Back together again

The reunion was a smash, and it's good to be back together again. Alexa likes her new father and he likes being one again and really likes the good food in Lima.

The last two weeks were fun but started to stretch out as I ran errands in DC and caught up with old friends and quickly got re-adjusted to expensive life the US. I did some yard work in my house and almost cried to see how my garden looked after a year of neglect. It was good to see the Reynolds and eat some organic pizza with them, and I had for the first time in one year some Root Beer - it was heaven in a bottle. I also went up to New York and saw Ash, Brian and Eliot, who is doing great and liked to do the running-man to Michael Jackson songs. My friends the Hammonds and I met up and we ate some soul food in Harlem (not much else to do there).

I then arrived late at night at the Lima airport to a man with a sign with my name on it who didn't know where he was supposed to go. I barely remembered where Vanessa lived from three years ago and finally arrived at midnight to find both of them waiting for me.

The picture to the right is where the apartment is, one of those buildings on the left in the distance. Compared to Damascus Lima really seems super-deluxe. Of course it still has that comfortable 3rd world feeling, but is much more modern and clean, and has a more American influenced style, as well as American brands and stuff. It's nice to be back in the familiar arms of globalization.

So far we've been doing errands, eating really good food, playing games, watching elmo, and I've been catching up on sleep. I'm the stay at home dad for now, so I get Alexa ready in the morning and take her to nursery, and figure out how to keep her entertained the rest of the day.

The plan is this: I'll eventually start looking for part-time work (as we do have a nanny), I'll find out what's up in the climbing scene (I already know there are three rock-climbing gyms in Lima), I'll try to find a Spanish class and learn some Espanol, and I'll seek out the few Arabic speakers in Lima (there must be at least a few) to keep up on my skills. The picture to the left shows a paraglider gliding right by where we live, there are a lot of them that hover back and forth over the coast in the perpetual sea-breeze and offer rides to the tourists for $10.

Below is Alexa puckering up after eating her favorite treat - raw onions with lime juice. She puckers up and shudders every time she eats one and then keeps on going.