Saturday, Aug. 16, 2003 - 8:51 p.m.
August 15th (Friday) we took a bus to Lima. It was about 8 hours and no bathroom on the bus! We also had no air conditioning either and it was a hot and dry day.
We slowly decended from the mountains to reach sea level at last. We also had a 30 minute stop to have lunch and use the banos.
Arriving in Lima at about 6pm, we caught a cab and went to the Hotel Espana where Penny said she was staying. Unfortunately, once we checked in, I learned she and her friend Nick (who she met in Lima and will be traveling with for about 3 weeks) checked out this morning. The front desk couldn't tell me where they were going to. Later I checked my e-mail at the hotel and read a message from Penny saying they were headed off to Huaraz that day! I realized that we must have missed each other in transit. I sent a reply, telling her what I suggested seeing in Huarez and that I hope we can meet up later, perhaps in Cuzco. Then I felt cold icy hands placed on my neck as I stared at the computer screen. Turning around suddenly, who should I see but Penny! And she was with her friend Nick. After a hug and exlamations of surprise I learned that they planned to take a night bus to Huarez that evening. We only had a few minutes to chat before we had to go our separate ways. She also told me about her problems with her bank card (hers was *destroyed* by an ATM) and getting counterfeit bills.
I had forgotten to mention that when we were in Trujillo James got a counterfeit 20 soles note from our hotel. He had suspected it as such, and returned to the room to compare it to another bill. He took it back to the front desk, where the attendant confirmed it was fake and denied giving it to him. We tried several times before checking out, and eventually the hostal took back the counterfeit. But we all learned a lesson to check our bills more carefully in the future.
Penny and I said our goodbyes again and departed ways. Hopefully we will meet up again, perhaps in Arequipa or Cusco.
Peru is a huge country and Lima is a big city with a population of about 8 million. I have a little bit of a sore throat and I suspect it's from the pollution. I went to a soccer game this afternoon (Aug. 16th, Sat) with the guys. It was two Peruvian teams (not national), an exciting game, even if the players weren't outstanding. Scrappy game, sometimes I thought there would be a fist fight between two players of the opposing teams. We lost count on the number of yellow cards there were, I think there were seven. Then there was one red card near the end. The better team (or the team that played better this game) won 3 to 0. Traffic in Lima is insane. As we took a taxi back to the hotel the sun was setting through a hazy polluted smog.
