Interesting title I know… but bear with me until I get to that story.

Whenever I am not at home, ie. college, vacation, a friend’s house, I always wake up super super early the first few days I am there. This was no exception. I woke up at around 6:30 or 7 (I don’t remember). I didn’t get up though, mainly because I didn’t want to wake any of my three roommates nor did I know how to get out of my bed.

Once my roommates had gotten up and gone downstairs, I basically cannonballed off of my bed (which really hurt) tumbled on the ground and made my way downstairs as well.

 

Breakfast that day (and every day) consists of bread and marmalade (Peru is known for their Marmalade and it’s amazing!), and a variety of exotic fruits.

After Breakfast, all of the new girls (Marissa, Annie, Skylar, Tressia, and myself) along with Leo and Clara made our way to Plaza San Miguel to exchange money and make ourselves acquainted with the plaza since we would spend quite a bit of time and money there.

We made it back just in time for lunch which was a really yummy pasta salad, rice, and a salad. If you think that’s a ton of carbs you should wait for every other meal (everyone always complains and I just think it’s annoying).

 

After lunch, all of the new girls squeezed ourselves into a taxi and headed to Miraflores (a very touristy area on a cliff displaying the Pacific Ocean in all of its glory). In Miraflores, we walked along Parque Kennedy, which is named after President JFK. This park is full of stray cats just walking around and doing their thing. The urge to pet them was so real, yet we didn’t because A. who knows what they had on/in them and B. they were quite skiddish around humans (no doubt due to some little kids trying to yank their tails).

By this time, the five of us had all opened up about being nervous the night before and for the same reasons. We had talked about families, friends, past trips, so many things and we were really getting comfortable around each other.

By the time we had finished telling stories, we were at Larcomar, a shopping center with about the same sorts of stores that the Panama airport had. There we walked around, took pictures of the coast, talked with some locals etc.

Some of the other girls in the house had told us about this Incan Market that was by Miraflores. Marissa wanted a bag, I wanted to look around and see the colors, and the other girls didn’t have a preference of what we were doing so… after a 25-minute walk or so we made it to the Incan market. The market was full of colored bracelets, bags, sweatshirts and more, alpaca blankets were displayed on every wall, and so many hand-carved trinkets. It was such a sight to see and while I didn’t buy anything that day (I didn’t want to lose anything) I will definitely make my way back to the Incan Market later in my trip to get some goodies.

After Marissa bartered for a bag and we had scanned the entire market, we hailed a taxi and were on our way back to the volunteer house.

After dinner,  seven of the eight people who hadn’t gone out of town for the weekend decided to go to Miraflores to go clubbing. Well, the three older people (the 4 new girls were exhausted but we wanted to see what clubbing in Peru would be like… so we tagged along). Apparently buying alcohol in bars and clubs in Peru is just as expensive as the States, but buying bottled liquor is much cheaper so we walked to a local grocery store and came out with 2 bottles of $4 vodka, a knock off orange juice, and plastic cups.

We took a cab to Miraflores(where most of the nightlife happens) and started passing out the mixed drinks. (PS I am legal here so it’s all good). When our drinks were being poured and distributed, I had the pleasure of being the first sip. It tasted like cough medicine that your parents have to force down your throat when you’re little. But we had a lot of it to drink so we shoved it down our throats.

After we finished our drinks (well Marisa hid the vodka bottle in a bush), we got to the club. At the club, they played a variety of English and Spanish music and had an insane amount of flashing strobes. it was nothing too fancy, but it was nice to be able to check out the party scene of Peru.

I got home with 2 of the other girls at around 230 that morning and immediately passed out in bed, and the other 4 didn’t get home until 5. Nevertheless, we were up at 730 to explore Lima some more.

Sunday was a lot more laid back. We took a taxi to Barranco, a less touristy, more local city by the ocean. There we found a cute cafe and Skylar had her first acai bowl, and there was a very very cute Colombian barista who complimented my Spanish speaking abilities.

We got lunch in Barranco after walking along the beach for a bit. For lunch, I got grilled veggies and rice, and tried Sangria for the first time. It was good but definitely not my favorite drink in the world.

After lunch, we went to this little sort of Farmer’s Market, called Feria, which had clothes, food, soaps, cosmetic products, and just anything you could think of. We didn’t buy anything there but looking around was really nice. A few of the booths even had fake Kylie lip kits, which I thought was rather funny.

After walking around all day in the scorching heat, we needed something sweet. We found this little gelateria called Blu, which had a line wrapped around the entire block, which made us sure it had to be good. They also had sorbet (vegan!) so I was able to indulge in an amazing banana mango mixture that was absolutely heavenly.

We ate our gelato/sorbet in a park in Barranco which was filled with cute puppies and live music, an A+ on all ends if you ask me.

We finally made it back to the volunteer house, ate dinner, showered, and promptly fell asleep, awaiting what was to come n the following four weeks.

Alicia