"¡Bienvenido a Perú!" or "The Adventures and Misadventures of Ben Van Domelen"

     To say that the last two days since my arrival in Peru on the night of the 25th were "busy" would be a preposterous understatement and to say that my arrival in Lima went "smoothly" would be an outright lie. I have a bit too much to write to squeeze it the past few days into one post so I'm going to do use both a favor and split them into two parts. 

     This first part will cover my arrival into Lima on the night of the 25th and how a few misunderstandings led to me spending my first night sleeping on the floor of a Peruvian man's one bedroom apartment.

     Those of you that know me personally know that I've said very nice things about a website called "Couchsurfing.org". I'll spare everyone the specifics, but it is a website for travelers to meet up with other travelers all over the globe and for local "hosts" to offer places for foreign travelers to stay while they visit their city. Many times host will offer a place on their couch for a traveler to stay for a few nights hence the name "Couch Surfing". It's all free to use and it's a fantastic way to meet people while traveling who really know the city inside and out and often the hosts can show you the places to be or go.

     But there's an important thing to remember: not all hosts are created equal. I had some fantastic experiences staying with people in Canada through this website so I naively assumed that most hosts would be equally charming.

Wrong.

     I arrived in Lima around 19.00 and despite my 12 hour flight from Madrid I was bubbling with excitement. After fighting my way through the crowd of taxi drivers all jockeying for customers I selected my ride to my host's house who lived in the southern part of Lima.The 45 minute taxi-ride was an enjoyable experience as I listed to Andean music (complete with pan flutes and the works) and chatted with my friendly taxi driver.

My host. A very kind soul, but not the best of hosts.

     When I arrived at my host's place I was hopeful enough. From the street it looked like an old colonial-era Spanish building: clearly in disrepair, but still very elegant. However, any hopes or dreams I had of a luxurious or spacious apartment where quickly dashed when I walked into this one room apartment.

     Now, it wasn't just a one room apartment, it was the most grungy and dirty apartment I've been in in a long, long time. I can't say it was the "most dirty" because I've volunteered in some legitimate slums in various parts of the world, but I'll be damned if it didn't look like that when I saw it. 

     But wait! THERE'S MORE! My host must have decided somewhere along the line that having three people in a one room apartment just wasn't 'cosy" enough so he surprised me by inviting another couple of couchsurfers.

     So, let's recap. We have five people, two beds, no shower, a filthy apartment, and one other guy who was just chillin' playing guitar. Now my host definitely didn't really think this one out because he said: "Well, I suppose you can sleep on the floor... you have a sleeping bag right?".

"Nope."

     And that's the story of how I slept on the floor of a Peruvian man's dirty apartment in a room with two other couples. And to punctuate it all the other guy snored for most the night.

If you look closely you can see my bed at the bottom of the picture: the tiled floor.

     I quickly decided that I was going to find my own place to stay and I was going to do it fast. My 6.00 the next morning I had all my gear packed and as soon as my host so much as opened an eyelid I was out the door.

     And that, my friends, was my first night in Peru. Luckily, it's all been much, much, better since then, but I'll tell you all about that in my next post.

¡Hasta pronto!