¡Estoy en Peru!

All I can say is Peru is awesome! After about 20 hours of traveling and talking with different people while in route to Peru I finally made it to Peru at about 9 AM Sunday morning. After the long wait for staff to check me through customs I finally made it into the main part of the airport to meet up with my program staff. Unfortunately the person picking me up thought I was coming into Lima at 9 PM so she wasn't actually there...luckily I was able to easily exchange some money and call my program director who was able to iron things out and connect me with Kelly, an amazing and bubbly member of the ISA staff who was able to take me to my house and introduce me to my family. While waiting for Kelly I was also able to drink my first coca-cola in Peru and enjoy the taste of a true sugar cane based soda that tasted very delicious!

After meeting my family and talking a bit I took a quick siesta (nap) and then we headed off to get lunch (almuerzo) as a family. Since I could only remember one Peruvian food that I had had in the past I asked if we could get anticuchos (cow heart). After requesting antichuchos they were really excited because I had tasted Peruvian food before so we all went to a nice restaurant and got food. The anticuchos were very good as well as all the other foods I tried. I was able to try a local Peruvian drink that was made of a purple cord as well as try a few different typical Peruvian meats like a blood sausage and pork. Once we returned home I was then gladly welcomed back to the house by ice cream (helado) that my host mom, Elena, prepared for all of us. If you have spent much time at all around me you will know that ice cream is top on my list of favorite deserts, so it was great to find out that my host family also really enjoyed ice cream! Later in the evening I also went on a walk with my host mom and she showed me around the neighborhood and then one of my brothers, Felipe, and my dad, Luis, took me on a car ride and showed me some of the main sites in Lima.

After all the excitement of the first day I was very tired so I was happy to get some much needed sleep before really getting into the swing of things. Today, the first full day being in Peru was a very laid back and informative day. I started off the day with breakfast (desayuno) with my host family and fellow student from the US, Jhavid, and we both were able to try a new fruit called granadillas. Granadillas look similar to an orange but the inside is filled with a jello like substance that has a bunch of tiny seeds. To me they looked like the insides of a brain, but it was very good! Later I found out that granadillas are the first fruit that babies have in Peru because they are easy to digest and have lots of vitamins, at that point I felt like it was the proper fruit for me to be eating because I feel like a baby when it comes to my knowledge of Spanish and the Peruvian culture.

For the rest of the day I was with my fellow students from my program going through an informational session in the morning about our program followed by an afternoon out on the town seeing some of the sites around town. We first met at our local ISA headquarters and I was pleasantly surprised to see a small rock climbing wall that was in the same building as the office, luckily Chris Burgess convinced me to bring my rock climbing shoes at the last moment so I will be able to enjoy climbing now and again! One place we went in the afternoon was called Huaca, which is a pre-Incan ruin that was constructed about 1000 years before the Incan Machu Pichu. Above you will see a picture of the ruins we saw, they were constructed with spaces between the bricks in order to allow for the flexing of the structure due to the high frequency of earthquakes in Lima. After seeing the ruins we finished up our activities by going to the beach and seeing the sunset while eating ice cream!

Now I am finishing up my blog after arriving back home and eating dinner (cenar) with my host family. Tomorrow is a free day so I look forward to doing some more fun things around Lima!