Peru Intro

I got to see my good friend Tegan in New Zealand! We met when we were both doing aid work in Liberia in 2005. She is a good friend I hadn't seen in years, so I was very excited to hang out with her a bit!

Tegan took me to the airport on Friday and I was happy to have someone to give my steel-toe'd work boots. I felt so wasteful giving away $65 boots I only used for 2 weeks, but they were on the requirement list and I liked my toes too much not to get them!

We flew with LAN airlines, and they were really friendly, I hadn't even heard of them before. I'm glad they were nice because we had a bit of trouble with check-in as we weren't told that to get into Peru, we needed proof of an exit flight, and we didn't have any.

Tip: Make sure when you book a flight, you find out in advance if you need a visa or proof of exit. If someone else books it for you, still look that stuff up, don't just assume they'll give you all the information you need.

Our flight was ok, but it is the longest one I've ever taken in my life and it felt that way! I think knowing we had a 14-hour flight got me stressed, because I felt really restless and had a hard time sleeping. Oh well, that's the only option! (well that and boats, but come on)

We got to Peru around 2pm Friday...which is the same time we left New Zealand on Friday, it was trippy, but I was happy to gain a day!

We flew through Chile and El Salvador before getting on a flight to Lima. I'm not sure what I expected, but I noticed a lot of dust out of the window, I learned later we weren't too far from the Atacama desert, so that made sense ;-)

That evening, Mike wanted to go to the tourist area Miraflores and I was exhausted, but went because I wasn't sure if this may be my last night in Lima.

We looked around and the only affordable restaurants were Chinese food places, which I find hilarious, because I expected ceviche or Peruvian chicken! I think no matter where you go in the world, you can find a Chinese restaurant!

We had dinner and ice cream then headed back to the hotel. Miraflores is definitely worth seeing, so I'm happy I went. We have a really early flight to Arequipa in the morning for project check-in. Being up so early after all that travel the day before was again, painful. I love these volunteer projects, but the travel in between has been challenging!