First Day in Lima, Peru

Chinese Version
11-17-2023, Friday, Sunny and Cloudy

Hi Eileen and Qingzi,

Thanks for arranging the trip for me, I enjoyed my first day in Lima very much! I met five people and had a great experience with them.

The first: the driver who picked me up

The flight was about an hour later than the scheduled time, right after I got out of customs, I saw a lady with a “CostSaveer” sign and she drove me to the hotel, which is about 20 km, which took her more than 40 minutes as the traffic was bad.

While driving, we chatted about her family, COVID, and Peru. She is a freelancer and has two daughters are 12 and 13. They play volleyball at school, which is far from their home, so the girls need to take a public bus to school daily and school time is 7:30 to 2:00. She went to a special language school to learn English and she speaks very good American English. COVID hit Peru badly, one of her relatives, very health, over 80 years old, passed away during the delta wave of COVID. Her family of four all got three doses of Pfizer. Her husband and one of their daughters had fever when they were positive, but she and another daughter had no symptoms. She grew up in a Catholic family, but she doesn’t practice in religion now, both of her daughters have no religion at all. She told me the popular sports in Peru are soccer and volleyball. Peru has more than ten parties, three are strong parties, there is an election every five years. She introduced two local dishes to me, one is potato, another is beef. She said she cooks them at home but not as good as the restaurant.

The second: Edduar, the waiter

The waiter who suggested both the cocktail and the main dish for me. Passion fruit cocktail and Ceviche tradic (raw fish marinated in lemon juice). I liked the cocktail.

The third and the fourth: Barbel and Henry, a couple from Borken

The couple sat on the next table, they asked about my Cevishe tradic, then Barbel suggested I have before and after meal photos, so her husband took the photos for me. After I finished my meal I described to them how I felt about the raw fish: I only felt the tender texture of raw meat without flavor, as the lemon and onion are strong, covering the fish taste, unlike sushi raw fish which is delicious.

As they drank beer, I was having cocktail, and the alcohol made us very chatty. I told them I have two grandchildren and I am on vacation from them (as Eileen taught me). I showed them both Ben and Meimei’s photo. Then Henry showed me photos of their family (30s son, pursuing a master degree, with his girlfriend, 28s daughter, physical therapy like her mother, with her boy friend, 20s daughter, a dog trainer, with her girlfriend and their golden retriever), his late father, his mother in nursery, and his older brother and younger sister,

Both of them came form families with three siblings, each side family in their generations have total eight children. Barbel is part time physical therapist and Henry is a handyman for plumbing. They have been retried for three years, and have traveled to many places.

This is their 18-day private tour trip with a guide for just the two of them.

At the end, we had desserts together, and exchanged email and want to keep in touch happily like children. Then, Henry said that he was a CEO for over a thousand people company; he worked 7 days a week for almost 40 years and never had the time to take care of their children; while working, he never told anyone about his family. I told him that one of my daughter’s professors also said that he started to tell little life stories in the class after he was 70 years old.

I told them I am a blogger, and I worked at eBay during its early stage.

The fifth: Daniel, the taxi driver

The taxi driver who drove me to the Magic Water Circuit. He asked for S40 of the local currency to drive me there, I bargained it down to S35. Then he offered to wait for me there for an hour, but don’t charge me for the hour, then send me back to the hotel.

He doesn’t speak English, so he talk to google translator then I read the English text version to understand him.

One the way back, he talked a lot and passed the English text version to me. It is about the national soccer stadium. I was confused, but he was very insistent on telling me and pointing to a building next to the circuit. Finally I realized he want to me to see the national soccer stadium. I immediately looked back at the the national soccer stadium big building in the dark and said thanks!

For the back trip, I gave him S42, S7 as his tip, and he was very happy. He then told me his name is Daniel.

Little Episodes

1. My lunch time.
Edduar, the waiter: