Lima, Peru

Craig found a nice little apartment a block away from the beach in Barranco, Peru ... which is kind of like the bohemian/hippi district.  We're super close to Mira Flores though.  That is were Larco Mar is.  Larco Mar is this huge outdoor mall with lots of good eats.  It's right on the beach and a really fun place to go.  This is the inside of our apartment here:

Kitchen bar, Livingroom

Living room.

Mini Kitchen.

Bedroom.

It's a nice place.  I like it a lot ... and I'd better because I'm stuck here Mon-Thurs. while Craig is at work.  I spend my time cleaning, reading, exercising, making snacks, sleeping, and watching anything i can find that is in english on the flatsceen in the bedroom.  Mostly it's pretty relaxing.  I didn't realize that I could sleep in until 10:30am on a regular basis until now since  I don't have kids sleeping in my bed and waking me up at 7am telling me that it's time to make them breakfast.

Looks like I won't be updating very many pictures at a time even though I've already taken a TON.  Maybe I'll have to use facebook or something.  It takes hours to upload even a few so be patient with me.  

I love it when Craig comes home because that's when we play.  The first full day that I was here Craig's afternoon apt. got canceled so we got to do all sorts of fun things the rest of day.  We went to Larco Mar and ate at Mango's.  The food is AMAZING here.  Limean cuisine is known to be among the best in the world, and the city is known as the Gastronomical Capital of the Americas. Lima's gastronomy is a mix of Spanish,Andean, and Asian culinary traditions.  We also visited The Gold Museum and Jockey Plaza.  The Gold Museum was very interesting.  Although I only snagged 1 picture because they told us that photography wasn't allowed.  Jockey Plaza was super packed.  Peru's economy must be doing well because there were lots of people there buying.  Jockey Plaza is the largest indoor/outdoor mall I have ever been to and it was also the most packed I have ever seen a mall ... that includes the day after thanksgiving shopping.  It was crazy there. We walked around for a bit and got a hot chocolate to share.  It's winter here and it's cold.  Not super cold but because it's so humid it feels colder than it really is.  It's probably 60's-70's most days...jacket weather.  It was a really fun first day.  Craig made it really fun.  It's so good to see him again and be with him.  I can tell he missed me because he always wants to be close and hold my hand and kiss my head and hug me.  It's nice to feel loved.

Us together at Larco Mar.  

This was the view from Mango's Restaurant.

Craig at the gold museum.  We saw lots of really interesting artifacts ... Indiana Jones style.  Unfortunetly we were not allowed to take pictures there.  This was the only one we got.

Jockey Plaza.  This place was huge.  I guess I shouldn't be suprized..Lima is the 5th largest city in the Latin Americas with around 9 milliion residents.  That's bigger than New York City!

Craig is enjoying his job.  He is working  with a Thunderbird organization called Thunderbird for Good.  There are 4 other interns along with Craig.  They help women entreprenuers here in Peru to better their businesses.  It's a feel good job.

I'll try to do another post tomorrow on our extremely cool weekend...  until then we are safe and are loving Peru.  

By the way,  I am getting used to constantly sanitizing my hands, putting the tp in the trash instead of the toilet, and the CRAZY taxi drivers here.  They don't use blinkers, stay on the roads, stay in their lane, they honk their horn and pass through intersections instead of stopping at stop signs.  I risk my life on a daily basis by riding them ... but they seem to know that they are doing.  I haven't seen 1 accident yet.