Road Rage

One month in Peru… That seems weird to even say! I still feel sometimes like I have been here for only a week and other times I think I’ve been here the entire 4 months. So many things happen in one week that make the days go by so fast!

So my birthday was on Friday and I was kind of feeling a little homesick because it was my first birthday that I haven’t spent with my family. We did so many things that day that I didn’t really have time to feel homesick though. When I woke up Carmen fed me like a princess with tuna fruit, mango smoothie, the awesome bread they have here, and some chocolatada. Then she and Alejandro gave me my present. I wasn’t expecting anything so I was really surprised! They got me a beach towel that is perfect because I leave for spring break today and because I always have to mooch a towel off of them at the beach.  

Pollo a la Braza

Then they took me to Jenny and Martín’s house to spend the day there. For lunch we went to a place that served Pollo a la Braza (basically a chicken on a rotisserie) and the plates were huge again! After that we killed some time in the district of Miraflores until it got dark. As we were driving we passed a pump truck and I about choked to death on my words trying to explain that that’s what my dad does. They didn’t get a very good look at the truck but we were lucky and passed a pump truck in action! I didn’t even have to explain; I just had to point.

Finally we got to Parque de las Aguas where we met up with Patty, Juan Pedro, Fátima and Joaquín. The water fountains were absolutely amazing with the lights and different effects. The park is pretty big and I think there are about 8 or 9 fountains there. We got to go through a water tunnel and play in one of the fountains! After that we went to T.G.I. Friday’s and I ordered a hamburger because I’m was still really missing a good burger. The staff came out towards the end and sang happy birthday to me and gave me this oreo ice cream dessert thing. I liked it.

The next day 8 of us loaded into a 5 person car and headed to the San Bartolo beach. One of the days Martín, Fátima, and I spent 3 hours in the water! One of the family members brought a paddle board so I got to try that for the first time. I never fell once! Carmen made some cupcakes and everybody sang happy birthday to me in English because that’s just what they do here for some reason. They don’t even know why they sing it in English because after they sing it in English, they sing it in Spanish. I got to try some octopus and some really amazing baked goods also that weekend.

Fabrizio ended the weekend by going to the hospital with appendicitis. He is okay now! The funny thing was that I had been having weird stomach pains for a couple days and was concerned that I might have it. Poor little guy ended up having surgery. On our way home from the beach there must have been an accident and an ambulance was trying to get through. Nobody seemed to be in any hurry to get to the side and let them pass. In fact, people were not happy that the traffic was slowing down so they drove on the shoulder of the road to pass people. That did not surprise me. It didn’t even surprise me that when the shoulder wasn’t moving fast enough, people drove off of theroad completely to go faster. I only hope that I don’t come back with some bad driving habits and serious road rage. 

And that is how I spent my birthday of two decades. 

I am a little jealous of all the snow back home! We haven’t had snow like that in a long time and all I wanted to do yesterday was go sledding and enjoy the snow days like everybody else. I guess I’ll just have to settle for surfing this week in Máncora. It’s our spring break here already and today we are getting on a bus for 19 hours to go to Northern Peru and enjoy the beaches for a week! I’ll be thinking of you all as I sit on a beach and try not to get a sunburn from the intense UV rays here! 

Random Notes

• Lots of people drive old volkswagon bugs here. I'll try to put some pictures in my next blog of thsose. 
• There is a street near Miraflores of about 20 flower shops. I don't know how anyone makes money there because they are all separate companies. 
• There is workout equipment in the parks. Kind of a cool concept, but I've never seen anyone actually using them.