Loving our new way of life

It’s been a week and one day since we left everything behind in Atlanta for this new life we are quickly becoming accustomed to. As I write this, we are sitting on a bus making our way from Lima to our next stop: Paracas. I wake up every morning and still can’t believe that we are here and we’re doing this. I know it’s only been a week but I feel that feeling will continue a while. It’s surreal and we both realize more every day how fortunate we are to be doing this with no time table. Our money will take us far here and because of that, we have so much opportunity to go and see and do, an opportunity that many people here may never have. We went to a bar last night and as I practiced my Spanish with him and asked him if he had ever visited the places we plan to go and see, he had yet to see the majority of them and had never been outside of Peru. He couldn’t have been much older than us and was actually headed out to see Macchu picchu for his first time at the end of August. He is one of the fortunate here. We’ve covered a serious amount of ground since we’ve been here a week and Lima is an incredibly huge city. We found a little apartment in the district of Barranco where we stayed for 5 days for 75 soles ($25) a night. it was in a cool little artsy district which we called our “comfort zone” because we learned how to get around and it was definitely the safest area we visited while in Lima. The food here is to die for. It’s impossible not to be constantly thinking of what to eat next while walking down the streets and smelling all the different scents that fill the streets from the different bakeries and restaurants that cover the city. Everything here is mad cheap too. We generally eat for around $4 a pop and that’s including more than enough to fill our bellies – drinks included. The bread here is so fresh and the juice is squeezed from the fruit directly after you order it. We would probably be gaining weight if it weren’t for the fact that we’ve been walking 6-10 miles on average a day exploring the streets. It’s safe to say that just about no one here speaks English. I used to be quite good at Spanish, but from lack of practicing in the U.S. I’m a little rusty. it’s still in there though and is slowly coming back to me as I am forced to use it. It’s definitely a challenge to express yourself though and we’re finally learning the true meaning of the language barrier. We’re on the opposite side though which I think few Americans experience in their lifetime and it’s good for us to get that perspective. Mike is quickly learning words here and there and watching him order food in Spanish is one of the most adorable things I have ever seen. It’s beautiful being able to speak to someone who is on the same level as you speaking-wise in your language because you both just go with it and spit out as much as you possibly can – in Spanish or Spanglish. One of my favorite nights so far we sat on the roof of this hostel with one of the guys that’s been working there from Colombia who spoke zero English and another girl traveling around from Uruguay who spoke very little. I can’t wait to encounter more of those experiences to get in as much practice as I can. Well..Pictures are worth a thousand words and we do have many of them, so before I get car sick from typing on my phone, once we get some wifi again we will add those to this and let them explain the rest. I know I can speak for us both when I say we’re loving this new way of life and we’re sticking with it. We’re living our dream exactly as we should be.

And now pictures. Found the gallery feature, so it doesn’t look so goofy.