Checking out my new Apartment

I've arrived in Peru! It is very similar to what I thought it would be. The people are very nice. The city is very densly populated, you can tell they've had economic prosperity in the last few years because there are some very new, upper class apartments/condos near where I am staying, but also some cold war era type buildings. I'm sharing an apartment above ACI Prensa (The Catholic News Agency of South America). The building is guarded by a 10 ft wall that has an electrified wire at the top. There is a guard that protects the building during the day, and all the doors lock with a key behind you. It seems just a building the "A Team" would be breaking into! The building is a maze of narrow hallways and stairways. There are random doors and little rooms all over the place. Traveling up to the second floor, you will find my room, but first, you walk through a small 8x10 living room, then into my roommates room, then a door off to the left is where you enter my room. It's larger than I expected, maybe 12x14. I have a desk, a small closet and a single sized bed. To get to the bathroom, you must exit my room and walk through my roommate's room to enter it. Inside you will see 2 showers on the right, and 2 toilets on the left. The toilets are right next to each other with no divider. Hmmmmm....That's not going to happen! This afternoon in went with my roommate to lunch. We took a 20 minute cab ride that cost only $4. After that ride, there's no way I would want to drive my own car in this country. Just think about those movies where utter chaos is happening on the streets. Cars running red lights, people selling things on the street walking all around with no fear of cars, congested traffic, and huge buses trying to manuever like a Mini!

We met some of Jose's friends in Chinatown. There we ate a huge meal! I'm talking like 3 course with enough food to feed 8 people. I thought there's no way 4 of us are going to eat this! They also introduced me to "Inca Kola." They told me it tastes like bubble gum, and sure enough it did. It wasn't something I would volunteer to drink again with Chinese food, but it was interesting! They also ordered me some type of margarita like drink that was made from grapes. It was delicious! The entire meal, 4 big plates, drinks for all four of us, and appetizers only costed us about $28 with tip!

I've set up shop in the office downstairs and my first assignment is to do some research for the agency!