I can't believe I'm finally here! After about 7 months of some serious planning, preparation, and
money spending, John and I are finally here in South America! Our flight left the US out of Miami yesterday morning, and it was not off to the best start. As usual I had my irritating stomach acid problem that loves to pop up whenever I travel, and so within the few hours we waited at the airport before our flight left I got sick multiple times- figures. I even took medicine ahead of time hoping to prevent it, but it still happened to me of course. Anyways, the flight from Miami into Lima, Peru wasn't too bad, it was just extremely cold. I was feeling less nauseous and could actually keep food down though.Once we landed and went through customs John and I were saddened to find that while we made it to Lima, our luggage did not (as a side note, my backpack only weighed 27 pounds! Be proud of my light packing skills!). We had to fill out some papers, and I was sad because my makeup and fresh clothing wouldn't see me for about 12 more hours. After that ordeal we scoured the airport for a man holding up a sign with John's name it. We finally found this man, named Jon (pronounced "yon") ironically, and followed him out to his car. He drove us, along with two Chilean boys, to the Barranco's Backpackers hostel. The drive to the hostel from the airport was about 30 minutes, and I felt my life was threatened about 25 times. People in Lima are crazy, insane drivers! Worse than in Rome even- and I thought that was bad! No rules basically. Blinkers- Why bother? Lanes- Why did they even paint them? Speed limits and stopping at stop signs are just unnecessary. Large buses almost merged onto our tiny car several times. I was more or less cringing the majority of the drive. To distract myself, I had a fairly decent conversation with Jon in Spanish, asking him questions about Lima. Compared to the last time I was in a Spanish speaking country (2.5 years ago) my abilities at conversing have increased, and I could definitely notice a difference in my confidence and ease when it comes to speaking Spanish- it was nice! It made me feel like all those hours of Spanish classes and papers were somewhat worth it!
We finally arrived and checked into our hostel around 11:30PM. I had been feeling better but I guess the car ride made me feel a little off again unfortunately. Another problem was that John had nothing to put his contacts in since our luggage was still in Miami. So, we ventured out into the Barranco neighborhood of Lima on a Saturday night. This area of town is notorious for its party time night life, and I can definitely see why! The streets were packed with people drinking and going from one discoteca to the other, loud reggaeton music was blaring- much to John's dismay (although I really love that type of music!). We found a small restaurant still open, and John had a quick Peruvian dinner. I, on the other hand, proceeded to get sick again. Twice. On the streets of Lima. Luckily I didn't stand out too much since there were many other people doing the same thing as me, although likely for reasons involving alcohol! I don't think anyone else actually saw me besides poor John, but it was still embarrassing and kind of degrading. So, after that unfortunate incident I felt loads better and then successfully negotiated in Spanish to a worker at a pharmacy to get John contact solution, a case, and toothpaste. Finally, we returned to the hostel. I'd like to say I fell asleep immediately, but that is not the case. John passed out in his bed almost instantly. I however stayed up in mine until about 3am relieving my body of the contents I had eaten in the past day. I also had cold chills, likely due to dehydration, and so even though earlier I thought the no AC and heat was oppressive, I shivered in my little bed all night.
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