How ever did I make it to Asia?

While I wished all of the LUC gang, the Sotho, and the Peruvians in SFA a very happy New Year, I was content to be taking a break from the the cold water of our port-o-potty-sized showers and ubiquity of sand there. Hector dropped Christine and me off in Lima, where she and I repeated the LUCOF tour from two Saturdays prior but at a slightly slower pace. We also added into the tour a stop by the Nativity Scene a la Rainforest Cafe visit at Nuestra Señora de la Merced church.

Once Hector got Keith from the airport later in the afternoon, he met up with us and the four of us went for a drink in Miraflores. To make a long story short, I left the table about 1.5 pisco sours into the night and didn’t ever make it back. Someone eventually found me, and Keith started feeding me pepto bismol. I don’t recall ever consuming 10 pepto bismol chewable tablets to alleviate this sort of problem, but I was in no state to argue effectively. I was pretty much carried to Hector’s car and taken to Ericka’s house at Playa Asia, not without an incident or two along the way, apparently. Poor Hector!

That night I slept for a couple of hours curled up in a ball propped up against the wall in the shower. Not exactly comfortable, but definitely comforting! I woke up on 31 December 2009 feeling not entirely horrible. After relaxing in the hammock for a while, I slowly made my way with the others off to The Boulevard mall complex for some shopping. Did I need a new bathing suit? Really? Obviously!


For lunch that day back at the beach house, I tried my first Peruvian causa. Yellow potato stuffed with ingredients. In this case, one with octopus, one with langostino, and one with crabmeat.

Around 5:30 or 6 the buzz of decorating the house for the pre-party started. I realized I probably wasn’t going to actually get a disco nap in before New Year’s Eve festivities began. Decoration included creating floating candles for the soaking pool all’improviso out of used plastic water bottles. The result of our [or mostly Keith’s] efforts was glorious! Several of Ericka’s friends came over for snacks and drinks before we were to head to the clubhouse party after midnight. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Happy New Year! Time for grapes & wishes: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. A few calls were exchanged between the US & Peru at this point. Of course, Mike called right at Midnight Peru time, thoughtful chap that he is. Of course, my parents called right after, loving padres that they are.

The party that we walked to at the beach club after leaving Ericka’s reminded me so much of the Endymion Extravaganza. There was finger food, booze, good people, and groovy music (from Abba to merengue to R&B to cumbia to mambo to reggaeton) from 12:30 til 6:30. Around 4:30 or so the aguadito de pollo (a.k.a. levanta muertos) so we could make it another 2+ hours.

There exists a New Year’s tradition of running into the ocean, possibly wearing clothes you were partying all night in. Our modified version involved stopping at the house on the walk to the beach and changing. In we went! Shortly after what would otherwise be an invigorating dip, people collapsed into various sleeping spots. I took the hammock!

After two hours of sleep, I changed into my new bathing suit to take advantage of the sun. Pretty much the entire day was spent lounging in the glare until the task fell upon me to do what the Rojas family, as beach & blender people, would do well: make improvised piña coladas. There was maracuyá (passion fruit) sorbet in the freezer, so we had maracuyá-piña coladas, ordered lunch from the club, and lounged some more before playing cards that night. There would have been worse ways to spend day 1 of 2010.

My last day with Ericka, Shel, and the bunch at Playa Asia was also a good one: Ruben, Ericka, and I went for a jog in the morning, then we crept off to The Boulevard for lunch. I had my first pescado (corvina) arrebosado here: basically, fish fillet enveloped in a thin omelet, obviously served with rice AND potatoes. There was a cosmopolitan toast of despidida then off to Ica by highway-stop bus I went to meet up with some Seattle [+1 CA] boys.