Sunshine in Lima?

Fun Fact No. 17: You can drink the water in Iquitos but not in Lima. Irony upon ironies, in one of the biggest cities in South America, Lima (8 million people, I think), you can´t drink the water from the tap. Well, you can, but it´s not recommended. Iquitos, a tiny city in the middle of the Amazon Basin has perfectly fine water that comes from the Nanay River (one of the cleanest and fastest running rivers) and is heavily chlorinated anyway. If there was anything in it, the chlorine has killed it.

So I got to Lima this morning around 11am and Rudy, one of Lissette´s brothers, picked me up. The plane was supposed to leave Iquitos at 8:15 but of course, it left at 8:50. Iquitos doesn´t have terminals or runways. There is a big room and just like in a Seinfeld episode, they change the podium to read the different airline that is currently leaving. There is one runway that the 7 or 8 flights a day share. Seems to me to be kind of dangerous, but I guess it works. Oh, and you can only get to Lima via plane. Well, you could go by boat and then bus, but that would take you about 3 weeks. The plane ride is only 1.5 hours.

When I got here, it was sunny and 71. Sunny!?!?!?!?! Lima is only ever
A. hazy and overcast
B. hazy and overcast
C. hazy and overcast
Seriously. I was super surprised. It was actually pretty! Almost...

Anyway, Lissette´s parents took me to a vegetarian, organic restaurant for lunch which was pretty thrilling because I don´t think I could eat another bite of chicken. I almost gagged the other day on my lunch I think because I have never eaten this much meat in my LIFE and my body needs a BREAK. Where´s my spinach salad from Mother´s?

After lunch, Dina, Mario Sr.´s wife came over to pick up some stuff I brought for her from Iquitos. The family in Iquitos thinks she´s coming home next week, around Tuesday or Wednesday. Actually, we´re going to surprise them and get back on Saturday (she´s been here in Lima for 4 months for chemotherapy for breast cancer). We spent all afternoon trying to find cheap tickets ($38 instead of $70) and finally, my friend Lilia who works at a hotel in Iquitos, found us two tickets for $48. I couldn´t believe that I was the one who knew someone who could help us out, but thanks to my handy cell phone (!), I gave her a buzz and she worked her magic. Truly miraculous.

Tomorrow I´m going to drive (!) to Pachamarca, which is a little bit outside of Lima and has some of the oldest ruins in Peru. Did I mention that I am going to be driving? Holy crap. I´m quite terrified. We´ll see how this goes. Thursday I´m going to see my friend Beth LaBate who has been in Cusco for the past 10 months and is heading back to Vermont to write her dissertation. That´ll be fun!

Some friends of mine just emailed me about my costume for Halloween. Sadly, Halloween doesn´t mean jack here. It´s a Holy holiday when they carry the Lord of Miracles (El Señor de los Milagros) back to his spot in the main cathedral, but that´s it. No costumes, no make-up, none of that stuff that I LOVE. Oh well...