Lima

Both flights were easy, on time and fairly uneventful. My companion on the Houston-Lima flight, a young man from San Francisco, was telling me fascinating stories about his experiences with a shaman in Iquitos last year -- out-of-body stuff.

Lima airport is quite nice, modern and clean . The immigration and luggage area are definitely better organized and more efficient than LAX. With 7 planes landing at the same time, I was out in about 20 minutes. Juan was waiting for me in the arrival lounge. I had no problem recognizing him. Unfortunately, before heading to the hotel, we had to pick up one more person at the domestic airport -- another hour of waiting. We didn’t get to the hotel until 1 am, where Juan, a former colonel of Peruvian army, joyfully announced that he’ll pick us up at 7:30 for breakfast. The hotel is very basic but OK. Similar standard to our hotel in Saigon, and similar price -- less than $30/night. I am definitely very happy I decided to take the sleeping bag --- it’s cold here at night, even in the hotel.

Breakfast with Juan was great, in a wonderful deli with lots of freshly baked goods, fragrant coffee and other local delicacies. We had sandwiches with local ham on warm, delicious rolls. The interesting part was a plate of chopped onions in olive oil that they gave us with our sandwiches. You are supposed to put the onion salad inside the sandwich. It’s very good. We also had a Peruvian tamale, which is different then Mexican tamales, both in shape and taste.

After breakfast, I decided to go and explore Miraflores on my own. It is an upscale part of Lima with lots of nice residential streets, restaurants and a spectacular shopping mall called Larcomar perched on a high cliff overlooking the ocean. That’s where I’m sitting now enjoying free wifi and coffee (not free). The sky is full of colorful paragliders.

Unfortunately, the weather is not great -- cloudy and misty --- which I was told is normal for Lima. The rest of the group arrives tonight and the official program starts tomorrow.