A Little Taste of Paris in the Amazon

Thanks to the last ridiculous lightning storm here in Iquitos, I not only have no internet connection to my house, but the power cord to our computer is damaged. So I have been experiencing life without a computer for a few weeks, and may be without one for a while. And although its a bit freeing, I also have so much work to be done that I am now resorting to hanging out in internet cafes just to get some things done. So don´t expect to see alot of me on here in the meantime. But I do miss writing the occasional blog. So here´s one I´ve been storing up for you all.

Coco and I finally had the chance to go to a restaurant that we´d been wanting to try out. One of my students recommended it. I couldn´t hardly believe my student when he told me there was a real French bistro, quite fancy in fact, right here in Iquitos. Well it´s true and it really is quite charming. It´s right on the boulevard that overlooks the river. Not only is the food delicious but they also offer alot of special coffees and desserts I´m just not used to having access to here. And it´s the only building here that has such a romantic interior in a ¨French¨ style. Coco and I felt like we had gone somewhere outside of Iquitos and both enjoyed it so much. I only wish we would have discovered it sooner...after all we´ve driven by the area only hundreds of times. Anyways, I´ll let you enjoy the pictures.

And to add a little adventure to the day, husband forgot to gas up the moto. So he had to walk it to the nearest gas station when we were on our way home. I followed behind making silly comments and documenting the moment with my camera. But it´s alot easier to run out of gas here than anywhere else. It was only a few blocks untill we found gas. Love you honey!

Amazon River Beach

This weekend we went to the beach. That´s right, an Amazon river beach. We took a car ride with friends until we arrived to a quaint little beach village called Santo Tomas, and then we took a boat to our final destination called Tipischca. The water level just recently fell below the level possible for beaches to emerge. So there were restaurants that recently re-setup ¨camp¨ We ate some delicious fish, swam, laid out in the sun, and played a little friesbee.

Some people forgot their umbrellas, but they were socreative in their improvising. Check out this shade idea.

We left at sunset time and I was honestly sad to leave. It was so relaxing there. But, we´ll go back for sure.

Keeping Track of Babs: Part 10

My mother is already home and I already miss her so much. It meant so much to me that she came out to visit me. Thanks for coming Mom!

We were on the go so much in Lima. Here are a few pictures. They´re not as fancy as our other pictures because we didn´t want to lug around the big expensive camera. But nonetheless, here´s some highlights from Lima....

We went to the Parque de Aguas

Coco´s family took us to see the Main Plaza at night.

We spent a lot of time in the district of Barranco. We strolled all through the streets with old beautiful homes and buildings and took tour inside of one of the old historic homes. We also had breakfast in an old train car.

We visited the downtown historical main plaza by day. My mom is absolutely in love with the old fashioned balconies on every building. She has a good reason to be obsessed because they are all beautiful and unique. We went into a few cathedrals and a museum about the history of Peruvian food. We also visited the catacombs in the cathedral of San Francisco and walked along a street with lots of stores where mom managed to purchase a few things.

A special note about the following picture..... For those of you who aren´t aware, let me explain to you that it´s basically all my mom´s fault that I went to Peru, fell in love, and now live here. As a travel agent my mother has been traveling around the world her whole life and as a little girl I used to get so excited when she would come home with a suitcase full of treasures and she would tell the greatest stories and have the greatest pictures form all these far away lands. Well the place that stuck out in my mind the most was always Peru and Machu Picchu, so I always wanted to go there. And it was my mom herself who planned my trip to Peru, but what she didn´t plan was the chance meeting between my husband and I. But....everything happens for a reason....and I can´t hardly believe it myself sometimes. My mom coming to visit was like seeing the whole story come full circle.....but it truly is her fault......haha. Anyways...the picture......my mom and I made a very similar trip to Peru the first time I came as a tourist, and after I returned we pulled out her old photo album and realized that I took nearly the exact same pictures of the exact same things. So I created an album of our trips together side by side. We both took a picture looking up at this balcony and so this picture was taken to add to the album, finally 14 years later we were able to stand in the same place in this magical country that changed both of our lives forever....

Too bad I don´t look too great in the picture....but at least she looks good. 

Well Babs also had the chance to meet a lot of family including aunts, uncles, cousins, coco´s dad and his family...and they were all extremely hospitable to us.

And we spent our last few days in a little hotel a block in from the ocean in the Miraflores area. It was very close to the Larcomar shopping center which rests on a cliff overlooking the sea. We walked all throughout Miraflores, Kennedy Park, and Larcomar shopping center. 

My mom has more pictures of these few days as I ran out of memory on my little camera but I´ll never forget spending this time with my mom. One of my favorite moments was when I took my mom to see the restaurant where I met Coco. It was so fun to show her everything about my life in Peru. Mom, you´re the best!