Gato has arrived!

And she moves so quick you can't even see her!!

Ali got here Monday at some obsene hour of the morning. I had assured her and assured her that I would meet her at the airport, Lima is a dangerous, it's no place for you to just hop in a taxi and go. Besides, I wanted to see her as soon as possible! But uhm.. ya, her flight came in at 4:20 AM! Who schedules flights for those hours? I imagine the gates must be cheaper to rent then or something. Anyways, I went to bed early, set my alarm on my trusty Suunto and went to bed. So about that trusty Suunto's.. great watch, tells you the altitude, has a compass, mine can even interface with a computer and see pretty graphs of your day's skiing etc.. But.. and this is a big but, god only knows how many climbs have been foiled by this watch's absolutely anemic alarm. It's like a little mouse squeeking in a tin can with a pillow on top.. at the bottom of a pool. Or something.

So.. uh, ya, I overslept. And as these things always seem to go, you jolt up awake, check the time and it's exactly when you are supposed to be somewhere, in this case, the favorite time of pot smoking insomniacs the world over. Thirty seconds of getting some clothes on and I run downstairs to grab a taxi. Except somehow in this city containing nothing but taxis there are none to be found. Arrr!! Some frantic Francospanglish with the doorman gets one on the way for me. Not long after I'm racing towards the airport in classic Lima fashion.. no stopping for red lights, much less stop signs, honking randomly, and a new experience for me, refilling at a gas station while the car is on! Exciting stuff I tell you.

Thankfully Ali was still patiently waiting at the airport despite my tardy arrival and all was good.

Ali can now attest that some things I said were true, act as an importial witness if you will.
1) yes, there really is very little to no litter here. It's crazy!
2) yes, the food is fantastically yummy, even for a vegetarian
3) yes, it's impossibly loud. Apparently to bring this point home, they started some kind of remodeling on an apartment three floors down from us. And apparently, this remodeling involves quite a bit of demolition work. As in, they've been pounding something to death for two days straight nonstop. I really don't understand how it's physically possible for them to swing hammers for so long. These people must be PopEye incarnates. But it has brought the point home. Noise noise noise.

We are going to go check out Parque de Kennedy tonight, which was recommended by my neighbor as a great night spot to grab some food. We'll let you know how it goes.