing on the meat since it'd probably been sitting out for a while, and 4 hours later, no symptoms of food poisoning. And, I'd definitely try it again. Just in case I didn't like the heart, Sister also ordered a side of picarones. Fried sweet doughy things smothered in a honey sauce. So much for losing weight in Peru! Oh and the crazy part? All this food for just 12 soles ($4.09)!

Off in the distance you can see the mountains. It's a little island (i think de Lorenzo) and apparently there used to be a prison on one of them. kinda like alcatraz, right? ;) 

The bucket of raw, unrefrigerated, skewered cow heart:

Sr. Rosie inspecting the anticucho before taking the first bite:

Picarones....with plenty of extra honey to dip them in:

Finished off our walk by the sea to these birds. Thousands of them sitting on the bank and something scared them. They filled the sky and it was just beautiful...picture doesn't do it justice. Just a memory for me...

If you read this whole thing, I'm impressed. It's more of a journal for me but I want it to be available for family and friends to follow my journey too. I don't expect most of my posts to be this long either. There is just so much to see this week!