Day 13 in Peru began very early for our time and we were headed to the north of Lima to visit the countryside. It was a 6 am wake up call, since we were headed to one of the furthest point in the city, nearest to the airport. We all met at the host family of Stacey, with Naomi and her son Charles. Naomi laid out a breakfast of eggs and fresh bread for us. Days earlier, Stacey had shown Naomi to cook scrambled eggs in an American style, which we all appreciated; she did a splendid job.
Hank lived furthest in the city from everyone, in an area called La Molina, and thus his cab ride took much longer than expected. Traffic in Lima, Peru seems to be atrocious any time of the day that one plans upon leaving. Our 8:30 departure turned into a 9:30 departure, typical of Peruvian time.
We departed close to ten and had a very long car ride ahead; we were heading approximately three hours north of Lima, Peru to visit a beautiful countryside. We stopped along the way for fresh bread, which was some of the most amazing bread I have ever had; wonderfully crusty on the outside and nice and soft on the inside.
We reached a beautiful valley; it was amazing with a small river flowing through it. It was not our final destination, but only a via on the way there. A few minutes later, we arrived at our final destination, the farm of our new friend Poncho. He had a small open house, which is typical of this area, since there was very little money, if any at all. Many of the small homes were crumbling and there were not many cars, if any to be seen. The scenery itself seemed to be more bucolic in it’s setting, the area was so far from large cities that it seemed a window to an earlier time.
Poncho took us for a short walk through his fields, during which Naomi filled bags and finally her shirt with fruit to take home and make a pie. The walk back was divided, as Naomi and Stacey, along with all the fruit, took a three wheeled taxi back to town. The smaller group of myself, Hank, Grace and Monica crossed a small tree-trunk bridge to walk back to Poncho’s home. In an attempt to avoid the bridge, Charles feigned a knee injury, which quickly disappeared as he crossed the bridge back. We had a quick bite to eat, and began our long drive back to Lima.
We finished our evening by presenting to Naomi’s Rotary Club, and upon receiving our banners, returned home tired, but fulfilled from our day out in the country.