Good Morning, Lima!

After an uneventful flight to Lima, Peru and a quick first night’s stay in a guest house in San Miguel we awoke to explore the city and by that evening found ourselves pleasantly situated in San Isidro, just to the north of Miraflores District. We’ve been mostly without wi-fi, and we’ve left the computer in the bag for the past 48 hours in favor of leaping head first into the new surroundings. Rather than re-create the wheel, for tonight I’ll simply share a copy of Ted’s recent email update to our parents.

Happy eavesdropping…

Hello Dads and Moms,

We are having a great time in Lima. Through the SERVAS network, we were connected with a woman named Anna who invited us to her home for three nights. She lives in a very nice upper-middle class neighborhood. She is elderly but extremely well educated, traveled, and spunky. She is German by birth, lived in New Orleans for 25 years, and retired here in Lima. What a great person! Even though well off, she and her sister, who lives in a neighboring unit, are very aware of the slums. Anna’s maid (Dadi) has invited us to her home tomorrow on the hill. It will be a very different experience from this. Two hours travel by bus. Somewhat sketch, but we’ll be safe with her as we are her guests and she has been Anna’s maid (and friend) for years.

So far, amazing to see God’s perfect connections for us. Were treated to drinks by a father and son from Spain today. We met them during a stressful moment on a bus. All of us bought tickets to the top of a mountain, but instead, the company announced after departure that the lookout was closed and tried to take us on the tour of the city instead. There was near revolt. Everyone yelling and trying to get their money back. The guys from Spain stayed with us until we got our refund, took us to beers, shared stories, and have shared their contact info for while we’re in Spain (very near them actually). Good times.

The Peruvian people are SO gracious, very helpful. We accidentally got into a bad area of town today, and within 5 minutes, 2 Peruvians had come to our aid, one telling us to put our camera away quickly, the other helping us flag down a taxi to get our of the neighborhood. Very good folks watching out for us.

We are already sunburned and sore, but happy as clams. Monday we leave for a 21 hour bus ride to Cuzco before starting the hike to Machu Picchu on Friday. Can’t wait.

Love you all! Feel free to share…

Ted (and Bethany)