Off to Cuzco

Well, I am sorry about my lack-age of photos, but they take F O R E V E R to upload, but I promise I'll get some up.

Today we went on a tour of Lima, the city is beautiful. Lots of bright colored buildings and such. We got to ride on one of those double decker buses and i must say, Ryne, Julie, and I were very excited. We also got a tour of the catacombs beneath the church of San Francisco (That's Saint Francisco for you english-speakers, not California, lol) Bones. Interesting lol.

We had lunch and then I took a nap for about 3 hours, it was pretty nice. We woke up and did a little shopping and then went to dinner and to get ice cream
:) yummmmmy

we came back and i got all ready for bed and here i am. we have a cab picking us up at 3:30 this morning to go to the airport.
ridiculous, right?
my plane leaves for cuzco at 6:05.

pray for safe travels!

i love and miss you all.


hugs for all, kisses for some :)



adios


jordan

Sorry, I'm American

Ran around Lima all day! Was fun, though. Lima is located on the Pacific coast and is the 5th largest city in Latin America, with a population of 5 million. There are about 27 (?) sectors (kind of like new york's burroughs) and we stayed in Miraflores (which literally translated to "look at the flowers") It's beautiful, but mostly just like a city in the US, so no major culture shock yet. We saw the Pacific coast and the beautiful parks nearby. We also went to Larco Mar, which is kind of an outdoor mall. We went to lunch and everybody picked off of everyone elses plates, but my 2 favorite things were the Ceviche (raw fish that is cooked by lemon juice so that the bacteria is killed) and the Avocado stuffed with chicken. With our lunch, most of us drank Chicha Morada, which is a traditional drink of purple corn juice. It was... interesting, lol. I had a nice nap here in the hotel we are in for tonight and tomorrow night. (It is technically a hostal, but there are separate rooms and stuff, we needed something cheap) After our nap we went back to Larco Mar to get gelato and then to dinner. After dinner we went to Son de Cuba which is a salsa dancing club type thing, because they have a live band that is actually from Cuba and Cornforth said that they are amazing. So we wait for them because a server said they go on at 11:30. It was 10. We wait an hour and a half only to find out that they only play Tuesdays through Saturdays. So we come back to the hotel/hostal and here I am.

Overall today was good. I got to practice my Spanish a little and had quite a few near-death experiences with the traffic here, lol. The taxi ride home tonight was definitely the most interesting. Got it on video :) But we cannot forget about the abnormal amount of couples all over each other here, too.

Lima's coast at sunset was absolutely beautiful. I have no idea how to explain it. You just have to trust me on this one.



Oh yeah, if you guys want more blogs from this trip, there are:
www.jimmiabroadinperu.blogspot.com
&
www.welovellamasinperu.blogspot.com



So my camera dies halfway through the day, so a lot of my pics are stolen from Cornforth, but oh well. And I will try to keep these organized.

1. Wes and I in the Houston airport before we left
2. Our first ride in Peru! Sunday night
3. The front of La Castellana
4. Us at the coast in Lima








i was going to upload more but im tired & blogspot is being retarded. it's 1:30 am. blech. more tomorrow.



Tomorrow we are doing some tour of the city on a bus. I'm not sure what all it includes, but I do know it includes the catacombs beneath the city. Scary! I think we are also going to try to go to the museum of anthropology. Interesting, right? Pictures tomorrow :)

Broke Travelers in Lima

No flights to Cuzco today.
There were 5 seats for tomorrow for $350 a piece (no thanks)
And there are 7 seats for us scheduled at 6:05 am on the 31st, all for only a low low price of about $229. BLECH. All the while, since we are stuck in Lima, we have to pay for our meals, AND hotel. Yeah.... we're broke.

I'll probably have pictures later. Couldn't really take any in the dark last night and airports didn't have that much to share.



jordan

Finally to Peru

So the lady in Houston did all she could to fix our flight or find us a flight for tomorrow, but there is no way to book us flights online. Cornforth will have to go to the airport at 4 this morning to try and book us flights. What will most likely happen is that we will have to split up. darn.

Okay, so I got to sit by Wes, which was interesting. And I got a window seat! yay! So, to spend my 6 and 1/2 hours, I watched an episode of Without A Trace & The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, listened to a playlist Patrick made me, and ate. Towards the end Wes and I talked, which was interesting. I learned the signs for morening, night, turkey, sandwich, and taco! lol

We then went through the immigration check thingy and that was easy, then got our baggage and my suitcase had some sort of unmentionable substance on it, but oh well.

Then we went to customs.

So it was easy until all you have to do is push a button.
Easy, right?
Not.
Of course it was my turn when the light went red.
So I go over and put my bags through and x-ray thingy. They really didn't seem that concerned, but still. MY luck.

Then we see the sign that says "Jimny" and follow our pickup guy, Ruben, to our bus. We proceed to drive through Lima, which included many casinos and KFCs. But Now I am in Miraflores, which is a section of Lima, and it's beautiful. We are really close to the Pacific coast and also to the Plaza Central. Its in the 70s right now, and pretty humid. But better than what I've heard about Oklahoma right about now, lol.

My hotel is La Castellano, and it is small and quaint, but not scary in any way. I feel very safe. It's cute.

So yeah, pray for us that we can catch a flight to Cuzco in the morning, cause if we make the 5ish flight, we'll make it to Cuzco by 7 and not miss any of our school.




I wouldn't be too upset with being stuck here, though :)


hugs hugs hugs

& kisses for a select few :)


jordan

oh and one more thing:

We won't make it to our flight originally scheduled for tomorrow from Lima to Cuzco at noon because we won't leave Houston until 3:55, and the LAN (airline in Peru) flight is non-refundable. So now I have to buy a one-way ticket to Cuzco. Lame.

jordan


UPDATE!

we found out that the airline that interrupted our service is supposed to be responsible for fixing everything, so cornforth is at the airport now trying to fix it. cross your fingers!

My first day as a world traveler

First off, instead of Miraflores, Lima, Peru, I'm stuck in Houston, Texas, USA

My day started at 4:40 am when I got up to start my adventure. The drive to Dallas went smoothly and we arrived in plenty of time for our 11:40 flight to Houston. As soon as we(we as in Cornforth, Ryne, Julie, Wes, and I) arrived, we heard of flight delays from Houston because of weather, and found out that our departure wasn’t going to be until around 1:40. We also found out that Dr. Plumb and Corey were still in Dallas because of flight delays, and their planned departure was 10:30. The other two, Heather and Debra, made it out of Dallas without any delays around 8 this morning. So we walked and ate and waited and waited and finally got onto the plane around 2:30ish. (Dr. Plumb and Corey got on theirs around1:30) So after getting on our plane, we don’t actually take off until about an hour later because of the fact that the Dallas airport is retarded and only had 2 out of 8 runways open.

And then comes Jordan’s first flight.

I sat next to a really old lady with paper thin skin who was very overdone. She had huge rings and earrings and a jeweled bag. Don’t let me forget about her false eyelashes. But she was nice, nevertheless. The flight was okay. Nothing too amazing, but I wasn’t terrified or anything. We were kept in a holding pattern for about 20 minutes because of continuous bad weather in Houston. We arrived in Houston around 4:30 (our flight out of Houston was scheduled for 3:55) When we land I talk to Cornforth and find out that our flight was boarding, because they had been “unofficially waiting” for us. So first off the people won’t let us off of the plane because all of the bags have to get off first, so we wait and wait and then we run.

And run.

And run.

I'm talking sweating here.

All the way across the Houston airport only to find out that our flight is gone.

Gone.

G O N E.

We go to Customer service to find out that there are no more flights tonight. We got hotel and meal vouchers for the night. Luckily our luggage was still here and as I type we are waiting to retrieve it, (although I have no need for mine because of the wonderful advice of Beth Ward and my extra set of clothes in my carry on)

So anyways, as soon as I get to the hotel I will post this into my blog and hopefully I can talk to some of you guys or something.

Leave comments and stuff

jordan