Exhaustion

I never knew how much being able to sleep in moving vehicles was beneficial to ones health. After not being able to sleep on either on of my flights I arrived to Lima at 4:30 am absolutely exhausted. My voice was completely shot since I hadn't really spoken to anyone since the 2 Jersey brothers in the Mimi Airport about 6 hours before. Waiting for my luggage/ bolso/equipaje felt like the longest experience of the entire trip most likely because the exhaustion had set in by that point. I then had to go through the corrals of people to customs and press a big red button that decided whether or not I got to put my suitcases through the xray machines again. I guess it was all luck whether or not you got to go through this extra hoop to get into the country. I was a little worried about the cheese that I was bringing Cherry because i was supposed to claim any agricultural goods.. no idea if that actually count or not but I was just going to play stupid and just give up my cheese if they really wanted it. I kind of lucked out though because they were more focused on the man in front of me with a 100 lb suitcase. So sat in the Lima airport with way too much luggage and standing out like a sore thumb as the tall gringa wearing red, I waited for Kevin's friend Richard who was coming to take me to the bus station.

I had no idea what was ahead of me at this point. I was just happy to have all of my luggage and really excited that my phone actually worked down here so that if I needed to I could call Richard. I ended up sitting down next to a taxi driver that spoke zero English and kept giving me the strangest looks when we tried to talk to each other. I REALLY NEED TO LEARN SOME SPANISH!! or well I really want to learn some spanish. After Richard shows up a sigh of relief comes over me and I feel so much better about being in this strange country where I am the outsider with a huge language barrier. Richard takes me to the bus station and waits with me for 2 and a half hours, which was more than he was supposed to do. We exchange parts of our life stories while we are waiting and I say goodbye to Richard as my new amigo and make my way to the door of the bus 10 minutes before we are supposed to set off.

As I'm making my way down to the door a man from the balcony starts yelling at me in Spanish telling me that I need to check my other bag because it is too big to go on the bus with me. Oooo I have such great luck with buses. As Richard is trying to sort out my bag and exchanging money so that I could pay for the extra bag, the woman at the front starts calling my name as the last call to load the bus. I try to explain that the guy that took my bag has my ticket and that I don't speak any Spanish. Luckily one of the men spoke English and they were going to wait for me.

FIRST CLASS!!!!!!!! I absolutely at this point love Kevin for booking me a first class ticket on the Cruz Del Sur. There are huge leather seats that almost completely fold down and have a foot rest that comes down to make a bed. I have never done anything first class in my life, but I have never been so thankful for having to pay extra money for the nice accommodations in life. I finally get to sleep!! I slept through Spanish Madagascar 2.. the voice overs for that movie were hilarious btw. Slept through part of some movie about a Greek Travel guide that finds her fun self on her supposed last tour... the girl from My Big Fat Greek Wedding was in it. Slept through some of The Pursuit of Happiness... Slept through part of What happens in Vegas. OOOO my gosh the voice overs for Ashton Kutcher and Cameron Diaz were hilarious!!! It was kind of hard to watch without laughing..

I think God woke me up about 2 hours north of Lima to see the coast of Peru at its finest. To the left of me crashing waves, gorgeous blue seas, and the cliffs that could battle the Californian coast. To the right of me there were miles of sand dunes that came right up to the side of the highway. Overall, the bus ride was ridiculously long but it was a good experience as far as 10 hour bus rides go. Lots of movies, an amazingly comfortable seat, a fun steward that knew English, a game of Bingo, and a man and his mother that lived in San Jose, CA but were from Chiclayo and going back to visit. They started asking me why in the world I was coming to Pacasmayo, but then told me that is was a nice place and even wished me good luck as I left the bus.

At about 6:30 I kind of started worrying that I had missed my stop though. Santiago hadn't been in to check on us in a while and I saw a building with Pacasmayo written on it about a half in hour back. The signage is very confusing and lacking on the highways so I was just on the mercy of Santiago to come get me when I was supposed to get off the bus. He did.. :-) I probably shouldn't have worried.

To greet me in Pacasmayo was Cherry, Fred, and Kevin waiting with a big hug and plans to go to the pastors new Mexican restaurant for dinner. We drove down some back ally roads and ended in a somewhat secluded street where this restaurant was going to be... Unknown to me was that most restaurants don't even open until 8 or 9 so the streets weren’t really busy yet for a reason. Exhaustion at this point was being taken over by adrenaline and food but still very apparent that I wasn't really feeling myself. We finally called it a night and drove back to the orphanage for my very brief tour and a cup of tea at Cherry and Jan's as they told me about some of the happenings here. I make it back to my fabulous apartment.. that right now looks like somewhat like how I imagine a convent dorm. Barren walls, barren floors, little furniture, and very outdated bed covers. At some point I will try and make it look more like home but for now it’s just fine.

Minimalistic might be just what I need right now. I have been on the go for the past year and need to take some time to relax...I am definitely an easy going person but I definitely need to be active and thriving. .. more about the circus and the Lions tomorrow... Still exhausted!