Lima!

I´m alive! No thanks to the Doubletree that I had booked for last night though. They had contacted me and offered a hotel transfer, but no one was there. After a long day of flying, and a stomachache from all the rich food and plentiful booze on the last flight (filet mignon and key lime pie... and wine until the flight attendants have managed to make the entire cabin pass out), I was NOT a happy camper about having a million people yelling "¿Taxi senorita?" over and over. I couldn´t remember where the safe taxi stand was, and my spanish completely got washed over by french. Turns out I can say a lot more in french than I thought, and a lot less in spanish. So when I finally got to the hotel around midnight I burst into tears.

However, once my hungover butt got out of bed today, and I managed to find myself a place to sleep tonight, things turned around. Somehow when I actually rely on myself it comes out much more comfortable for me than when I´m trusting someone else. I managed to run a short list of errands, have a tasty lunch for S9 (about $3), and find an internet cafe. Lima is not my favorite place so far though. Although a whole bunch of stray cats running around the Miraflores parks did make my afternoon coffee at a streetside cafe much more entertaining, there is simply ugly architecture and a general dingyness. Plus there is this awful cloud cover that makes the city glaringly bright but completely gray. Maybe I just haven´t found the cool parts yet. When I return eventually, I´ll actually do some more of the Centro district, hit some museums and look at the central square. But today´s purpose in my schedule was just to ease into this whole thing, and I think I´m getting there. At some point my spanish will start to catch up, and I´ll stop blurring my french and spanish. "Quiero un cahier" does not get you a notebook here, even though it turns out it´s close... But a lot of pointing and gesturing and a blend of "oui", "yes", and "si" will get the job done.

Tomorrow is the bus to Paracas and the Bellestas Islands (however you spell them). Should be an exciting start to my journey, and much more photographable than this city.

p.s.

Spanish computers evidently spell-check everything I type as wrong. There is going to be a lack of proper spelling on all of my entries. Enjoy, and poke fun all you want!

p.p.s.

Turns out that I´m using an accent rather than an apostrophe... and I can´t find the latter on this keyboard. Oh well!