Oh Peru, how we missed you!

After an epic 40 hour bus experience, we found ourselves back in Lima, Peru where each of us spent a summer studying. For Tori, it was exciting to finally come back to some place that felt familiar. We knew just where we wanted to go, how much it cost to get there, and all of the local delicacies. Score!

We stayed at an upscale hostel in downtown Miraflores, a ritzy neighborhood on Lima´s coast. We could walk to the cliffs overhanging the beach from our hostel...yes, we splurged. Hey, it was Christmas! Strolling about on Christamas eve, we discovered a small spa where Tori could get a manicure and pedicure and Stew could get a massage, all for under 30 bucks. Double score! We left feeling all jazzed up and ready to celebrate the holiday.

Our Christmas preparations included going to the grocery store: bacon, tropical fruits, and mimosas were in order. On Christams day, we slept in...quite the luxury, and also quite easy to do after 40 hours of bus travel. Luckily, Stew´s parents sent down a Christmas package (with express instructions to maintain closed until Christmas morning) with Tori´s parents. It might have been outrageously tempting to carry around for 2 weeks, but it was definitely worth the wait to have a package to tear apart on Christmas morning. We got some awesome goodies, too: earplugs!!, dino flashlight, headlamp, bottle-opening ring, plus some very cool National Geographic maps from Stew´s grandparents...it was a great Christmas!

We spent most of Christmas day eating fruit salad (if you ever come across something called a Pepino Melon, go for it) and bacon, drinking mimosas, and hanging out with some of the folks we met at our hostel. For Christmas dinner, we got to meet up with one of Stew´s friends from his studies at Lima, Jamie from Los Angeles (see earlier blog posts from our drive across the country). We had a great meal at a mediterreanean resteraunt that happened to be open...bizarrely enough, all the chinese places were closed. So much for a traditional Jewish Christmas.

The day after Christmas, we made for Huacachina, our favorite little oasis in the world. It´s an itty bitty town in the middle of the desert on a lake...a genuine oasis. We´ve been hanging out in the sunshine since we arrived. Not a bad way to spend Boxing Day.