Peru Surfing Adventure.

Ready for the waves.

 The day dawned early on the day of our peruvian ruins and surf adventure.  Our guide Jorge with Eco-Innovations tours picked us up at our hotel in the "surf adventure" van and drove us south.  After about an hour, we turned off at Pachacamac to visit the ruins there.   We toured the ruins with a guide for about 2 hours and learned all about the religious center that was located there hundreds of years ago.

Madeline Surfs!

Go Katherine!

The Incan people would send the most beautiful and brightest daughters to live there where they were guarded by eunuchs and taught to embroider and make the special ceremonial drink.  When they turned 16, one or two were chosen to sacrifice to the God of the Sun - and the others were married off to the Incan governors and priests as concubines.  The temple was very high and painted bright red and overlooked the sea.  The indigenous people would make pilgrimages there — often at the end of their lives and usually died there so they could be buried close to the temples.  They approximate that there are tens of thousands of mummies buried on the property.

After touring the ruins, we headed out to a small town south of Lima.  Our guide took us to a small public beach for surfing.  The water was very busy with sunbathers, swimmers and surfers.  And to us Galvestonians - the water was COLD.  Even in a wetsuit, Madeline came out with her lips blue and her teeth chattering.  It was nice to get out of Lima and see some more of the country and get to a place surrounded by locals.  Ladies walked around the beaches selling chips, sodas and beer (no glass of course) and we ate sandwiches packed by the tour.  Chris and the girls had a ball surfing and we loved our guide.  We went home, happy and exhausted and ready for another day!

Christmas Vacation 2010 - Lima Peru

We have arrived safely in Lima, Peru.  The trip here was an adventure in itself.  We left home at 10:30 in the morning for a 7:20 pm flight.  We went to the office to pick up Daddy, then headed out for the airport.  One of our friends the week before had left 4 hours before her flight and never made it due to traffic and work being done on the road due to the landslides.  We did not want to take a chance, as if we missed our flights, we would likely not be able to find another flight out of Caracas until after Christmas.

The traffic was heavier than usual, and you could see multiple landslides along the way - complete with multiple homes destroyed from the landslides, but we made it to the airport in 2.5 hours.  With that much time to kill, we decided to head out to the Marriott close to the airport for lunch.  It killed a couple of hours, and the kids got to play on the playground there and burn up some energy.  We arrived ready to check in at 2 pm - an hour before what the US embassy recommended, and they would not let us check in until 3 pm.  It only took an hour to check in, clear security and clear customs, so at 4 pm we were checking into the American Airlines lounge looking for four chairs together.

We got settled, then Chris and Madeline left for what is becoming a Haver Family Tradition - airport massages.  There is a kiosk, with a wonderful woman, who gives 10 and 15 minute chair massages for a very reasonable prices.  It is so inexpensive, we let the kids get them as well.  We all took turns, then went back to the lounge.  When we booked the tickets to Buenos Aires - we had to transfer through Lima as there is no direct flight from Caracas - so I decided we should stay and explore Lima for a few days.  The tickets were written in spanish - and were in first class - though I missed that part when we booked them.  When I was reviewing the tickets a few weeks ago I realized that our seats were in row 3!  A happy accident for us.

We boarded and realized the first class section was on of the ones that was REALLY first class.  The asiles were huge, and the seats were the ones that go from sitting to a full flat bed.  Each chair had its own entertainment system, complete with Bose type headphones.  The seats alone provided hours of entertainment for my children.  They were served a real meal, with cloth napkins and silverwear and drinks in glasses.  Of course, my worldly children acted like they were in DisneyLand - screaming, "Mom, check THIS out!" over and over again across the plane.

Five and a half hours later, we landed in Peru in the middle of the night.  We cleared customs and emigration and were met by the hotel to take us to our home for the next few days.  We crawled into our beds and fell asleep at about 2 am.

The next day we woke up to a view of the Pacific Ocean - just in front of our hotel, over looking the ocean, is a beautiful outdoor mall and park - so we decided to head there for breakfast.  After breakfast we took a long walk along the cliffs and parks that overlook the rocky beaches and plotted out our day.   We went back to the mall to eat a sushi restaurant and had some of the best ceviche we have ever had in my life.   The seafood here is amazing!  I also had my first pisco sour.  The pisco sour is the local drink here - kind of like a margarita and about 100x as strong.  We went shopping and bought a few scarves and a hat for Madeline made out of baby alpaca - one of the local handicrafts here.

Dinner last night was at Cala - a beautiful restaurant on the beach, specializing in seafood.  The prices here are half of what we would expect to pay in San Francisco for the same food and level of service.   Everyone here - from the maids, to the waiters, to the taxi drivers are some of the most polite, and genuinely happy people we have ever met.  We have become so used to people treating us like we had intelligence issues because or command of spanish was lacking, but here they smile, and remain very patient trying to help us along.  Of course, nothing is pefect, my meal was not what I thought I was ordering last night, but was delicious none the less.

Today we head out for surfing lessons for Chris and the kids at a beach south of Lima - we will let you know how it goes.

Rain Rain Go Away....

Caracas has made CNN.  Again.  Not for the crazy president, but for the torrential rains that have drenched the area.  Yesterday, the government declared a state of emergency and closed the schools for the rest of the week in anticipation of more rainfall, and the ensuing flooding and landslides.  Here is a picture of the sky this morning from my bedroom.  You can't see the Avila - as the clouds are obscuring the view.

We are OK.  We live up on a hill so flooding is not an issue.  We already have landslides around the building on the property and in the surrounding areas - but nothing major.  My neighbor might have to leave her building due to a very large landslide that may have affected the structural integrity of the building.

The weirdest part is the waiting...  It is almost like when a hurricane hits the Gulf of Mexico, and we wait to see which way it will go.  We know it will hit somewhere, and it will be bad, and it might be us, but probably not.

But here, I am not surrounded by my best friends, making gumbo, and telling stories.  AND we don't have weather.com or wunderground.com - where during hurricane season, I am freakishly glued for days at a time.  So I sit and stare and the fat grey clouds outside of my window, waiting for the rain to start, and for whatever will happen, to just happen.

The rest of the photos are a series of pictures taken from the property  around my building.  We have one minor and one moderate slide so far.  The area above the driveway had a slide last year which was repaired, and now the area just lateral to the repair has failed.

I will keep everyone posted.  But again, we are fine!