triumphgal

Good thing the excitement for today overruled the agony of the alarm going off as we had to meet for breakfast at 6 and be ready for our tour at 7 in order to get back in time to attend the meeting for the start of our tour and meet our fellow travelers.

We ceremonially began taking our Malarone (anti-malaria) pills together over eggs and bacon and the strongest cup of coffee I have ever had in my life. Hustling out we all loaded into the van with our new driver, Jesus (yes we were in good hands) and quickly were set straight that our tour guides name was in fact not Fernando but Orlando much to his and our amusement. The drive was about three hours to get to the site at Caral with a pit stop at a gas station about half way. I unfortunately was suffering terribly from something I had eaten the night before and barely managed to contain the contents of my system in all ways. I was grateful for 2 Litres of water, interesting scenery, the most awesome radio station ranging from Bobby Goldsboro to The Police and the company of people who were quickly becoming even better friends.

I did find the drive though the city and outskirts somewhat depressing as the standard of living seems so different to ours and the government is too busy fighting poverty and crime to worry much about the environment.there seems to be a campaign of awareness but it was so unlike home. When I post pictures you will see why I believe the Peruvian people to be very hardy… They have to scrape a living from a mostly unforgiving landscape. There are 10 million people in Lima!

FUN FACT: the traffic police force is purposely composed of over 80% women as it is felt they are stricter about enforcing the laws and are not easily bribed.

It is hard for me to keep it short when I speak of Caral and it’s pyramids as it was truly amazing. It is the second oldest civilization on the planet after Macedonia and was discovered by a female archaeologist in 1995 I seem to remember. If you are at all interested in this I suggest you Google it and I will put up many pictures with stories when I am able.

on our return we once again stopped at the unassuming gas station which turned out to be a very charming restaurant with excellent food and service. I tried Tacu-Tacu con Pelado (sp) and it is my go to dish here now: a mixture of maize and black beans prepared with fish.

I think there is no way to describe the traffic or should I say the crazy driving here. If you have not driven in a place like this it would be hard to imagine. I was sitting behind the driver who regularly had it up to 140 Km passing on no passing zones, never used a signal, lane split, raced in the fog, etc and I had to just trust that we would get to our destination in one piece and hope I wasn’t completely grey when we got there!

We made it back in time for our meeting and said good-bye to our guide and driver with big hugs and thanks as many laughs were shared and much was learned from them. The important lesson of the day was that Colin was using the Spanish word for butt instead of little when asked if he spoke Spanish!!!

At 6 pm we gathered with ‘The Others’ who had arrived in our absence. Our CEO Nury is a wonderful Peruvian woman with a great sense of humour. There are 11 more group members, Nigel and Linda from Kent, UK, Ruth and Chris from Manchester, UK, and a group of 7: Craig & Lorraine,, Jim & Lynda, Celia, Mike & Colleen from Portland, California, New Mexico, and maybe somewhere else, come on I have done blooming amazing remembering all that!!!

We all laughed and got through an ice breaker, were briefed on the mornings adventure down the Amazon into the jungle and decided to go for dinner together. We went to a lovely cafe style restaurant on the edge of Kennedy Park where we could chat and bond. I tried Peruvian Cebiche (yes that is how they spell it) for the first time, what a treat! Oh and that reminds me of the snafu of the day. I had requested to be signed up for Ceviche cooking classes, one in Cusco and one in Lima on the last day but when we returned today we heard we had missed our class. C-A got on it and Nury is looking into it.

I lead some of the new people into the market in the park and Carol-Ann and I ended up haggling for a deal of two woven sweaters. We then made our way back to get packed up as we leave again at 7 am for the airport.

I don’t think I will have connection again for a few days but will be back with tales to tell ASAP!

MB in bed in Lima

09/15/13