The Peru adventure begins!

I'm here! I arrived in Peru at 12:30 this morning. My tour manager Gustavo was waiting at the airport and whisked me back to my hostel--it was a great relief to know that he would navigate for me after my 15 hours of travel.

I don't start work until next Tuesday, so I have time to be a tourist. I took a page out of my cousin Leslie's book, almost literally: I dismantled my Peru tour guide, ripping out the sections on Lima and Cusco, where I'll go this week. When Leslie came to visit me in Belgium thirty years ago, she had a copy of Let's Go Europe in portions. I think she left them behind as she traveled through the countries. While this was hard for my librarian self to do today, I knew that a) I don't want to carry the whole honking book around and b) I have an extra copy at home.

I'm staying at HQ Villa Hostel for a couple of nights. I'm beyond the age where sharing a room in a hostel is fun (actually, I never liked it), so I've got my own room and bathroom. It's tiny but clean and the people here are friendly and helpful. I sat in the courtyard for a while this morning:

In the morning I went to the South American Explorer's Clubhouse. I joined this nonprofit organization before leaving home and already I'm glad I did. They have tons of information about Lima and traveling in Peru, weekly events, free wifi and a place to store my big suitcase while I go to Cusco. It's not far from where I'll stay when I come back from Cusco, so I may use it as an extra resource and place to hang out. There is also a clubhouse in Cusco.

I spent time walking around in Miraflores, the district of Lima where I'm staying. I went to the Parque del Amor, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. This park is dedicated to lovers and features this sculpture:
They have kissing contests here. I think I saw some of the contestants--it's definitely a spot for couples (and foreign tourists). The park forms an ampitheater with the sculpture in the middle. I loved the sweep of the steps. Notice the mosaic wall with love quotes:
Here's more of the wall:
And even more:
Tomorrow morning I fly to Cusco. More on that when I get there, I expect. I'm staying at a hostel run by Dominican nuns, Hostal San Juan Masias. I expect it will be fairly quiet, unless these are particularly rowdy nuns.

Gram's Place weirdness

The hostel is named Gram's Place for Gram Parsons, not for anybody's grandmother. Just so you know.

It's a strange place, stranger than I expected. In fact, I've decided it has all the charm of a wet washcloth mouldering in the sink. I figured out why, in part: the guy who started this establishment and poured his soul into it died last summer. The folks running it now seem a bit overwhelmed.

The place is really two small houses joined by some strange roofs. I dug around and found a video of it.

This afternoon the guy from the cable company came to the door. He didn't realize he was at the wrong gate, so he asked for Mark (that's the guy who died). One of the other guests went to get the current manager or his wife. The cable guy was just doing his job, but he made the mistake of parking his truck in the driveway, blocking the manager's car. The manager came in the gate and started swearing at the cable guy. At the same time, the manager's wife came out from another part of the hostel and began yelling at the cable guy. I was sitting at a counter right next to all of this.

None of this yelling was necessary. The manager was really belligerent. That was making the cable guy mad, but he left as quickly as he could.

I'm reminded of how much I value politeness and respect.

I don't think I'll stay here again.