Our Journey Continued

Wednesday 2/25/09
We left San Jose on time and on our way to Bogota we ran into a storm. The pilot bravely tried to fly us through but to no avail, we had to land in Cali instead. That was a long and rough flight. Johanna and I contemplated staying in Cali for good and forget about living in Lima because neither one of us wanted to fly ever again. But due to some immigration thing we were not allowed to exit the plane so we sat for 2 hours while they refueled and the storm in Bogota passed. We were then back in the air and flew another rough flight to Bogota and then to Lima. We got to Lima around 9:30pm and no problems from there. We shot through immigration and customs as is we were royalty and we met Sr. Juan and Sra. Sonia. From there we were in a cab in the crazy traffic of Lima and by 10:30pm were sitting at the dining room table and eating one great meal prepared by Sra. Sonia. We are now all sitting and talking, I can’t lie, I am typing this post and they are talking in Spanish. I am so tired I can barely keep my eyes open let alone try to understand what they are saying. So even though there have been some bumps in the road, our adventure is off to a great start and we cannot wait to see what tomorrow will bring.

Saturday 2/28/09
We have been running around town trying to get the basics. We bought some pillows and shampoo because we enjoy sleeping and we do not like to stink. We are getting prices for an internet connection and that should be installed by next weekend. The main thing we have been working on is getting cell phones. I was able to bring four cell phones with me from the US with the understanding they would be able to be unlocked here and allow me to use any service. We gave one phone to Sra. Sonia because she wanted a phone with really big numbers and I am sure some of you know what I am talking about. We took the phones to the store (The Guy) and after some small obstacles I am going to use Sra. Sonia’s old phone and Johanna is going to use the one she brought with her. The phone numbers are 9 digits long which is a little different and all cell phone numbers start with the number 9. Just a bit of interesting information. I do not have my service hooked up yet but hopefully by the end of the day I will be able to call and talk to all of my friends and family here in Peru, wait I do not speak Spanish, I guess I will just have it just in case.

Pictures: The night we arrived and the meal Sra. Sonia made for us.

Our Journey Has Begun

We have started our journey. Monday was the big move and everything went well. We rented a U-Haul and started to get a little nervous when we filled it to the door but thanks to our love for Tetris everything fit perfectly. On Tuesday we woke up with the sun and finished all of the last minute arrangements and we headed for Miami at 9pm. We are now in the Miami airport waiting for our 730am flight to Bogota and then to Lima by 730pm. We are not going to get much sleep but I think the excitement will keep us going.
I found some new information about the flight, we are going to stop by San Jose, Costa Rica for an hour and then head over to Bogota. That is why this 6 hour trip is going to take 12 hours.
Now we are in San Jose and the internet is free so I am going to post this and I will continue the story once we arrive in Lima. I have to say the weather here is awesome. We are sitting in the airport but the door is open and there is a cool breeze blowing by.

The House is Rented

We have rented the house and purchased our plane tickets so there is no turning back now. We are going to be flying to Peru on Wednesday Feb. 25th at 7:25 am from Miami. We have chosen to get the cheapest plane ticket again and we will pay dearly in lack of sleep. We leave on a 4 hour drive to Miami on Wednesday around 1230am and we will arrive in Lima that evening at 7:30pm. This is going to be a long day but there will be plenty of time to sleep on the plane. When we arrive in Lima, our apartment will not be ready until March 1st so we will be staying with Johanna's parents for a couple of days. They are always very gracious hosts.

Posting Directions

For all of you that post with anonymous, will you please sign your name at the end of your comment so I will know who you are.

As for today's post I think I am starting to like this "Blogging" thing, but don't tell anyone. I think some of my friends might make fun of me. As you can see I have not posted any pictures yet and I keep writing these comments, completly opposite of what I said at the beginning. I promise as soon as I have a picture to post I will.

This was my idea

I want to make a correction to my last post. I found out that a lot of people figured that moving to Peru was Johanna's idea and that is not correct. Suprisingly enough it was my idea and to be honest Johanna had some doubts. But we discussed it for a long time and we decided this would be a great opportunity. Johanna is still a little nervous about the gringo in Lima but we are laying the ground rules to ensure my safety.

Getting Started

If you have not heard by now Johanna and I are going to be moving to Peru sometime in February. Our quick answer to everyone is "We are doing this as an adventure." We had to come up with a quick answer because everyone asks where we are going and why. The long answer is a little more in-depth so here we go.
We decided to move to Peru for at least one year and maybe longer if we enjoy ourselves. The reason we are staying for at least a year is to give it a chance and not run back home at the first sign of trouble. There are many different reasons we have decided to do this. One big one is so that I can learn the Spanish language and in turn get to know Johanna’s family and friends better. Another reason is so that I can understand Johanna a little better and what she goes through here in America, living in a new country and speaking a different language. And last but not least so Johanna can spend more time with her family and friends. We have always talked about moving to Peru and we realized that if we do not do it now we probably never will. We have already rented an apartment in a nice neighborhood close to Johanna’s parents. It is furnished and all of the utilities are included for the whopping price of $250.00 per month. Yes that is right only $250.00 and the only things that are missing are a washer, dryer and a stove. We think this is a blessing because neither one of us like to do laundry nor cook. Neither one of us has a job yet but I have decided that I will probably teach English to adult students and Johanna is probably going to work at a bank. Luckily I do not have to speak Spanish to teach because I do not speak Spanish. The students will already have an understanding of the English language. Johanna has some contacts in the banking industry here and in Peru and this should enable her to find a job pretty easily. As far as the details go this is about it and I am sure you can see now why we say we are moving for an adventure because it will definitely be one. I am going to do my best to keep this blog up to date. Karen talked me into this and I think it is a good idea but I know me and I hope I stick with it. I can almost assure you that this will be the most writing I will be doing. I am not much for writing so I will probably be posting mostly pictures.