Aloha and Holo Holo: Friends and Fun in Lima

One of the things Jeff has been working on as part of the process to become a diplomat is being able to show fluency in Spanish. So, he has been working with a few tutors on italki. There is one tutor he has been meeting with consistently for months. She is Venezuelan, but she lives in Lima, and it was a privilege for us to meet up with her and her family for a day of fun. We met at a lovely park (Parque Maria Reiche) where much of the landscaping is designed to look like the Nazca drawings. Eventually, we all headed out to grab some lunch in a small, local restaurant with delicious food. After lunch, we decided to Uber into the city center to see the Circuito Magico del Agua, an impressive display of fountains and flowers in the Parque de Reserva. It was a wonderful day, and we had so much fun! Interestingly, in the course of our conversation, we found out that Ruth's italki Spanish tutor, who is Venezuelan but lives in Argentina, is the cousin of the husband of Jeff's tutor. It's such a small world! When we had said "Adios" to our friends, we headed back to our apartment for dinner. After dinner, Jeff and I went for a walk along the malecon, while the kids opted to stay at the apartment reading and playing games. Our walk took us through a large, fancy shopping area, where we popped in to a restaurant overlooking the ocean called "Popular" for pisco sours. Unexpectedly, we also ordered a dessert called "Ponderacion." We ordered it simply because of the vague description on the menu, thinking it would be a fun surprise, which it definitely was.

Nazca lines landscaping

Wheat tea (or something similar),
which was served with our lunch

Circuito Mágico del Agua

Water Tunnel
(Just before this picture was taken,
my oldest son ran his hand along
the outside of the fountain,
causing the water to fall inward
and effectively soaking us
and also causing the
attendant to blow his whistle!
I did not kill the child, but he
had better produce an
amazing Mother's Day gift!)