Last day in Lima

Throughout my trip I've been very fortunate to have Gean Carlo's family's house as my home base in Lima. On the 19th, I took an early bus back across the border to Peru, returned to Puno, went out to the airport in Juliaca and then flew back to Lima. It was so nice to be greeted by the family, all excited to hear about my journeys since I'd left over a week before.

Aaron was particularly excited to see his "Tia Leah" (Aunt Leah)
and play with her camera

That evening we just hung around the house and I shared photos and stories. The next day, which was ultimately my last day in Peru, Emily (Gean Carlo's daughter) and I went off to the beach at Miraflores. We had been to Miraflores before with Gean Carlo, but hadn't ventured down to the beach. One of my favourite parts of this day was taking a minibus across town. I still don't have any idea how this system works (and Emily wasn't really able to explain it either), but it did get us there and was very entertaining along the way. The constant yelling and advertising of the "doorman" who was hanging out the side of the van, along with the various patrons of the bus, all contributed to my amusement.

El Beso statue in El Parque de Amor, Miraflores
The Kiss Statue in The Love Park, Miraflores

The beach in Lima

The fancy Marriott Hotel overlooking the Pacific Ocean and the beach

We hung out on the beach for a little while, enjoying some ice cream and the occasional bit of sunshine. When it was time to ascend back to Miraflores, Emily insisted we take the path that was fenced off and stated "Peligro" (Dangerous). There were a few people doing the same so we knew it was passable, but we couldn't really see the condition of the path past half way up. Sure enough, the stairs were there, but a lot of the way they were covered with rocks, which had obviously slid off the side of the hill and deemed the trail unsafe. Emily struggled up the path in her flip flops, but we did finally make it to the top.

A little sweaty after our hike up the hillside

Beach View

Next we went back over to Parque Union and bought a few final touristy mementos for me and then went to the grocery store. I had told Gean Carlo's mother Teresa that I would make dinner for everyone that night, so Emily and I had to go get the cooking supplies. Chinese food, or chifa, is very common around Peru, so I thought I'd try making them some Japanese food: yakisoba. It's a pretty simple stirfry of cabbage, carrots, bok choy, peppers, tofu, ginger, noodles and a few other things. I managed to find everything I needed, including "tofu cheese", as it was labeled. Dinner was a success and fun to prepare and enjoy with everyone. I even got Aaron to help out with peeling the garlic, keeping the work area tidy and helping to put things in the pot. It was reminiscent of my days of teaching the Boys Cooking Club in Vancouver- so fun.

That evening Juan (Gean Carlo's father) arranged for someone down the street to come and pick me up the next morning at about 5:00 am to take me to the airport for my 7:30 am flight back to the USA. Sure enough, he still had to go knock on the guy's door the next morning at about 5:15 to wake him up... Nina, Emily and Juan were all up bright and early to see me off to the airport. Teresa had already assured me in conversation the night before, when I was explaining to her the various "homes" I had in Vancouver, Santa Cruz, Salmon Arm and Montreal, that this could be my home in Peru. What a wonderful family.

Time to get back to my not-so-real real life....