Buenas Noches y Buena Suerte

**This is a post that I started in Seattle right after Brian left and I'm finishing now**



He's off and running. Now that you all know Brian is officially out of the United States, I feel it's time for me to give the preamble to his February 22nd post. In short, this post details "Brian Tracy: Packing and Un-packing".

Brian is a planner. I know this because he has been planning (verbally) what to take on this adventure for the past month. "Kim, I think I'm going to bring the grey fleece. Do you think I should bring the grey fleece. It's really warm and could be great in the mountains and I like to use it as a pillow". An hour later: "I'm not going to bring the grey fleece. Should I bring the grey fleece?" And so on and so forth it went until the night before he left when I called him to see how excited he was and he says, "I'm bringing the grey fleece."

Brian has made us prepared for absolutely anything, which is nothing to complain about. We could get left in the Andeas for three months and Brian and I would be prepared to hunt and gather our own food, make shelter, purify water and shield ourselves from all kinds of nasty bugs. It would be marvellous.

Now, as a disclaimer, I feel comfortable poking a little fun at Brian solely because he should be poking fun at me for all the opposite reasons. This became apparent very quickly after my arrival in Lima. As I walked out of the costums area to meet up with Brian (who arranged a taxi driver and a hotel and an exact spot to meet him a week in advance), I realized that I had only packed one pair of pants (jeans, which I was wearing), one pair of shorts, too many tank tops and not enough t-shirts. Oh well. I think it makes us just that much better of a team.

So, these days, as Brian and I ready ourselves for the day (me in the same shorts I've been wearing for almost a week now), we both grab our purses (Brian bought a man bag in Bolivia - it's actually really cool) and head out to face the world. Team USA. Yin and Yang. Calm and Chaos. It's gonna be good.

My Observations After One Day in Lima

So the adventure has begun for me. I made it safely to Lima last night, and it was pretty smooth getting to my hotel in Miraflores. Although the mix of the heat and a noisy street made it hard to get much good sleep. Today was my day to check out Lima (AKA waste some time until I fly to La Paz). Here are my thoughts right now:

• It is really hot here! Chicago was the last place I´ve been that is warm and humid like this. My body and mind are used to the rain and cold. I probably have already gotten sunburn! I definitely packed too many warm clothes for now, but it may be worthwhile in the Andes in June.
• My Spanish is not as good as I had hoped. I started to gain a little confidence on the plane... going through a Spanish workbook and listening to some movies in Spanish. But people speak it so fast. I´m pretty confident that my learning curve will be fairly fast as well. I´m learning words on the bus, walking down the street, etc. by listening.
  
• Travelling is tiring. I don´t sleep too well on the plane. I´m looking forward to getting to Yanayo and being in one place for a few days.
• I think Bolivia will be a lot different than Miraflores (in Lima). Miraflores is very posh and there is shopping everywhere. There are some nice views of the ocean and la playa, and it definitely feels very safe. La policia are everywhere.
  
• Lima is a big, crazy city. This afternoon I took a bus from Miraflores to Central Lima and the traffic and exhaust were incredible. Then I got out of the bus a bit earlier than I wanted to and wandered around not knowing where I was. Finally I decided to go into an art musuem, which was very cool, and it gave me a chance to sit down for a few minutes. Then I hopped a bus back. It is intimating to be in a gigantic city that has more confusing streets than Seattle (and I´m not yet an expert with the language).
  

I´m heading back to the airport in a few hours and I can´t say I will be sad to leave Lima (plus I´ll be back soon). I am really looking forward to meeting up with the EWB group, and getting out to Yanayo. I´ve been curious about what that place is like for a long time. I´m also formulating a plan to hang out with Doc Odle (a connection from Seattle) during an extra day I have in La Paz on the way back. The options include mountain biking or heading up to 17,500 ft to check out some receding glaciers!

Brian