Here I sit in full-on granny Rose mode: showered and scrubbed, a candle flickering on my nightstand, Fluffers (literally) having my back as I contentedly take a sip of tea. And so begin the Peru Diaries!
My adventure started in Lima, the capital of Peru. The boy and I met at Houston airport and took the same six-hour flight down. We hadn't seen each other in two and a half weeks so it was quite the merry rendezvous, sort of in the spirit of these delighted red pandas. Naturally, we loaded up on all sorts of overpriced airport snacks, grabbed our gear and made silly faces to pass time on our big jet plane, all the while wondering what Peru was going to be like.
After landing and going through immigration, we waited at the airport for our friends' flight to arrive. We noticed there were two dogs - one a golden retriever, the other beagle-like - who were "dressed" in official uniforms and whose leashes were being held by airport security personnel in the internationals arrivals area. Yet for all their fancy garb, the dogs were like newborn puppies, excitedly wagging their tails as their human counterparts indulged them by playing tug of war or fetch with a rolled-up towel. Once in a while, one of the dogs would wander off, sniff a passenger's bag and look up at his leash-holder, indicating that something was up. We watched and wondered what it was they were trained to smell out - we thought for sure that it'd be drugs or bombs or some toxic concoctions made to harm innocent civilians.
...but nope! It was fruit. Everyone we saw whose bag that was sniffed and deemed inspection-worthy ended up pulling out an apple or a banana, looking exasperated, and tossing it out. I never knew foreign fruit could be such a threat to Peru, but hey, if it's creating jobs for adorable canines like the ones we saw, then I'm not complaining.
After our friends arrived, we met our Airbnb host and drove to his home, which was conveniently close to the airport. It was quite late by the time we arrived - probably 11:30 or so in the evening - but lo and behold, there was fresh-baked banana bread waiting for us in the kitchen when we arrived! Heaven. The rooms at this airbnb were pretty nifty and the one that the boy and I stayed in even had a swing chair in it.
Peru doesn't really have the concept of four seasons like we do in the States. Things are more binary; it's either the wet or the dry season. We were there for the dry. In the daytime temperatures crawled up to around 75 or 80 F and at night they could drop low into the 30's - ay carumba! We were definitely thankful for the heavy blankets as we drifted off to sleep, exhausted from the day of traveling.
The next morning, I found a pleasant surprise downstairs in the living room - a six-week old kitty named Houdini! Our hosts had just adopted him from the vet down the street. Needless to say, I spent the next thirty minutes of my existence shrieking with delight as I frolicked with Houdini and filled up probably a tenth of my 8GB SD card with blurry pictures of him.
My adventure started in Lima, the capital of Peru. The boy and I met at Houston airport and took the same six-hour flight down. We hadn't seen each other in two and a half weeks so it was quite the merry rendezvous, sort of in the spirit of these delighted red pandas. Naturally, we loaded up on all sorts of overpriced airport snacks, grabbed our gear and made silly faces to pass time on our big jet plane, all the while wondering what Peru was going to be like.
Mortified at the thought of not having Chipotle for nine days.
After landing and going through immigration, we waited at the airport for our friends' flight to arrive. We noticed there were two dogs - one a golden retriever, the other beagle-like - who were "dressed" in official uniforms and whose leashes were being held by airport security personnel in the internationals arrivals area. Yet for all their fancy garb, the dogs were like newborn puppies, excitedly wagging their tails as their human counterparts indulged them by playing tug of war or fetch with a rolled-up towel. Once in a while, one of the dogs would wander off, sniff a passenger's bag and look up at his leash-holder, indicating that something was up. We watched and wondered what it was they were trained to smell out - we thought for sure that it'd be drugs or bombs or some toxic concoctions made to harm innocent civilians.
...but nope! It was fruit. Everyone we saw whose bag that was sniffed and deemed inspection-worthy ended up pulling out an apple or a banana, looking exasperated, and tossing it out. I never knew foreign fruit could be such a threat to Peru, but hey, if it's creating jobs for adorable canines like the ones we saw, then I'm not complaining.
After our friends arrived, we met our Airbnb host and drove to his home, which was conveniently close to the airport. It was quite late by the time we arrived - probably 11:30 or so in the evening - but lo and behold, there was fresh-baked banana bread waiting for us in the kitchen when we arrived! Heaven. The rooms at this airbnb were pretty nifty and the one that the boy and I stayed in even had a swing chair in it.
Monkeying around
So loving and tender.
Peru doesn't really have the concept of four seasons like we do in the States. Things are more binary; it's either the wet or the dry season. We were there for the dry. In the daytime temperatures crawled up to around 75 or 80 F and at night they could drop low into the 30's - ay carumba! We were definitely thankful for the heavy blankets as we drifted off to sleep, exhausted from the day of traveling.
The next morning, I found a pleasant surprise downstairs in the living room - a six-week old kitty named Houdini! Our hosts had just adopted him from the vet down the street. Needless to say, I spent the next thirty minutes of my existence shrieking with delight as I frolicked with Houdini and filled up probably a tenth of my 8GB SD card with blurry pictures of him.
Houdini certainly worked his magic on me!
Breakfast was a grand affair full of pastries, fruit, and fresh juice. We were joined by Kelly, one of the hosts, who recounted to us her experiences living in Peru as an expat who married what she jokingly referred to as her "Cuzco Casanova." Airbnb was what she and her husband did full-time, and with what they earned from it they invested right back into eclectic art and furniture for their pad. So. Cool.
The outdoor patio area
A ham and cheese stuffed croissant. I am intensely envious of my former self for having eaten this.
And so with full bellies and content hearts, we said a reluctant goodbye to the lovely b&b, hopped back into the car and soon found ourselves once again at the airport, roughly twelve hours since we'd been there the night before. Our next destination: Cuzco, the city high up in the mountains that would serve as the starting point for our journey to Machu Picchu.
Would we adjust to the altitude? Did I get swept away by a Cuzco Casanova? Did I smuggle Houdini with me on the plane? Find out all this and more in the next installment of the Peru Diaries!
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