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Long Travel Day

I arrived on the northern coast of Peru today after a long trip that began very early on Friday morning. The red-eye flight out of Miami got me to Lima at 6 AM local time. Without much trouble at all I was through customs and had my bags checked for the last leg of the flight. I sat next to a lady named Elva, who I practiced my limited and rusty spanish with. She was so friendly and talkative. The flight wasn't a good chance to see anything of Peru, because it was so cloudy. Someone from the Naval Postgraduate School met me at the Trujillo airport, and I was pleased to see he had a driver and van with him. That made it easy to get my pile of gear into town.

Upon Scott's advice, I decided to stay in town tonight, and board the USNS Comfort on Sunday. The idea for that is that a month on the ship is going to be a long time, so might as well enjoy a night ashore while I can. The hotel I had a reservation for couldn't find it, and was full, so our driver took me to another place. The town is quite full because of the ship being here, so I was glad to get the little room I did. Scott and I went out for lunch, and it was a good chance to ask some questions about his work on the mission. He's been with the ship for a month, and his heading back to the US tonight.

It's winter here, and we're about 8 degrees south of the equator. I wasn't going to, but at the last minute I threw a light jacket in my bag, and I'm glad I did. After a hot shower and a nap, I went out this evening to find something to eat. I tried a local soup, sopa a la criolla, a wholesome soup containing beef, noodles, milk, and egg, and tomatoes. I've enjoyed a couple bottles of agua con gas, or mineral water. For lunch I was really hoping to get some ceviche de camarones, but the place was out of camarones. I'll try again in Ecuador.

Posted by David at August 11, 2007 06:36 PM