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Writer's pictureDIVE ARMY Expeditions

Arriving in Lima 🇵🇪

Updated: Oct 1, 2018

Royal Sweet Dreams Aeropuerto B&B

Let me start off by saying that while I am a well seasoned traveler, this is my first time traveling to a country where the primary language is NOT English. Granted, i should have had this realization MONTHS ago and started to prepare…however I am just now realizing how egocentric we Americans truly are! Now, as I am sure everyone else knows, there are many challenges to not being able to communicate properly. So let's begin our trip!

As we exited the airport in Lima, Peru around 9pm after a 6 hour flight we knew we were going to have to nab a cab. More so, we felt PREPARED to grab a cab with our print outs of where we needed to be. They make it easy enough to get a taxi as there are multiple booths not to mention the 30 or so drivers simply saying “taxi?”. As we approached the booth we were nervous about our broken Spanish only to be relieved to discover our attendant did indeed speak some English. She signed us up for an acceptable fare compared to our pre-researched results (see?? We thought we had our shit together). Confidently, she walked us to our driver who escorted us to the vehicle…it was only then we found out he did NOT speak ANY English.

Well not to worry as we had the name and address on our handy-dandy print out. After some back and forth we felt confident we were heading the correct direction. As the car came to a stop, my husband and I were slightly confused as the house before us looked nothing like a hotel of any kind. However it was our first time staying at a hostel so we chalked it up to lack of experience. The cab driver dutifully helped us gather our things as he rang the doorbell multiple times. As the suspense grew, a man finally answered the door to inform us (in Spanish) that this was not the correct house but it was just 4 houses down. No worries! Jump back in the car and scoot up the street to give it another go. This time we were greeted by a lovely woman who welcomed us into her home and took us to her computer before we realized this was STILL not the correct address and she was attempting to look up the right location for us. We were stunned by her generosity and openness as these are not what I would call “standard American customs”. Back into the car we went!

When we finally arrived at the correct house it was obvious. No sooner had we rung the doorbell than our welcoming host Martin was outside and greeting us. Nervously we

asked “Ingles?” To which he (thankfully) replied yes and continued on in perfect English. He offered help with our bags, which we politely refused, and guided us up a beautiful, outdoor, winding staircase. While we walked, he explained he had sent us an email the day before to offer to help booking a taxi from the airport. Unfortunately (and fortunately!) , we had family help in booking this accommodation so the email did not come to us but as you heard we managed :) It was now nearing 10pm Lima time but our generous host took his time to show us the flat we had rented for such a great price. We were lucky and had the whole landing to ourselves, despite the fact there were 3 separate rooms. He talked us through the showers and “proper toilet etiquette”. Another shocker for me! I did not realize that here you do NOT put your tp into the toilet. No biggie :)

Breakfast was included with the reservation but due to our early departure (7:20 am) we did not expect it to be available. Silly us! Martin talked to us about our schedule and offered to bring the food up early so we would have plenty of time to eat, relax, and get ready. We also explained we needed a taxi and asked if he could schedule one. He did so almost immediately, advising us of rush hour issues to plan around, and we went to bed feeling taken care of and at ease.

This place is easily a 5 star based on location, price, and of course customer service. Now you have to keep in mind…this is in a metropolitan area just a few miles from the airport…so when it came to sleeping, despite the comfortable bed and bedding provided it was…intermittent. I was happy we had brought our sleeping masks as we typically do for travel. We are used to black out curtains which is not standard practice all around so it felt nice to be prepared :) I would have greatly appreciated some ear plugs or maybe even some headphones just to drown out some of the extra horns and planes because they went All. Night. Long.

We woke the next morning to breakfast and coffee delivered as promise. It was absolutely delicious and a great way to resume our travels. The taxi arrived exactly on time where we were then informed we were getting an even cheaper rate than we had paid the night before. Happy days! The ride to the airport was exciting in itself because if you haven't driven in Peru…it is an EXPERIENCE! We made it to our flight with plenty of time and continued on the next leg of our journey. We are so grateful to have started our trip this way. While things were not perfect (they never are anyway!) we felt welcomed into the country and eager to continue on!

More to come later!

Sarah Sisco

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