Technical Difficulties

This morning I went back to La Lucha for brunch, then to a huge department store for a shopping spree. All of the pants I brought with me on this trip have stopped functioning. Both jeans have serious problems with the zippers and I also discovered this morning that my leggings have a giant hole. I replaced the pants, and found a shirt and sweater to add to the 6 shirt rotation.

After shopping, I headed toward the beach to walk along the coast. When I arrived, I landed in Love Park, where there is a full on statue of people making out. There are also tiled walls with lovesick phrases in Spanish. It was weird. I quickly headed out of there, and on to the section of the park/coast where people exercise. I happened to think it was also a nice place to sit, but watching the other people use the free exercise equipment made me feel like getting a snack, so I headed toward the next section where there are restaurants and stores. As soon as I saw The Gap, I knew I had to get out of there, too. Lima is a bit too much like America some times. So I continued on my walk until I spotted a very strange store. At first, it looked like the store was a flea market of sorts, with bins of unorganized clothes and signs saying everything in is bin is 9 soles or everything in the bin is 5 soles. I almost passed it up entirely, but it was packed with Peruvians, and it wasn't The Gap. It ended up being my favorite store in Lima. It is where Marshalls clothes go to die. One bin was full of Theory. Another bin had only Rock and Republic shirts. Nothing was more than 4 American dollars. I doubled my possessions in 30 minutes and ended up paying no more than $20. I am already excited to go back in November when I am back in Lima.

After the second shopping spree, I had to go back to the hostel to try everything on again and to make sure everything fit into my bag! It does! Then I headed off to dinner at an Arabic restaurant. After eating at La Lucha for all of my meals so far, I thought I would mix it up. The felafel plate was an excellent choice, but I still needed a McDonald's ice cream after I finished. While at McDonald's, I discovered a mini crisis. Gmail finally realized I left the country, and blocked me out of my own email. The only ways to get back into my email were 1- have them text me (my phone is long gone) or 2-have them email my backup email (at Achievement First... so that won't work either). Luckily, Ali saved the day by logging into my account from America while I stress ate a second ice cream. The main concern I had a out being locked out of my email was that I wouldn't be able to access my flight info for tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow's flight, I tried to check in to my flight, but that was an ordeal. The computer at the hostel does not have a functioning keyboard, so you have to type everything in on the screen. I have never seen anything like it. It was kind of like the calculator app on tne computer, but with a keyboard. Eventually, I gave up because not only is the Tame Airlines website in Spanish, but it also doesn't have a check-in section. I then tried on my iPad, but for some reason it kept saying my flight couldn't be found. After the Cusco flight mishap, I started to worry that I messed up again, so I tried calling Tame from the hostel phone. After 5 minutes of unsuccessfully navigating the Spanish operating system, the receptionist took over, and got me on the line with someone who confirmed my flight, but expressed a great deal of concern about my one way flight. While it seems pretty logical to me to have one flight and then take the bus back, this is apparently going to be a challenge tomorrow. Fortunately, because of all of the check-in and computer drama, I was forced to talk to this human, and he said to simply bring a print out of my departure itinerary from Lima. Easy enough.