Peru - Day One

So...it's been a month and a half, but now begins the tale of my travels! The good news is that I took notes on my trip.

Why I went to Peru: My friend, Michelle Bergsjo (aka Bergs), served her mission in Peru. She was planning on going back for a visit, and asked me if I wanted to come. It was a terrifying thought, going to another country where I wouldn't speak the language, but it was too exciting an opportunity to turn down.

Our journey began on a snowy Thursday morning. There was snow on the ground when we left, but the snow starting falling again as we drove through the canyon on the way to the airport. It was exciting to think about the warm weather that awaited us south of the equator.

At the airport we ran into two of the account managers from the company Bergs and I work for. Fun fact: one of them flew first class, one flew economy.  We discussed whether the first class account manager flew first class because she was a senior account manager, or if she paid for her own upgrade.

We flew to Dallas-Fort Worth, then to Lima.  It was a very long flight, and to make it longer, the airplane did not play the movies they said they would. Instead the showed a cycle of screens that showed us how far we had flown and the time/temperature in Dallas and Lima. Oh, and the same episode of Parks & Rec twice. Good times.

We landed in Lima at 1:00 a.m. We went through customs, and I was concerned because the person at the desk didn't seem to speak English. But I got through and received my very first passport stamp! It was quite exciting. We exchanged some currency and looked for a taxi driver who could take us to a nice hostel. We found one, Bergs negotiated price, and we were off!

We drove about half an hour to the hostel. I'd heard about the crazy traffic in Peru, but being the middle of the night it wasn't too crazy. We did drive by the ocean, though! I didn't even realize it because it was so dark. Bergs told me that the ocean was on our right side, and I thought at first I was looking at very small sand dunes; turns out they were waves! I've never seen the ocean at night. It was so cool.

We arrived at Lion Bed and Breakfast for Backpackers and got a room. There was wi-fi, so I checked in on Facebook (we planned on finding a payphone to call our parents in the morning). The room was tiny; there was pretty much only room for two beds and a television. The bathroom was very compact. It was a tiny room with a shower head on one end, a toilet on the other, and a sink in the middle. We found an English station on the television and settled in for our first night in Peru.