3 months ago to the day I was skiing Steamboat. Suffice it to say I'm not in Steamboat today, nor will there be any snow. The trip began yesterday when I boarded DIA>IAH headed south... more south than ever before. I took a window seat after the middle seat had been taken, and it was clear the woman in the middle was nervous about her English. I hadn't heard her speak yet (instead of standing up and getting out of the seat to let me pass, she just pulled her legs up into the seat) so I couldn't place her. When she said she was from Bogotá I switched to Spanish, and a weight lifted for her. Me too... somebody new to test my Spanish on. We spoke the majority of the 2 hour flight. She is a traveling brand manager for pharmaceutical items and had been to a lot of various places but never in the US before. The funniest part of our conversation was her asking me what elk were called; "They look like Bambi and are café all over except for their white butts..." (in Spanish). I was happy to have had a bit more Spanish practice with a stranger before getting to Peru.
Shelly and I sat together from Houston to Lima. After about 45 minutes out the window below us came the familiar site of thousands of 20,000' Cumulonimbus calvus clouds, which I've only ever seen form over warm, tropical water. I actually felt for a minute that we should just land and stay in Central America. Costa Rica to be exact... I really love that country, and I had just been thinking of how lucky I am to live in Boulder when this happened... thinking of running 6 miles the day before on the Mesa Trail in the rain. Anyways, I saw the clouds, and below them a beach. Then, halfway, dry and untrammeled mountains... almost void of any human imprint. Nicaragua? Later lots of stars, then a very large city. Quito? 45 minutes later we landed. The Lima airport is huge.
One of my bottles of hand sanitizer exploded while my backpack was transported as checked luggage... my pack was a bit wet, but no worries. Our hotel in Lima is very nice. Our room is on the top floor with a rooftop terrace outside. I believe if the skies were clearer (so you could see) and/or the air didn't smell of dank rotting fish, it would get a lot of use. Aside from the overwhelming fish smell, I believe you could probably place this setting in any big city in Latin America. The driving/honking, buildings, humidity, noises, etc. are very similar to San José, CR, at least. Last night we got settled in and then walked for a drink. We must stand out a lot because every empty taxi that drove by slowed down or honked at us; fairly annoying. 1 round of pisco later it was after 1am so we walked home. That scene sets this apart from San José: 1am and large groups of old men playing chess on public picnic tables with chess boards tiled into the table... 1am and people just sitting down for full-sized dinner. Miraflores stays up really late.
This is the warmest 65 degrees I've ever felt. It is unbelievably humid here. So far so good though. I believe things will get interesting after breakfast.
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