December 29 was Elias and Lauren's last full day in Peru. Our day started leisurely (phew), and Ruben started his 7 mile run first. Ericka and Lauren ran 1.5 miles along the beach, then walked back along the boardwalk. We stopped briefly in the middle to chase down a red crab who we happened to get between him and his hole. Most of those crabs are way too fast to really get a close look at, they scurry down their holes too quickly.
Here's a really pretty slideshow.
After cleaning up, we went to the Asia mall to have lunch (at a really nice thin crust pizza place), check email and pick up food and water. We wound up dallying a little too long and this put pressure on the rest of our day. We ran back to the house to grab our bags. We left closer to 3pm (instead of 2pm as we had planned) to head back to the city. On our way northbound we saw an truck that had been filled with eggs that was only 1/2 filled with eggs by the time we went by. The other 1/2 were scattered all over the median and there were about half a dozen men picking up the mess. Other than that, we were fortunate that the traffic wasn't horrible yet. But the day was still young.
We dropped the bags at Ericka's parents house, and Lauren did some quick repacking - putting the smaller bags into bigger bags and lashing them down. This way we were still under the 50lb limit, but only taking 1 bag per person (so no extra $25/person charge on the way home). Then we all went out to the bike store, an artisan area and the mall in Miraflores for some shopping.
Ericka was concerned we would hit traffic around 5pm and now we see why. Most of the streets were at a standstill, although at least this way cars weren't darting at you from all sides all at once. Still it was pretty annoying. We stopped briefly at the artisan mall, managed to find parking and picked up a few more things, but Elias and Ruben were getting bored with the shopping, so we didn't stay long. We then drove over to the Miraflores mall, which is absolutely beautiful and overlooking a cliff. We wanted to have dinner in Mangos, but they didn't have any seats for 4, so we wound up having dinner at a place called Pardo's Chicken which turned out to be quite good and very fast. Dinner was a whole roasted chicken, fries, cooked veggies (cold), Pisco sours and another milk based pisco sour that tasted a bit like an eggnog drink, and we finally got to try Chicha Morada. Chicha Morada is a driink made from the dark purple corn and flavored with lime and cinnamon. It's quite good, although Elias didn't like it so much. We also tried their suspiro, but that wasn't nearly as good as the Hotel Sumaq.
After dinner we made our way back to Ericka's parents house. Lauren did some final packing and we changed clothes so we wouldn't be cold on the plane. Ericka had arranged for a taxi driver to take us to the airport, and he arrived just after 9pm. Elias was already getting tired.
Ruben walked in with us and went into the area where the ticketing booths are, even though the sign says "passengers only." Also when we entered the lines to go up to the ticket counter, they checked our passports - Ruben at the last minute gave me his passport. The woman asked in Spanish how many were traveling and we answered "tres." This was actually not true, but better that we did this, because when we were up at the ticket counter, the woman behind the counter was confused by Lauren's last name being different than Elias'. It was good that Ruben was there to say he was the father (with the same last name) and that Lauren was the mother. Although in retrospect this was annoying (and somewhat sexist), it occurred to Lauren later that she probably should have been traveling with a notarized letter with Ruben's signature because she was doing international travel.
After a teary goodbye at the entrance to security, Lauren and Elias went in to pay their airport fees. Now the woman checking passports at the ticket line had said we could use credit card to pay the airport fees, but that was not the case and Lauren didn't have cash. So we exited the area, and tried to find Ruben at the Starbuck's where he said he'd be. When he wasn't, she just hit the cash machine and got enough dollars out to pay the $62 fee and went back inside to pay. Then they went into security and that's they saw where Ruben had been waiting to see them go in (on the side of the entrance, where we couldn't see him leaving the tax area).
We waited for a while longer, got a few snacks, and then had our passports checked again. Finally our row was called. Because of the recent terrorist incident between Amsterdam and Detroit, they actually search our carry on luggage (although only cursorily), and then patted both of us down to make sure nothing was on our bodies. Lauren had to get in the women's line and was worried they were going to put Elias in a separate (men's) line, but she asked if he could stay with her and the woman said "Si, el nino con su madre."
Elias fell asleep almost as soon as he hit the seat and got his pillow situated. It was a 6.5 hour flight. Two rows behind us a woman started to cough uncontrollably just as we started taxiing down the runway, and couldn't even answer when the flight attendant asked in Spanish if she needed help. She apparently didn't, but it was pretty worrisome. She coughed through most of the flight. There was also a small child that cried through most of the flight. Lauren felt really badly for the kid and the parents.
We arrived slightly delayed in Houston and had to go through immigration and customs, with only 1.5 hours between flights. Problem: we forgot to check what our actual gate was and started to head to the wrong gate. At one point she stopped and drank from a water fountain, just because she could. Fortunately Lauren thought to check before they got too far from the central corridor and found out the gate had changed. They managed to get breakfast and get onto the plane just as they were calling their names to board.
The flight from Houston to Seattle was pretty uneventful, although irony of irony - they played G-Force as the movie. G-force is an animated movie about gerbils... and we somehow doubt they play that down in Peru where people eat it (Cuy) as a regular meal.
What I won't miss
- Driving. Anywhere.
- The pollution, both in the air or on the ground
- Having to drink bottled water and use it for brushing teeth
- Having to worry about fresh fruits and veggies and green stuff that sneaks into your dishes as garnish
- The whole camerones (shrimp). Not just the colitas (tail). Ew.
- The upset stomachs.
- Constantly being approached and asked to buy things, or take a taxi or come eat dinner in someplace.
Things I will miss in Peru
- The people, Ericka, her family, Hector, and the other people we met along the way.
- The bananas. Oh man were the bananas good.
- The beauty of the nature around Cusco and Machu Picchu
- The relaxing time at the beach
- Did I mention the bananas?
- Quinoa everywhere.
- The cebiche, even though I probably shouldn't have eaten it... it was gooooood.
- Coca tea. It's pretty good actually.
- The yogurt drink you can get to put over your cereal or make smoothies out of.
- Suspiro. MMMMMM.
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