Exploring the Incan World

We know, we know, it's been more than a week. But we have a legitimate excuse this time. We just got back from Cusco! The trip was incredible, and also extremely busy, so we had very little time to even be online let alone write a blog. Now we have time, so here we go!


Day 1 (9.21.11)
The day we left for Cusco we got up bright and early and took a taxi to the airport around 6:45.   Our flight went well and we arrived in sunny Cusco at 10:30 and headed to the hotel.  The day before we arrived as well as the first day there we had to take medicine to prevent us from getting altitude sickness because Cusco is 11,200 feet above sea level!  When we arrived at the hotel, we all drank mate de coca, which is a tea made using coca leaves (they come from the same plant used to make cocaine).  The people in the Andes have been using coca leaves for hundreds of years to cure many different ailments, including altitude sickness. It wasn't until people turned the plant into a drug that there was anything wrong associated with it.  After drinking our tea, we all took naps in order to let our bodies adjust to the altitude. 


The rest of the day was spent visiting many different ruins around the edge of Cusco.  To go to the ruins, we ended up driving about an additional 2,000 feet up the mountains!  We were practically in outer space.  We went to Sacsayhuaman, Qenqo, Pucapucara, and Tambomachay, but we don't really remember which ruins go with which names.

The first ruins we saw. Folklore says the fountains here are water from the Fountain of Youth.

The next ruins. That statue is supposed to be a frog facing the sky.

The most interesting ruin was definitely Sacsayhuaman (sock-sigh-wah-mahn).  Many English speakers also refer to it jokingly as "Sexy Woman."  Sacsayhuaman is a walled-in temple made of huge polished stones that are cut perfectly to fit together.  There was also a giant "rock slide" near Sacsayhuaman, which we all slid down! 

The rock slides near Saksayhuaman.
It was fast, and hurt at the bottom, since you had to catch yourself from hitting the ground.

Saksayhuaman. It used to be much larger, and covered in gold, before the Spanish pointlessly destroyed it all.

Our last activity of the day before heading to dinner and bed was visiting a cathedral in Cusco.  To the people who built the temple, Cusco was the center of the world, and this temple was built in the center of Cusco, therefore it was the center of the center.  To take this idea even further, they placed a rock in the center of the temple, which represented the center of the center of the center.  Basically, this means that it was a very important spot.

This was the center of the Sun Temple, which was the center of Cusco, which was the center of the Incan Empire.

The leftover rebuilt parts of the temple after an earthquake in the 1350s.

Day 2 (9.22.11)


Our second day we traveled 3 hours outside of Cusco deep into the Andes.  The landscape was incredible, with huge mountains surrounding us and many different sparkling lakes.  We arrived in a tiny rural town to visit some families who work with an organization called Sierra Productiva.  Sierra Productiva helps rural Andean families to create gardens from which they can sustain their families as well as make a living by selling produce at the market.  The organization helps them to improve their quality of life in many ways, helping them to create a system of heating water, giving them the tools to create separate bedrooms for their family members and much more. 

The nice farmer showing us his plants, and guinea pigs, and greenhouse.

The farmer's wife, showing us how she cooks without any electricity.
She made delicious beans and corn for us all.

The greenhouse used to grow plants that could never grow so high in the mountains.
It was very hot inside -- the system works very well.

After visiting the families we had lunch in another very small town, and we tried guinea pig, which is a very typical food in the sierra.  It was actually very tasty, especially if you didn't think about it as a pet. 

Our first time tasting cuy (coy, meaning guinea pig)! It's that chunk in the middle.

We then traveled to a shelter for girls who generally come from abusive families or families who don't have the resources to take care of them.  The girls were incredibly sweet, and the older girls in the group actually put on a really great dance show for us!  We also had a "show" prepared for them, which consisted of singing a couple songs that we translated into Spanish.  We spent the rest of the day playing, dancing, singing, and generally having fun with the girls. They are really good at doing hair, and they braided many of the girls' hair in our group into cool designs (including Caitlyn's!)  At the end of the night, it took about 20 minutes for everyone to say goodbye because everyone was hugging everyone else.  We wish we could visit them again.

The girls dancing for us all. They were really good.

Two of the girls braiding Caitlyn's hair. It looked great when finished.

Day 3 (9.23.11)


We began our day with a delicious breakfast and left Cusco in the bus with our bags for Aguas Calientes (we'll tell you what that is in a moment). We drove outside of Cusco and through the mountains to Aguana Cancha (ah-gwah-nah con-chuh), a llama/alpaca farm and production site for wool products. We were able to walk with and feed each of the four kinds of South American camels (llama, guanaco, alpaca, vicuña), which was really fun, as you can tell:

Paul and our friend Kaleigh managing to feed the elusive and very cute baby.

The difference between using fake/industrial ink (his right hand) and real/natural ink (his left hand).
The fake ink looks better at first, but fades quickly, while the natural ink stays the same forever.
By the way, this is Victor, who was our great tour guide for most of the trip.

Afterwards we drove further through the mountains to Pisac (pee-sock), an ancient Incan city and current-day town. We climbed up the mountainside along terraces and structures (much like Machu Picchu, as both were built by the Incans), learning a great deal about the site from our great tour guide Victor along the way. When we reached the top we were at 10,980 feet and Paul decided to climb even further up onto some peaks.

The Pisac Terraces.

Victor explaining how the ruins were built up on the Pisac cliffs.

After the ruins we ate lunch in the town and then were given time to explore the market there and purchase anything we liked. We were supposed to leave at 3:30 but a series of unfortunate events lead us to leaving at 4. We had planned to get to the next town, Ollantaytambo (oh-yawn-tie-tom-bow) by 4:30, but instead arrived at 4:50. Ollantaytambo is home to another set of Incan ruins as well as the train station to get to Aguas Calientes (meaning hot waters, because of the natural hot springs there), the town at the base of Machu Picchu. We were admitted to Ollantaytambo and our guide started showing us around, but the site closed at 5 and soon the guards were literally yelling at us to leave. Thankfully we had our guide, Victor, who stood up to and ignored the men, showing us as much as he could of the site before finally leaving. We were only able to see about half of the site, but even that was amazing. As a side note, Caitlyn fell down the last few stairs while climbing down the ruins, but managed to not break or sprain anything luckily.

The Ollantaytambo mountain. Can you see the face carved into the cliff?

The Ollantaytambo ruins, with the town of Ollantaytambo below.

After the ruins we had two hours before our train left, so we all got dinner in one of the many restaurants and diners in the town. The town is essentially a rest-stop between Cusco and Machu Picchu, and so is very oriented towards tourists and very filled with them. We rode the train to Aguas Calientes (the first time on a train for us both!) and finally made it to the hotel by about 11:30, getting to sleep by 12:30.


Day 4 (9.24.11)


You may wonder why we mentioned when we went to sleep, so we'll tell you. It's worth mentioning because we didn't sleep until 12:30, and had to wake up at 4:30 to leave by 5. So we were prepared for our busiest and most physical day with 4 hours of sleep. But that's alright, our excitement pulled us through!


We woke up, ate breakfast, got our bus tickets, and left at 5:15. The system is simple: an endless hoard of busses takes people from Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu all day long, starting at 5:30. We got in line at 5:15, but were on the seventh bus. It may sound like there were a lot of people, and there were, but not nearly as much as there would be later in the day (hence the group waking up early). Arriving early allows you to both experience the sun rising over Machu Picchu as well as avoiding the droves of tourists who arrive later in the day around 10.


We rode the bus up to the site and were inside by about 6. It was surreal, to say the least. So quiet, so isolated, so real, and so amazing. We all took turns taking the classic Machu Picchu pictures and then began exploring the site. We also walked along a path to an old bridge used by the Incans, but the path was very skinny, right along the cliffs, usually with no railing, and we most certainly did not cross that bridge, because it was more like several boards hanging over thousands of feet of air rather than an actual bridge.

Our first view of Machu Picchu!

The classic Machu Picchu shot.

There were very few people there early in the morning -- it was quiet, peaceful and amazing.

The "bridge" (really wooden boards) we hiked to. Scary!

One of the most incredible views we've ever seen. This picture does no justice whatsoever.

The other side of Machu Picchu.

At 10 our group was scheduled to climb Huayna Picchu (wine-uh pee-choo), the tall mountain you always see connected to Machu Picchu. It's about 1,200 feet above Machu Picchu, which may not seem like much, but physical exertion in high altitudes is much harder due to the lesser amount of air. Climbing 1,200 feet of steep cliff is hard at sea level; doing it about 8,000 feet above sea level is a whole new story. The climb was fun, but is by all means dangerous. The paths are wide enough for two people to walk side-by-side, but generally have no railings, and go right along the edge of the mountain. Paul discovered his extreme fear of cliff edges; it seems he loves heights (such as being in planes and on top of mountains) but absolutely hates being on the edge of anything up high. We made it the very top, the very peak of the entire mountain, and sat and relaxed at the top. Caitlyn, a normal person without horrific phobias of falling to her death from a mountainside, wondered around the peak enjoying the views. Paul didn't budge from his sitting spot at the top, fearing a certain death. Deaths of course rarely happen, however, it's worth noting that each person who climbs the mountain is required to sign in and out, in case he or she were to fall to a grisly death and search parties were needed. As our Program Director would say, it's something you "check off the list" -- you do it once, and never again.

Huayna Picchu in the rising mist, calling us to climb it.

Machu Picchu as seen from the peak of Huayna Picchu,

After Huayna Picchu we slowly descended, which isn't as difficult aerobically as climbing, but is tougher on your muscles. We spent a bit more time at the site and then left around 12:30 for lunch down in Aguas Calientes, saying good bye to Machu Picchu for the time being. We returned to the town, ate lunch, then left to go to the hot springs just outside the town. We know what you're imagining: beautiful ponds of warm water bubbling from the mountainside, with steam rising and rocks all around you, at one with nature in a wonderfully-relaxing setting. We thought it'd be that way too; we were wrong. It was great, and it was naturally-heated spring water, but it was a tiled and very unnatural bathhouse sort of setting. Definitely fun though!


We left the baths, packed up, rode the train back to Ollantaytambo, then rode the bus back to Cusco. We got to bed around 1, after being up for 21 hours and having exerted about as much physical energy as we each do in a year. Worth it? No question.


Day 5 (9.25.11)


Our last full day in Cusco was luckily a free day, so we all tried to sleep in a little bit (since we had gotten up super early pretty much all of the previous days) and then explored Cusco a little bit.  We went with all of the girls in our group to a chocolate museum, which was deliciously fun.  They had lots of interesting facts about chocolate and its history, as well as free samples of cacao tea, which was pretty good.  They also had a menu that we all ordered from.  The two of us shared chocolate frio (cold chocolate) which was like chocolate milk except 1,000 times tastier. 

The delicious chocolate frio. It may be hard to believe, but it's better than hot chocolate.

We then dragged ourselves away from the chocolate museum to go to the Inca Mercado (Incan Market) to buy more gifts for ourselves and our families.  The two of us both bought some Andean looking sweaters, and lots of stuff for our family and friends back home (not telling what we got you, though!).  


After resting for a little bit in the hotel, we all went to a folkloric dance performance.  It was traditional Andean dancing and music with fun traditional costumes and everything.  There was one dance in which the women pretended to hit the men with these long furry things because the point of the song/dance was that "where there is love there is punishment."  We thought that was funny.

The traditional dancers dancing away.

That was our last night in Cusco. The next morning we returned to Lima, tired but full of experiences we'll never forget. It was an incredible trip, to say the very least.

More Offerings from Lima

Keeping with our promise, here's our next weekly post! In the past week we've been gliding through our classes, as we have been, and have done two special things. First, yesterday, we went to Mistura. Mistura is an annual festival held in downtown Lima as a celebration of all things food in Peru. It is extremely popular, with both tourists and natives. Second, today, we went to Huaca Pucllana, which is the ruins of a pyramid of an ancient culture that lived right here in Lima. Both were very interesting, informative and downright fun. So let us tell you about them!


Mistura (9.16.11)
So on Friday we went to Mistura, which is a huge gastronomical festival here in Lima.  It was only started a few years ago, but it is already known as the most important festival of its kind in Latin America, and is also quickly gaining international prestige.  The festival offers every type of food Peru has to offer, from fruit to bread to juice.  Needless to say, as people who generally love to eat food, we were super excited.  Within the festival is a gigantic tent call the Grand Market where there are hundreds of booths selling all kinds of different products, and where you can get lots of free samples!  We sampled different types of honey, fruit, cheese, and other yummy snacks.  Outside of the Grand Market, the festival is separated into different sections, such as restaurants, regional foods, and desserts.  We were with our friend Stephanie, so each of us would get something from each section and then we would all share with one another.  It was a great way to try lots of different dishes! We were too busy enjoying the food to take a picture of every dish we ate, but here are a few.

Inside the Grand Market. It was exceptionally crowded -- we had to push through the entire time!

Whole-roasted cuy (guinea pig). We've still never tried, but we want to! This wasn't a sample, or else we'd have tried it.

Piqeuo de Mariscos. Breaded shrimp and then very good things like crab rangoons, except way better.

Huancaina Lasagna! Huancaina is a very popular cheesy/spicy sauce used here with all sorts of foods.
This lasagna has a reputation for being great, so we had to try it -- it was great!

Huaca Pucllana (9.17.11)
The name comes from the Quechua words huaca (wah-cah, meaning 'ruin') and puclla (poo-kyah, meaning 'game'). While that might sound like it was made for playing games, in this ancient culture 'game' was another word for 'ritual'. It was a ritual site for the religious practices of the Lima culture, the namesake of the city of Lima. The culture lived along the coasts of Peru from about 300 - 800 AD.


We began our tour in the small museum at the entrance of the site. Here we saw several restored pots, threaded works, instruments, and weapons which were used by the Lima people. Their culture worshiped the ocean, which they identified as a feminine force. Thus, women were highly regarded in their culture, and used in each ritual. Each ritual consisted of taking 4-6 women, age 15-25, and literally breaking all of their bones with a club until they died. To finish up, each woman was skewered through her body. Seems a bit odd of a way to treat that which you deem sacred, but that was their way.

Some reconstructed pots inside the museum.
Once the women for the sacrifice were killed they were cut into pieces and put inside these pots.

After that museum we walked through the site. It was amazing. Probably the most interesting part about the site is the fact that it lies right in the middle of the city. Each bit of it is surrounded by road, and homes, and buildings. From the top you get a nice view of the skyline of the city. In fact, up until 1984, people lived here! The last people living here was a couple with 10 children and several dogs, which lived directly on top of the ruins. Once Peru decided to preserve it the family was removed, thankfully. To give you an idea of how it was deemed beforehand, Señor Casteñeda (our high school Spanish teacher, from Lima) used to ride bikes with his friends on these ruins when they were growing up!

An overview of the site, with the city right behind and all around it. 

Another shot of the site, from the top of the pyramid, with a tour group down at the bottom.

A reconstructed burial site. This one contains two adults and a small child (note the little sack on the right).
They were often buried with foods, threads, wool, and other objects.

That's the main news from this week. But guess what. Next week we're going to Cusco! Which means our next post will be speaking about our adventures at Machu Picchu, the mountains, thermal baths, and more. We can't wait!

The Adventure Continues

Sorry that we haven't written in the past few weeks!  During the week we're all busy with classes and volunteer work, and the past several weekends we've been travelling around and doing fun stuff!  So needless to say, we haven't had much spare time to write a new blog.  Because it's been so long since we wrote a new post, and because we've done a lot the past few weeks, this blog is going to be a major update on all the cool things we've been doing.  So here goes!


Parque de las Leyendas (8.27.11)


Parque de las Leyendas, for those of you who don't know, means Park of Legends.  Sounds epic, right?  It's one the zoos here in Lima, and it is actually located literally right behind our university's campus, which is really cool!  Parque de las Leyendas is a really neat zoo because not only does it have animals, but it also has a few small museums, a botanical garden, a paddle boat pond, and tons of Incan ruins throughout the park!  One of the really neat things about Lima in general is that even though we're in the middle of this huge, modern city, there are plenty of opportunities to see ancient ruins and learn about indigenous culture.  


The zoo was split up into four main parts: the sierra, the jungle, the coast, and the international section.  In the sierra section, we thought it was funny that they had a lot of ducks and sheep, things that we see all the time in Ohio!  

Mountain lion (puma).

A cool-looking eagle.

A field of various herbivores, like a little animal kingdom.

The jungle part was our favorite because there were lots of colorful birds and cute little monkeys!  They also had the landscaping done really well so that you almost felt like you were actually in the jungle.  As we were leaving the jungle section, we saw a crowd gathered around the bear habitat, so we wandered over to see what was happening.  Turned out they were "knockin' knees" and it seemed like they were having a pretty good time! Hah!  Anyway, here are some of our pics:

The sleeping Ose de Anteojos (Glasses Bear).

The cutest little monkeys, who loved to cuddle together. There are three monkeys here.

Some tapirs hanging out.

The coastal section of the zoo was pretty much made up of what they called an "aquarium," but was really just a seal tank where people could stand around and watch them from above.  We were lucky enough to get to the aquarium just in time to see the seal trainers put on a show and have the seals do tricks.  During one of the tricks, the trainer had the seal jump out of the water right next to the edge of the tank so that all of us got splashed.  Luckily Paul protected our camera as if it were his baby, so there was no harm done! It actually did a great job of capturing some of the tricks:

Apparently seals don't need legs to stand. How convenient!

Right after this a huge splash hit us and Paul's quick reflexes saved the camera from certain death.

This was the final trick of the show.

The international section was cool because we got to see some really pretty bears, hippos, big cats and a giraffe, but Paul was really disappointed because there were no apes!  There was only one lonesome chimp, no gorillas or bonobos or baboons or anything else.  After seeing "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," both of us were really excited to see some, but oh well!  Here's some of what we did see:

Probably the biggest bear either of us had ever seen.

The only ape, a chimpanzee. It was his birthday the day we were there!

We watched this tortoise for 1-2 minutes and it never budged. We think it may be dead.

We also took a walk through the botanical garden and took a ride on a paddle boat.  It was really fun, but we had trouble when it was time for us to bring our boat back to the dock because the rudder wasn't working correctly and so we basically kept going around in circles!  The paddle boat guys were probably thinking that we were a couple of stupid gringos, but it wasn't our fault.  We swear! 


La Ciudad Sagrada de Caral (8.27.11)


Again, we'll begin with translation. La Ciudad Sagrada de Caral means The Sacred City of Caral. We didn't know it until we got here, but Caral is actually the third oldest civilization in the world. So there's Mesopotamia, and then Egypt, and the next oldest culture in entire world is right here in Peru: Caral! Caral is a good distance from Lima, about 200 kilometers north in the desert part of the country. As we explained with the Park of Legends section, Peru has three distinct areas of geography, and this part was definitely desert. As you exit Lima there are hills and mountains all over, with shacks and houses all along the sides. After a bit you get out into the desert part, driving through sand and mountains.


Before we talk about Caral itself, we wanted to mention the police on the way. In Peru, and most of South America, many police officers are corrupt. Not all, of course, but many. Many police officers on the highways in the countryside will stop a bus full of white people, demanding a bribe from the driver (a native Peruvian) in exchange for not causing any "trouble" for us Americans. It's a tense situation, and entirely corrupt, and unjust. Neither of us can stand it. It's sickening, and sad, that such things happen. We were stopped for a bribe once on the way there and once on the way back. The first time we had to pay, but the second time our great Program Director managed to talk us out of it.


Now to Caral! When we finally arrived, after driving down a very bumpy and dusty dirt road for the last 25 kilometers, we were amazed. We were in a valley, surrounded by misty mountains on all sides. We walked along a path along a river, and through chili fields, and into the sand dunes and pyramids of the city itself.

Beautiful mountains of rock and sand.

The chili field we walked around to get to the city.

Us! With the great Supe Valley behind us.

Another shot of the valley.

We'd never seen legitimate sand dunes like this. Nor had we been in a real desert, for that matter.

We arrived to the city and began our tour, with our guide bringing us to each ruin in the side and explaining the great history behind each one. It's a truly fascinating culture, and a visually striking area to top it off.

El Templo de Anfiteatro, AKA The Ampitheatre Temple. It was built with unique acoustics to make instruments echo.

An overview of part of the city, still under excavation.

One of the several main pyramids.

Another pyramid. The stairs have survived very well over the past 5,000 years.

Once the tour ended we stopped by the gift shop for a few minutes. Caitlyn bought some post cards from the site, and Paul wanted to buy a t-shirt. Sadly, though, the group left for the next part of the trip, urging us and the few others buying things to hurry up. Paul never got to buy his shirt, and our little group rushed to catch up to the rest of the group at the bus. But when we returned to the bus, the rest of the group wasn't there, and we ended up waiting another 20 minutes for them to arrive! So it turns out Paul had plenty of time to buy his shirt, but never could. A shame really. To complete the irony, as we loaded up the bus to leave, the sun began emerging; we got a few great pictures!

The sun brought an entirely new light to the mountains.

We drove to a small town by the seaside, called Huacho, for our lunch. The town was small, dusty, run-down, and perfectly charming. We ate our lunch, which was quite good, and then traveled down to the seaside for a bit to watch the waves and people. We got some great pictures of the food and the ocean.

Caitlyn's dish at Huacho: pachacamac. The meat is cooked underground, in a hole!

An amazing view of ships off the coast of Huacho.

The Huacho oceanside.

Paul snapped a rather inspiring picture right before we left.

Elder Stanfield (9.8.11)


For those of you who don't know, Paul's long-time friend and fellow member of the LDS church, Philip Stanfield, is serving a mission for the church here in Peru. We'd spent the past several weeks trying to figure out a time to meet with him, and finally worked a time for the 8th. We were able to see the LDS Lima Temple and meet with Elder Stanfield as well! It was truly wonderful to see him, and quite surreal. Imagine, of all the places in the entire world, two people doing two completely different things, in the exact same place. A blessing and privilege.

The Lima Peru Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Beautiful.

Elder Stanfield in the flesh!

Museo de Historia Natural (9.10.11)
We bet you can figure out that title, but in case not, it means Museum of Natural History. Just a few dozen blocks from our home, we were glad to finally be able to go. Entrance was 7 soles, or about $2.50. It consists of several sections, containing everything from stuffed animals to ancient animal bones to animal models, which we'll delve into right now.


The first part consisted of mammals native to South America and Peru, all stuffed models. Armadillos, anteaters, sloths, otters, bears, jaguars, pumas, dear, and more. They also had an amazing elephant skull, and a whale skull, and even a sabertooth tiger skull! Not to mention the very amazing whale teeth. A monkey was part of the exhibit as well, with various types of native monkeys (but again, no apes!).

One of the giant whale skeletons outside the entrance.

Deer, llamas, alpacas, and more. Rather interesting to look at.

A sabertooth tiger skull, and a model of its head. Very interesting!

The next part consisted of birds and fish, randomly but interestingly presented together in the same room. One fish in particular, the Sun Fish, was easily the most massive fish we'd ever seen. It seems to be extinct now, unfortunately.

The Pez Sol, AKA the Sun Fish. A very simple but extremely large creature.

Hedwig! For those of you who don't know, Hedwig is Harry Potter's owl. We're pretty sure this is Hedwig, or his brother.

The next part is surely a favorite of many: the reptiles and dinosaurs! From turtles to snakes to frogs and iguanas all the way to giant dinosaur bones and models. Very fun to look at, and very fun to learn about.

The snake display.

Is that not the happiest-looking animal you've ever seen? And yes, they really do look like this.

A relative of T-Rex. Good thing it wasn't real!

The last zoological section was dedicated to the more... unfavorable types. Snails, slugs, spiders, and other bugs. Interesting, though surely odd.

A Rhino Beetle.

A picture of a lady selling coca leaves.
This is the plant that makes cocaine, but its natural state is very useful for common ailments.

Another part of the Museum, outside, had two enormous skeletons of extinct whale species, displayed out in the yard. This lead to the Mineral area, with hundreds of beautiful rocks and metals to see. And that finished up the trip to the Museum!

A very interesting rock, of the many.

A very well fossilized fish.

Larcomar: Vivaldino, Gelateria and Bowling (9.10.11)


After the Museum, we decided to go to Larcomar (remember, the nice commercial center built into the cliff?) for some food and bowling.  Since we've gotten here we've wanted to splurge a little bit and go to one of the nice restaurants along the edge of Larcomar that have an amazing ocean view, so we figured, why not today? The restaurant we went to is called Vivaldino, and all of the waiters wear nice little vests and there are roses in wine glasses on every table.  We requested to sit outside (there were only two tables left out there, so we were lucky!), and we had an amazing lunch.  Today was one about 3 days since we've gotten here that the sun was out, and the weather was absolutely gorgeous.  It felt great to have the sun on our skin, and seeing the nice blue ocean while we ate was great.

Some paragliders taking advantage of the sunny day.

Paul ordered a delicious ceviche made with tuna and scallops, and Caitlyn got rice with shellfish, which came with a whole prawn on top!  The dish was good and looked really nice, but the prawn itself tasted a little weird.  We both also ordered some freshly made juice to drink (Paul got melon and Caitlyn got strawberry).  The total of the bill (after tax) came to about 113 soles.  Sounds like we really spent a ton, right?  Well, actually, that only amounts to about $40 total!  A restaurant like this in America would probably cost $200 if not more.  Don't forget that we got freshly squeezed juice, a yummy bread basket with an assortment of three different types of bread, delicious entrees, and best of all, a beautiful ocean view!  If that isn't value, we don't know what is.  See for yourself:

Paul's dish: tuna and scallop ceviche.

Caitlyn's dish: Rica with shellfish. An intimidating prawn to top it off.

After eating, we decided that we needed some dessert, so we went to Gelateria to get some gelato.  They had an awesome variety of flavors, so we had trouble choosing.  

Caitlyn's cone. Two scoops: chocolate and stracciatella.

Paul's cup. Three scoops: meringue, cookies n' cream, coconut.

While we each ate our gelato, we stood along the railing and watched the ocean.  As we've said before, there's a paragliding company right along the ocean near where we live, and so we often see them sailing around.  As we were standing on the deck, there was a paraglider who was sailing right over us swooping all around, sometimes sailing just five feet over our heads! 

The expert paraglider in one of his dives towards us on the cliffs.

Then, we went bowling!  It was funny because everyone in the bowling alley was either a kid or a parent of a kid.  We felt like we were at Chuck E. Cheese or Dave and Busters because we were the only "adults" there who were there to bowl on our own!  Also, every lane had bumpers up, so we had to ask to have our bumper lowered.  The worker seemed slightly surprised at our request.  We ended up doing better than most of the people around us, despite not having bumpers! Here are a few pictures:

Note Caitlyn's great form as she goes to miss this spare.

Paul's final frame, a split. Not the best way to end.

Lima at night. Note the cross in the distance, outshining everything else.

Well, that's all for now. Again, we're sorry it's been several weeks since we last wrote! Life's busy as a foreign exchange student. But now that everything is organized and figured out for school, we'll be able to post every week as planned. So make sure and keep reading! Oh and comments are always nice too, and you know you want to. :)