Peru journal--Day 2

Day 2: Sunday, July 17th, 2011
Panama, Lima, and More Lima
It was around 11:00 P.M. by the time we got off the plane in Lima, gathered up all our luggage and got to the apartment that belongs to some of Maria's relatives. Not entirely sure about our friends, but my mom and I were dead on our feet, so we pretty much crashed once we got here.
This morning, we visited a United Methodist Church in downtown Lima, Peru. We weren't able to stay for the entire service...which was actually fine with me because it was going really long and I was having trouble with jetlag...I was doing ALL I could to keep my eyes from closing.
Lima is a busy, colorful place--that's for sure, but one of my favorite things is the palm trees and huge, tall cacti! Also, I caught my first REAL glimpse of the Pacific Ocean today (the glimpse I caught from the plane as it was growing dark outside doesn't really count!) Anyway, the Pacific is beautiful, with long, big waves. It is winter in Peru, which is kind of like Spring in Connecticut, only here, it's basically always cloudy and misting, sometimes changing to a slight drizzle, but, I think, rarely, actually raining. Which would be more like Spring in CT!
We did lots of shopping for the kids in Huambo today, and my mom and I tried more Peruvian food, a lot of which we liked, and a drink made out of blue corn, called chicha (turns out that name is used for many Peruvian drinks, not only for the alcoholic one), that was a deep purple color, and had a sweet, unique flavor. Also had more Peruvian desserts--my favorite was this one that was kind of ice-creamy in texture that tasted sort of like coffee, and had drizzled, hardened, chocolate on top, and some kind of crust on the bottom.
The markets here are like nothing (practically!) I've ever been to before. There are so many shops, most of which are crowded into tiny rooms--and they really are CROWDED! with narrow aisles and tons of merchandise.
More tomorrow. At 9:30 P.M., we will be heading off AGAIN to take a bus, starting at midnight tonight, that we will sleep in while we are driven to Chimbote, Peru. From there, it's a (three hour?) taxi ride up the Andes Mountains, which is where Cabana is. From there, it's a two and one half hour horse ride to Huambo. :) Later!

This is a picture of Chimbote, a small city that specializes in fishing (not really a very pleasant place to be in!)

See the mountains becoming visible?

Palm trees!!!!!

Kind of recently in Peru, there was a presidential election, so we saw many of these campaign slogans painted onto walls and buildings. This one guy, Keiko, had a LOT of walls painted with this name!
Photos: Jeanne Allie