Vacation

Foreword: I know I have not written in this blog this year like I had planned, but I suffer from a stressful schedule and a severe lack of inspiration.

After working at my newest job for 9 months, I finally have a real vacation. I traveled for a week to Arequipa (1st time) and Puno (2nd time). Now I don't know what to do with myself. I can tell that I have been working a lot because even as I write this I start to type the common phrases that I write about 50 times a day at work (ex. 1st choice), rather than what I actually want to type (1st time).

In short I loved Arequipa. The city is beautiful and the people from Carlos's adolescent past were very heartwarming. Special thanks to Luis Miguel for his vocabulary lesson and sharing his sangre (home-brew pisco) with us and to Linda for the best lunch turned pisco afternoon and evening I have had in a while. It was cool to see Juanita, the frozen Andean girl found in the mountains close to Arequipa as well as the Molino de Sabandia, which reminded me how enjoyable it is to escape into the country. El Convento de Santa Catalina was more than I expected and the view and queso helado at Yanahuara were quite refreshing. I would go back for an extended trip to visit the Colca Canyon, the Cotahuasi Canyon, and Misti as well as Corire, home the the great people I met. For restaurants, El Turko II was excellent (the first ostrich meat I ever tried), El Colibri was adequate and Tradicion Arequipena was representative of Arequipa cuisine. Nothing was as tasty as the fried chicken at 9 pm on Sunday, the final course of our lunch at Linda's house, though we still need to go back for the adobo.

This time around I got a deeper impression of Puno and Lake Titicaca, though I still didn't get to do everything that I wanted due to logistics. Kathy and I made it to Taquile Island and Copacabana on the Bolivian side, though I really feel like I missed out on visiting the Sun Island via catamaran. I give the Bolivians credit for making immigration the easiest and least sketchy border experience thus far -- I'm only missing Colombia and Brazil now. The food at Incabar was delicious as well as the food as Casa Andina Private Collection's restaurant, though Incabar was much more generous for a lower price. Colon Inn was comfortable and their restaurant was good as well. In terms of heat it was fine. One must keep in mind that it is very cold at night in the altiplano and you need to bundle up. Do not forget sunblock during the day, however.

I came back to Lima in time to see Wanted with my sister and Susana. I found it to be very entertaining visually, though it did not take my mind very far. That night there ended up being a party on my terrace and we have almost cleaned up entirely from that. For now as I mentioned I don't know what to do with myself. I am happy to be back in Lima with Carlos and Mapache, though the weather is absolutely depressing which doesn't leave me with much of an urge to go out and do anything.

We'll just have to see what tomorrow brings...

Kathy and Abby’s Great American Adventure

Sometimes I feel like I never have a moment to myself to even reflect on what I have been doing lately, let alone write about it and post it in my blog. I did promise this post about a month ago after I returned from the US.

I had a great time while I was home—I saw some of my really good friends from elementary school, high school, and college—pretty good turnout considering the different places that we encountered each other.

Honestly the trip was too short and I didn’t go with the energy to do everything that I wanted to do—but it was totally worth it. It made me realize again how much I really miss my sister and the adventures we used to have and that is why this will be a tribute to our Great (Mini-) American Adventure in March 2008.

In the original plan I was going to rent a car and go and pick my sis up at the airport—though I forgot (couldn’t find) my driver’s license when I arrived at the airport and I ended up sleeping in at the time she arrived. I promise I really will go to the airport to meet her the next time. When she got to my mom’s house we both just slept in anyway.

I think we had one of my mom’s creations for lunch that day before my mom’s FJ took us to Leominster to go shopping with my sister-in-law. Shopping! I heart TJ Maxx and Target—I took a healthy dose of consumerism that day and updated a couple of phases of my wardrobe. We ended up at the Olive Garden for dinner with my brothers and mom’s FJ. The Olive Garden is something that I tried for the first time in 2006 when my mom and I went to Hershey, PA. It definitely qualifies as one of those restaurants to be featured in a great American adventure – don’t fill up on the breadsticks.

That night we hit my hometown with my siblings—Paisano’s, Singapore… again places like the Olive Garden that I didn’t ever dream of looking forward to. I give credit to the cougars at Singapore and a juicy scorpion bowl.

Then it was Easter Sunday. While my sister-in-law prepared the Easter supper, I discovered the wonders of Guitar Hero. It…is.,.AWESOME! I am almost ready to buy my own PS3 and plastic guitar so that I can master the mean licks and beat Sam at something, muahahaha!

The next day I drove Sam to work in his Chevy truck and went back to the house to chill until Kathy woke up. We took Sam’s truck for a ride—shopping, Dunkin Donuts, running errands…and then dumped it on the train tracks. I mean we parked it at the train station and took the train into Boston (damn that was more expensive than I remembered).

I made an attempt at lomo saltado for dinner for my mom and sister—it was not quite lomo saltado but it had a good flavor.

The next day it was my task to shove all my purchases and other treasures into my duffel bags so that I could come back to Peru.

I would like to go back for a longer stay sometime, though I’m not quite sure that is going to be. My sister is coming to Lima for some weeks during her summer break (yay!) and I am getting everything prepared for Kathy and Abby’s Great Peruvian Adventure.