Adventures with Mom!

My mom and her friend Jen visited all last week and we had a blast! They stayed in a condo in Miraflores and luckily I got to stay with them every night. I was a little worried about them when I had to be at class just because the only Spanish words they know are "rojo" and "cerveza" - but they figured it out! (for the most part) Talk about a role reversal... after 21 years of my mom taking care of me, I was finally taking care of her! I knew the first place I had to take her was Mangos, the restaurant with the ocean view. :)

We went out to eat a lot and went shopping when I wasn't in class. One of the nights we went to Parque de las Aguas, a park with tons of cool water fountains with colors and lights. 

A picture of the light/water show

The rest of the week was full of lots of adventures and things I had never done in Lima before! For example, paragliding along the coast (SO AWESOME!!)

View of the coast from my parachute

I had to borrow those shoes because we couldn't wear flip flops!

It started to get really foggy while I was up there and we almost had to land on the beach and take a taxi back up to the landing post - but it finally cleared up enough to land!

Me coming back from paragliding 

On Saturday we took a boat from La Punta (a point of Lima that juts out into the ocean) out to a bunch of islands. We got out at one to.... yes... SWIM! with sea lions! The water was freezing even with wet suits, but it was a great experience. They got really close to us and I didn't feel scared at all. When we asked the guide if they were friendly he just said "they're... curious." - which they definitely were! 

Mom and I floating in the water with the sea lions :)

On Sunday a few of us took a 2 hour bus ride to Cañete, a town in the South. We then took a 45 minute taxi ride to Lunahuana, a beautiful little town in the middle of a bunch of mountains, where we went white water rafting! It was my first time and I absolutely loved it. It wasn't as intense as I thought it would be and luckily nobody fell out!

All ready in our helmets and life vests

Here we go!!

Our raft...

After the white water rafting and lunch, we went four wheeling with a guide on some dusty paths in Lunahuana. So fun! It was a surprise when we were all of a sudden four wheeling through grape vines and ended up at a bodega in the middle of nowhere. So of course we sampled the wine and pisco before heading back!

On Monday we relaxed at a beach in Barranco and shopped a little at Larcomar before Mom and Jen left my place around 6:30. I was very sad to see them go but know the time will go fast before I'm back in Madison! Hopefully not too fast though... I'm enjoying every minute and every opportunity I have here. :)