Well, 4 days later and we finally made it out of Ecuador. On our first day in Lima, we arrived late last night and were picked up at the airport by our hostal. Henrey, a 13 year old boy. I was a little nervous at first because I thought he would be driving us. He just got us a taxi, so all was well.
In the morning, we took our time getting up and getting ready. One reason was because it happened to be Sunday. Down here many things are closed on Sundays. So once we were ready we grabbed a Taxi and took the long drive (about 20 minutes) to Miraflores. This was a beautiful part of Lima. It was right on the coast with many parks and artists on the streets. It was just great.
What made it even better was for lunch we found a sandwich shop. Now, this is big news because for the last month we have been eating chicken and rice. I love sandwiches and this place was very exciting. So we go in (its sort of inside, but mainly open and a covered roof) and sit down and start to look at the menu. We ordered a sandwich and started people watching. The restaurant was packed. I saw this old man sitting inthe corner drinking some sort of berry juice. Once our sandwiches came...the drama began!
The cute little old man with the berry juice stood up and began to scream at the waiter because it took over an hour for his food. Personally I on´t believe it, but I was not going to get into this fight. The man got up and came up to our waiter who was standing right next to our table. (This is not a very big restaurant). The man was screaming at the waiter, who simply ignored him and said sorry. The man started to leave, turned around to come back and slapped the waiter. his time the aiter tried to escort the man out, who was stil screaming. (remember all of this is within 3 feet of us) The man starts to leave and then began to wave his drink around. I am thinking that I am going to get covered in this berry flavored drink. However, the man managed to keep it all in the glass. Very surprising. Then he begins to leave after slamming the glass on the table. All of a sudden, I see Sarah, who had a clear view of the man, I was sitting facing into the restaurant, so I had my back to him. I watched Sarah and she had an "OH SHIT" (sorry for the language) look on ther face and she jumped up and moved toward the wall. I turn around and this very old man had picked up a chair and was ready to throw it! I dove out of the way because the chair wasn´t that high and it would have beamed me straight in te back of the head. So we both dive out of the way and the man takes the chair and charges the waiter. The waiter, naturally pushed the man away and the man slipped and fell off a single step and cut his elbow pretty bad. Shortly after people on the street came buy blaming the waiter (who actually saved my head from a chair beating) and police showed up, police dogs showed up, and an ambulance showed up. They tried arresting the waiter, but we were all vouching for him. This was by no means his fault. The man asaulted him twice and then verbally assaulted him for 20 minutes. We learned the old man was a retired police officer and was taken to the hospital. The waiter was not arrested but had a big red welt where he was slapped. The owner was livid at the people on the street who were blaming the waiter, even though they had not seen the whole situation, just the aftermath. The whole situation was quite and ordeal. Welcome to Lima!
After we wound down with a starbucks frapachino. We have a starbucks! Then spent the day walking around Miraflores and looking at shops and taking in our new and exciting city. Later at night we had a beer and watched a soccer game. Then it was back to the hostal for the night. What an exciting first day!
02/24/08
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