We returned to San Bartalo to hit the surf, as we’d promised ourselves but we spent our time in a phone cabina, paying for calling minutes to the port of Lima, to confirm everything surrounding the safe return of our van.

Lima, by far has been our favorite big South American city.  I suppose, this could have something to do with the fact that our expectations were poor.  We’d heard that Lima was dangerous, polluted, dirty, and sketchy.  Marco’s present to Simon was the cake, which had to be perfect and required running around all over the city to find the chocolate beauty.  As we headed back to our hotel, with the cake in our hands, Marco declared that the procuring to this cake “was a huge success!”.

To celebrate Simon’s birthday, we decided to stay in a nice hotel, within walking distance to the best food we’ve had in four months.  We celebrated his turning 11 birthday with some shopping, slow eating, and a subtitled showing of “Godzilla”.

We also spent a lot of time texting, waiting for the arrival of our new sweet nephew, Colin Simon Gilles, who now proudly shares a birthday with Simon.

Peruvians are very much foodies.  They love to cook it, talk about it, eat it, and write about it.  Think about this: a butternut squash bisque with duck confit and roasted pistachios….YES!!!  Or, a salad with fresh figs, smoky cheese, chanterelle mushrooms, raspberries, and a heavenly dressing, or arroz con marisco with some sort of creamy brandied sauce, or coca leaf bread with a brown sugar cream butter, or homemade bubblegum marshmallows, or spicy ceviche that throws all other ceviches under the bus!!!  I could go on but if I do, I might never leave.

We spent a lot of time dealing with the red tape to ship our van back.  This, I attempted to take as a gift of exercising patience while trying not to clench my teeth and get mad at the fact that we waited for hours for simple things like receipts and money transfers.  We tried to smile and say gracias in response to all the “yes, but maybe later”.

We hope that our few days in Lima helped with the upcoming transition back to the normal world.  After four months of being focused on things like clean water, access to toilet paper, securing van sleeping spots, and everything else Colombian, Ecuadorian, and Peruvian, we’re now feeling like we live in a different sort of bubble.