The lateness of our post will be made clear once I explain the past couple days. After a somewhat normal flight from Houston to Lima (I say ‘somewhat’ because we encountered some pretty severe turbulence somewhere over the Gulf of Mexico – the kind that makes me white knuckle Brad’s arm), we arrived somewhere around 11:30pm. Our luggage came out right away, but, as we were informed later, we were on “Latino Time” which basically means that we waited for another 45 minutes for everyone else’s luggage to come out as well.
We then were escorted through Customs and were greeted by HUNDREDS of people behind a rope waiting for their loved ones. Luckily, Gene was waiting there too – a good head taller than everyone – white – and with a big cowboy hat. We were lead to the bus where we waited for our one last person to arrive…that took until about 1am. THEN it took another 45 minutes to get to the Gemina Hostal where we were staying for the night. Walked in, surrendered our passports, marveled at the smell of pot lingering in the hallways J and then off to bed at around 2:30am. These were rooms with two twin beds in each, so I shared a room with Christie from Florida and Brad and Jack shared another. After waking at 5am and then for good at 8am, we left to get breakfast, walk around a bit and then on to another bus to be taken to ANOTHER bus to Chimbote. Halfway there, it became apparent that the transmission in our bus was going…and going fast. We made the last 5-10 minutes of the trip in 1st gear…but made it and cheered for our driver.
We grabbed some lunch at the bus station, checked our luggage, and boarded our bus to Chimbote. Not just ANY bus mind you…we walked into our ‘cabin’ and were greeted by plush first class type seats, pillows, blankets and a television in the front of the cabin. How glad we were since we discovered that our 4 ½ hour bus ride was really going to be 6 ½ hours.
We arrived in Chimbote at 6:30pm and were greeted by the most horrible fish smell. Chimbote is a city of about 400,000 people and Father Jack informed us that this is the “smell of money.” Mostly what is being ‘smelled’ is anchovies. Stop and imagine that. After a short ride to the church compound, we were met with a warm familiar meal of spaghetti and bread.
Jack’s Favorite things: I liked the food on the airplane. I liked the long bus ride and playing my Nintendo for so long. I liked relaxing with Dad and seeing the ocean and I liked the spaghetti when we got to Chimbote.
We grabbed some lunch at the bus station, checked our luggage, and boarded our bus to Chimbote. Not just ANY bus mind you…we walked into our ‘cabin’ and were greeted by plush first class type seats, pillows, blankets and a television in the front of the cabin. How glad we were since we discovered that our 4 ½ hour bus ride was really going to be 6 ½ hours.
We arrived in Chimbote at 6:30pm and were greeted by the most horrible fish smell. Chimbote is a city of about 400,000 people and Father Jack informed us that this is the “smell of money.” Mostly what is being ‘smelled’ is anchovies. Stop and imagine that. After a short ride to the church compound, we were met with a warm familiar meal of spaghetti and bread.
Jack’s Favorite things: I liked the food on the airplane. I liked the long bus ride and playing my Nintendo for so long. I liked relaxing with Dad and seeing the ocean and I liked the spaghetti when we got to Chimbote.
The whole group in Lima at 3am
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