March 23, 2010

A year ago I was in Peru...

Lima, Peru

In fact it was my first full day in Peru.  Mom and I had landed at 1am...

My travel journal from March 22, 2010 reads;

"...alarm 3:30 am.  Kissed Jeff goodbye at 4:15....arrived in ATL met up with Darrel and Connie so nice to see them...flight scheduled to leave @6:10 pm sat on tarmac for a 1 hr, finally left.
1 am Peru time, arrive in Lima, find a taxi...scary drive to hotel.  Filthy, run down, busy for this time of night....Hot, humid here.  Texting not working:("
"Kinda nervous/weird to be here without a guide or group.  Glad mom is here with me...our room without a view..."

We went right to bed after arranging for a taxi to pick us up at 8am for sight seeing in Lima before we caught our flight to Trejillo on March 23, 2010

I can't believe it was a year ago...

While my initial impressions seem unfavorable , it was exciting to experience, to not know what the next 10 min. had in store...

My journal for March 23, 2010 reads~

"Didn't sleep enough or very well.  Bed broke during the night :).
Breakfast in hotel after a "mist of shower."

"Our driver Alexander was prompt...we walked around downtown where we saw the Presidente Palace, a Cathedral...My favorite was Monestario de San Franciscan where the Fransescan monks lived.  The church was beautiful with side chapels and Moorsih design in the ceiling...We went upstairs to tour their library.  I loved it and feared for it.  All of their books, paintings and furniture where unprotected from the climate.  The rooms are not even air conditioned and here is a beautiful library with 25,000 books from the 17th century! "

"...we had a view of the shanty town surrounding the city.  We drove through CRAZY traffic-lanes mean nothing to theses people!"

After our morning of touring Lima we caught our flight north to Trejillo.  My first impressions of Trejillo were not positive...

My journal reads...

"Trejillo airport is right on the beach.  I was shocked at how arid it is.  Disturbed by the piles of trash along the roads, not piles, mountains.  Beautiful beaches, where are the resorts?
Squalor, ruined shacks, trash, dogs, people.  I thought good grief where are we going with this taxi driver who speaks zero English and his "cab" looks like a beat up tin can.  But eventually we got into a community of walls with barbwire on top and security guards standing around and we found our hotel.."

We went to Trejillo because our church was conducting an evangelistic series there.  It was interesting and the people were lovely!  More on that later...

Frychik

PS  I'm heading to the beach today for a few days.  I'm not sure if I will have Internet....