El Viaje Empieza (The Journey Begins) – The Perez Family in Peru, Part I

As I am super behind on blog posts and have been avoiding a large and exciting chunk of my Peruvian adventures because it is too daunting of a task to tackle on my own, my dad decided to take it upon himself to begin the chronicles of the Perez Fam Peruvian Adventure. My parents and younger sister came down for a 2 week long visit at the end of June and it was amazing! Here's my pop's take on the beginning of the adventure (with just a couple of my own footnotes at the end).

This is the first installment of many. We (Chris, Marlee and I) left June 15^th and spent 17 wonderful days in Peru traveling. We stayed in 7 different places and saw so many amazing things. But of course, our favorite attraction was our very own Peace Corps Volunteer - Jamie. 

Let’s start with getting there….the plane ride – we got up at about 4am, to make it to SFO early enough for our AM flight to Houston. We had a scheduled layover in Houston of about 2 hours. Enough time to get through the terminal and make our plans.

Now, we took United for this trip. The reason we took United wasn’t because we like them, like their service or that they were the only ones going to Peru. We had vouchers from United and needed to use them within a year of when they were issued. This might be a subject for another day, but….last year when we were going to Orlando to leave for a cruise our United flight from SFO to LAX was delayed so much that we missed our LAX flight to Orlando. We got to Orlando too late to board our cruise and it left without us.* We then embarked on the Perez family trains, planes and automobiles adventure excursion so we could get to Cozumel and meet the cruise two days later…..ughhhh!!!!!

O.K., what were we talking about? Oh, yeah, Peru! But first, we had to wait an extra 5 ½  hours in Houston. Yes, United strikes again! There was a malfunctioning door, which they figured out after about 2 hours of waiting on the plane. Then 2 more hours in the airport, and then another 1-2 hours on the plane, because the food was now spoiled from sitting out in the hot Houston sun. 

We were supposed to arrive in Lima at about 10pm, which was too late to take a flight to Trujillo (to get closer to Jamie), but we instead got in at about 4am. We had made arrangements to be picked up and stay the night in Lima at a B&B. Our host knew we were late and picked us up and brought us back. So we get to sleep close to 5am and have to wake up to be at the airport by about noon. Needless to say we were very tired. Our hosts Kike** and his wife Miriam were awesome. We had a great breakfast and very nice conversation prior to going to the airport and taking the short flight, about 1 hour and 10 minutes, to Trujillo. 

We arrive in Trujillo, get off the plane and gather our luggage….as we are heading towards the exit, we hear someone familiar calling to us…..it’s Jamie! She looks amazing…we haven’t seen her for about 9 months! She is behind a barrier and has to meet us outside. There’s a barrier outside too! We have to hug over the barrier outside. We jump over the barrier – hugs, tears, and laughter – FAMILY HUG! – what a feeling! We then meet Jamie’s fellow PCV and friend, Kristen. Super nice, gives us hellos and hugs and we are off. Jamie and Kristen are negotiating a cab ride in Spanish and before I know it we are squished into a beat up Toyota and heading towards the bus station. At the bus station – Jamie is in charge, speaking Spanish, translating, getting tickets, pointing out the snacks and restrooms, while we are still reeling from our travel time and delirious with the joy that comes from seeing your first born for the first time again! Kristen was also great. What a very nice young woman. Between her and Jamie they answer all our questions, tell us what they’ve been doing and make sure we know what the heck we are supposed to do. 

2 ½ hours later, we are at the Guadalupe bus station, dropped off, and once again Jamie is negotiating our moto ride to the hotel in town. Now, a moto is a three-wheeled, covered motorcycle, with a bench seat in the back used for transportation. I find out later from Jamie that it is common for the moto drivers to try and charge folks like us (tourists, or those who do not look like locals) more for a ride. Jamie tells them (in Spanish of course) that she lives here and she KNOWS how much it costs. Also, side bar on the motos – they beep at EVERY corner – starting from about 6am in the morning until about 11pm at night. 

Here's a moto - not beeping this time

Squished in two motos, we head into town and make a stop at our Hotel Roma. It was a nice little room, not many people staying there. We got settled and Marlee and Jamie headed over to Jamie’s house where she would be staying.

The entrance to Jamie's Peru residence and Marlee's home for the visit

We went to a school where Jamie had built a cocina mejorada (a cookstove) and taught summer school (English and art). Her site mate Amanda had arranged a project through Courts for Kids – a program where American students go to other countries to build courts, playgrounds, etc. There were about 25 student athletes from the University of Oregon working on clearing the way to begin building a basketball court outside the school. We visited the site on their first of 5 days of work. We saw Jamie’s cocina, and helped fix some sizing issues and then helped light it for the first time. We then helped serve lunch to the student athletes….some of them thought that Marlee and Chris were locals and attempted to speak Spanish to them. I don’t think any of them thought I was a local, but you never know.  

Courts for Kids working hard with the locals

Jamie and Kristen lighting the stove

Locals o Americanas?

Walking back home from the school

Our next day in Guadalupe was spent hanging out around town. Jamie took us to her favorite ice cream spot and to the market. We got to see the juice shop project that Jamie helped Amanda with. We also had dinner with Jamie’s host family. We brought them pizza – yes, Guadalupe has pizza. We had a great time talking – Jamie’s host family doesn’t speak a lick of English. Her siblings, Jorge, Juana and Trini are taking English classes; however, they were too shy to speak to us in English. Chris can understand a lot, and speak a little. Marlee has two years of high school Spanish under her belt and was picking things up. As for me…the Spanish sir name and all, I was lucky to get three words at a time together and have them mean what I actually meant to say. I could also get the context of a lot of the conversation, but mostly needed interpretation. One thing Jamie tells me is that I make “dad jokes.”  She was sad that my dad jokes didn’t translate as well to her family. We had a wonderful time. Her family is very nice and they genuinely care for her. We feel grateful to them, knowing that she is safe. 

Enjoying some helado

Ducking through the market

Next day, Jamie’s host mom, Mari, made us lunch, which is the big meal in Peru. Julio, Jamie’s host dad, came home to join us, and we had a great meal. Mari even made pesto because she heard Marlee liked it so much. Later, we went for a hike to a nearby spot which was a monument featuring a giant statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe. It is up a mountain past a church and has a nice view of the town and neighboring areas. Chris and Mari seemed to have some nice mom conversations along the way. Hanging out with the host family was one of the many highlights of our trip.

The view from the Cerro de La Virgen de Guadalupe

Hanging out with the host fam!

Next up: Perez Family heads to Huanchaco!

*Due to United flight complications, Jamie was stuck by herself in a hotel for her whole birthday! United sucks!

**Pronounced "kee-kay"