Peru our first two weeks (A little Culture Shock)

Ok, ok, ok time to talk about our first two weeks in Peru!

On Tuesday (October 14th) we woke up bright and early to finish up packing, and cleaning before we had to leave for the airport. I felt a lot of anxiety leaving our house for two months; I hope its okay. Are my plants alive? Did my sister remember to take out the pulled pork and milk we left in the fridge? Did the spiders finally win and create a web in every nook and corner? I should probably just call my sister... moving on!

It was a long day of traveling once we reached the airport. We had about a two hour flight to Texas than an hour layover before we caught our almost seven hour flight to Lima. The traveling was a mixture of could have been worse, and could have been better. The in-flight entertainment was awesome having a lot of new movies out. I finally got to see How to Train Your Dragon 2, the new planet of the apes movie, and I even indulged in watching Bears (the documentary).

 The rough part of the traveling was of course having a baby. He did pretty well, and cried very little. The hard part was that the bassinet we requested was rather sub par. It ended up being a mat/bag thing that we placed at our feet. It was too small for our wiggly baby, and the fact that the lights never went out made it hard for Wrenn to realize he was supposed to sleep in the make shift contraption we kept putting him in. So sadly for him, and me, he had small cat naps in my arms when he would doze off from nursing. They never lasted very long, and they definitely weren't comfortable for either of us.

But we made it! We got off that plane and I then took my first steps on foreign soil. I suspected some sort of euphoria or disbelief, but I was just tired and ready to get me and my baby to sleep. We went through customs and Nathan tried to talk to the lady in Spanish, and it didn't seem like she quite understood him. We have discovered that his accent is hard to understand, and we are hoping this trip will help with that.

We then got a taxi and made our way to where we will be staying for the next two months. The taxi ride was interesting, and maybe a little terrifying. I quickly discovered that traffic laws/driving styles are completely different here in Peru than in the States. Those lines we love to follow on the roads, that create those safe lanes we like to enjoy; well those don't carry any importance here. Cars are all over the place and there is a feel of any man, or woman, for themselves. I'm not sure how it even works but it does, and we made it to our apartment.

And here it is! I took some photos the other day after I had cleaned. The kitchen isn't clean. I'm not sure how much it will ever be clean. Its really hard to do dishes when you only have a small amount of hot water, and a small area to dry those dishes. Anyways I digress...

 View from front door.

 View from slider/deck.

 Close up on our dining table.

 Both my boys hard at work.

 Our deck overlooking the street.

 Hallway leading to bedrooms and bathrooms.

 The guest bathroom that we shower in because the water is slightly warmer for some reason.

 Baby's bedroom.

 Our Bedroom.

 Our bathroom.

 The Kitchen.

 A little area behind the kitchen. Has another bathroom we never use.

 A patio in the back with our washer and dryer. And a place to hang clothes, but its so humid here it takes forever to dry.

Our little patio & the view when looking up from it.

Well that's our place! We are pretty pleased with it. We were really excited coming in our first night and seeing how nice it was. Nathan's first comment as we both happily explored was, "I think we over-payed for housing." Meaning we definitely didn't need this nice of a place. We like it though and we have been enjoying it. A few things that have been a little hard is that the kitchen is strangely equipped. We have like three forks and fifteen plates, eight spoons and two bowls. No casserole dishes and five frying pans and five pots. Also there is no measuring utensils of any kind so I am having to guesstimate a lot. Another weird thing about our place, and Peru in general, is you have to throw away your toilet paper, and you have to boil your water because tap water isn't safe to drink, so that has taken some getting used to. I also don't love how humid it is here. The floors feel kind of sticky, our clothes and sheets kind of damp, and our towels NEVER dry. It's really weird for me and I can't say that my hair fairs well either. 

The next couple days were getting everything set up. We unpacked, unloaded, went and got cash, turned that cash into soles (Peruvian money), bought a prepaid phone, bought groceries, and got acquainted with our neighborhood. 

A little about the area we are living in. We are living in Miraflores which is one of the wealthiest parts of Lima. It feels very safe here; there are lots of people around, including tourists. There are also a lot of officials around. I think their main purpose is help to direct traffic to make it easier for pedestrians to get around safely, because like I said before driving here is pretty crazy.

We live about a 5 minute walk from the grocery store which is fantastic! It's close proximity alleviated my fears about having a to take a taxi to grocery shopping, which just sounded like a pain. There are also produce vendors all around, at which we bought an avocado once for 7 soles.. which is like 3 dollars, we are still not sure where Nathan's bartering brain was that day. 

We also live fairly close to the ocean. We were excited about going to the beach frequently until, upon investigation, we realized the beach was a little further away and rockier than we realized. Here are some pictures.

 See those cliffs? Yeah you have to find a way down them to get to the beach.

The rocky beach below.

While we didn't make it down to the beach that day we did explore the shopping mall overlooking the beach. Strangely the shopping mall was very American, and we didn't find any of the shops enticing. We were both like, why go to Peru to shop at Banana Republic? So while we didn't go shopping there the views were spectacular and there was a cool shop that had Peruvian women weaving something.

Also in our neighborhood are a lot of fun places to eat. On our first day here we enjoyed some classic Peruvian food...

 Nathan excited for Peruvian food!

The Papa a la Haucaina (the yellow potatoes) are a classic Peruvian dish that taste something like a spicy potato salad. The Chicha Morada (the purple drink) is a sweet drink made at least in part from boiling purple corn.

 Bistec a lo Pobre & Pollo a lo pobre. A very popular and basic combination down here is a meat (chicken or steak in this scenario), rice, and fries. You mash them all together and they become a delicious combination.

We have also tried a few other Peruvian foods, I forgot to take pictures so these are from online...

These are granadillas, a peruvian passion fruit. They look like alien brains, but taste like a a candy jelly. They were a little weird but not bad.

This is Turron de Dona Pepa. Basically a heavy pastry that isn't super sweet but the syrup makes it more so. The jawbreaker candies on top take some getting used to.

This soda is also a Peruvian classic that was created in Peru. It is quite yummy and smells like bubble gum.

Well after the first few days of trying all these fun new foods I got travelers sickness. Which killed my enthusiasm for about a week. That was a rough week because after feeling sick and gross for a few days all I wanted was good old fashioned American comfort food. I first looked to pizza, and we ordered some Dominos, well it definitely didn't taste like it does in the States, the sauce was sweet. Then I tried pre-made pizza in the store, also funky. Then we bought Doritos and salsa. Also terrible and weird. Also milk (which is a big comfort food for me) tastes different, and I cant quite wrap my taste buds around the ultra creamy fresh taste. I felt really homesick realizing I wouldn't be able to find the processed comfort foods I enjoy so much. Except Mac N Cheese and Ramen Noodles those taste the same, so yay for that. 

Another thing that has been hard food wise, is that there just isn't the same variety of food in the grocery stores. I have started to have to think very creatively on what I can make with what I am provided down here. The thing I miss the most is cheese. I don't know very much about European cheeses I get overwhelmed at the cheese counter and really miss my colby jack, cheddar and pepper jack. So I have now bought myself a Peruvian cook book and I'm hoping I can figure out how to feed us down here.

Anyways after I got over my desperate search for Americanized food I calmed down, and started to enjoy some Peruvian food once again. We went to this restaurant in Barranco (a neighborhood next to ours) that was really good. Pictured below:

 I got a Peruvian Taco which was amazing.

 Nathan tried ceviche! He got a fancy kind which had all different types of seafood: Crab, shrimp, fish, clam, scallop, and octopus. Ceviche is a popular dish where raw fish is soaked in lemon juice supposedly cooking it. I was too scared to try it.

Also in Barranco we ran across this contemporary art gallery. It had some amazing pieces. In one section it had a lot of optical illusion type pieces, and in another part it featured the the South American artist Oswaldo Vigas. There were also some other interesting contemporary pieces we enjoyed. Here are some of my favorite pieces from that museum.

Another fun experience that we have had down here was seeing a procession. In Latin American cultures saints are an important part of their worship, and one of the ways they honor them is parading idols of these saints through the street. In Lima they have a painting they refer to as the Lord of Miracles which is like a guardian to their city. It is a painting of the Savior on the cross. The story behind this painting is that it was painted on a wall, and a while ago when an earthquake struck much of Lima was destroyed but the wall which this painting was on did not fall. It was proclaimed a Miracle. Here are some photos.

It was quite the gathering with lots of people, vendors, and street performers.

 This was a chalk drawing. There were a few different ones, but this was my favorite.

 We kept waiting for the monkey to perform, but he was taking too long.

 We met this lady on the metro (A mixture between a bus and a subway), she helped us find the procession and navigate the crowds. She was very nice.

 A beautiful church we saw on the way there.

 As part of the procession people would create designs on the ground with sand, or flower petals. The procession would then walk over them.

 Baby & Nathan pretty excited!

 These men in suits were waiting their turn to carry the idol. The painting is extremely heavy, so they  had a new group of men to carry it ever 20 feet or so. When they did carry it they would put on a purple robe over their suits.

 The saint's color is purple.

 Here were the city's fire fighters and their tribute design for the procession.

 We were finally able to track down the actual procession, and it was pretty crowded. We were a little surprised when men started pushing back the crowd with ropes to make room for the procession. We all got a little squished; baby who was sleeping before this happened was not happy.

Here are the purple robes I mentioned earlier.

 Then the actual painting showed up. There were woman in shawls by it that were burning incense.

This is a video of the procession. I was hoping to catch the people as they were praying/singing, but I wasn't so lucky.

After seeing the procession we headed home back on the crowded metro. Enjoying some Peruvian street art along the way.

The procession was a fun experience, and it was fascinating to see Peruvian culture up close. I was however happy to do my own form of worship last Saturday and visit the Lima, Peru temple. It was very busy with people traveling down from Trujillo, so the temple gave them preference with sessions and we weren't able to do one that day, but we have plans to go back this week, but not on a Saturday this time.

Then yesterday we went to church for the second time in our ward. It was fun because it seems like we are starting to make friends. We have dinner plans with one couple on Friday, and we are going to a sister's birthday party on Wednesday. We are really excited because what way is better to experience Peruvian culture then to have Peruvian friends?  Here is a picture of our church. I took a photo because besides BYU I have never met for church anywhere besides the typical Utah chapel.

After church and naps yesterday we decided to go check out the parque del amor (Park of Love) and finally descend the cliff to check out the rocky beach below.

This is the statue the park is named after; I think all the couples there are a factor as well. I thought Nathan and baby posing in front of the statue was a bit weird, but funny.

That brings us to today where I spent most of my time on this blog post. We are enjoying ourselves in Peru and its amazing how it already feels like home after only a couple weeks. Much of our routine is still the same Nathan works, baby plays, I do housework. In the evenings we watch TV, hang out, and put baby to bed.

 We are all learning, growing, and looking forward to more adventures. Wrenn's latest trick is he loves sticking his tongue out.

We will keep you updated as we experience more things. Until then know we are safe and having fun!