Parque de las Leyendas (Zoo), Parque de la Imaginacion (Imaginarium), and Circuito Magico del Agua

Here are some notes and pictures from visits to three cultural attractions.

Parque de las Leyendas (Zoo)

The zoo is awesome! It was by far the least expensive zoo we've ever been to (S/15 for the adults, which is less than $4 USD) and it had tons of animals, most that were very active while we visited. The zoo is built around pre-Inca ruins, which are scattered throughout the site. In addition to usually active animals like the seals and penguins, it was amazing to see two white lions playing with each other. Most of the other animals were actively moving around including water buffalo and an alligator. 

There were in-park activities available for purchase and we decided to enjoy the inflatable "Fun Jungle".

Parque de la Imaginacion (Imaginarium)

This was an interesting place. We stumbled upon it after trying to go to the Museo Larco and being denied entry because we had Gidget with us. Sidenote - our ability to take her with us has been hit-or-miss. The majority of restaurants are dog-friendly, some even allowing her to be inside as opposed to on the patio. Cultural sites and museums are mixed - some allow her inside a backpack carrier while others prohibit outright. 

The Imaginarium was a hodge podge of science things, most animal related. There were aquarium tanks, a dinosaur exhibit, a "train" journey around Africa, an earthquake exhibit, etc.

Circuito Magico del Agua

The Circuito is a park with dozens of fountains. We went there at dusk to catch them lit up, supposedly there are light shows at certain points of time, but did not experience one. There were military demonstrations and personnel there the day we went - not sure if that is regular or just something we stumbled upon. It was also the first - but not only - time we have been surrounded by dozens of school children who are interested in us, our dog, or our kids. 

Pre-South America: Florida

Kelly’s parents, her aunt, and her brother live in / near Sarasota so we spent two weeks mostly spending time with them. This included celebrating Lincoln and my birthdays, renting a boat and cruising around Sarasota Bay, completing some puzzles, watching the Little League World Series, and eating home-cooked meals. It was great. We also visited Kelly’s extended family who live in Central Florida.

We made a two-day detour to Disney, primarily to experience the Star Wars attractions. Because it was “off season” the crowds and lines weren’t too bad and we were able to experience everything we wanted to experience. 

Kelly worked her magic with JetBlue and got us a full refund (they wanted to give us travel credits) and we booked accommodations in Miami instead of Ft. Lauderdale. 

We spent Labor Day weekend in Miami not doing much. We drove around, visited a couple beaches, and re-packed suitcases for the final time. We also sold the 2nd car while in Miami. Both CarMax and Carvana offered the same price, but there was a CarMax close to our hotel so we decided to sell to CarMax. While the outcome was the same with CarMax and Carvana, the Carvana sales process took 20 minutes, while the CarMax process took nearly two hours. It was painfully long, especially on our last full day when we had other things to do. 

On September 6th, we took the airport shuttle to Miami International and boarded our flight. All the travel logistics went as planned and we were on our way.

Lima Arrival

We arrived in Lima as scheduled after a five and a half hour flight from Miami. We got Gidget’s dosage right because she was really good on the flight (i.e., mostly slept, didn’t beg much to get out of the carrier, etc.). We got through Immigration / Customs without any hiccups and because we had a dog and kids they put us through the priority line. We had to do a secondary registration for Gidget, which was the first (but not last) time asking our translator (a.k.a. Colin) for help.

We met our pre-arranged taxi driver outside, though he claimed I only indicated four passengers and five suitcases. Amazingly everything fit into the car and we made the 45 minute drive to our AirBnB. At this point, Gidget hadn’t gone to the bathroom in nearly 10 hours. We shared that with our driver who stopped at a small park en route. We got to our apartment, the security guard was expecting us and gave us our key, and we got into our apartment with no issues.

The apartment we rented is a two-story unit on the twelve floor of a building in Miraflores. The first level contains three bedrooms (four beds) and two full bathrooms. There is sufficient space for clothes, suitcases, etc. The second floor has the living room, kitchen, and a large outdoor terrace. We knew the lack of a clothes dryer and dishwasher would take some adjusting to, but we would make it work. While the overall unit is small, it is what we expected and big enough for our needs. The outdoor terrace is particularly awesome, though it would be 100X better if the weather was nicer (more on that later). 

So after a long travel day, we settled in for a good night's sleep … at least as good as you can expect when you realize you are living in a major metropolitan area with lots of cars, people, and NOISE. More on that latter too.

Overall, we were really happy to have made it to Peru without many hiccups and looking forward to enjoying this experience. More updates and photos to come …

Pre-South America: Asheville / Rosman (NC)

For no reason other than we’d never been together, we went through Asheville, NC enr oute to Florida. So down to one car, we piled everything into the Ford Flex and hit the road. 

En route to Asheville, we stopped by James Madison University (Kelly’s alma mater) and Kelly got on the phone with American Airlines to book new flights. American Airlines implemented a different policy from JetBlue and there would be no issue with Gidget. She even got her own confirmation number. The new flights were 3X the price of the JetBlue ones, but in fairness, the JetBlue flights were really inexpense. Derek stopped spiraling at this point, though it would not be the last time he pointed out how Gidget increased the degree of difficulty (and cost) for this experience. 

We visited some art galleries, drank some local brews, and walked around the downtown area. Asheville is a nice area with way more to explore than we had time for. One notable thing occurred during our time in Asheville that had nothing to do with Asheville, which is that we finished reading We Came, We Saw, We Left - a book about a family that took a “gap year” together that we started reading as a family in Cleveland. We finished it over a spread of wine / sparkling cider, cheese, and fruits in the Blue Ridge Mountains. 

After Asheville, we spent a couple nights in Rosman, NC, which is 45 minutes from Asheville on the outskirts of the Pisgah National Forest. We hiked a little, rode a natural rock slide, and went tubing in a river outside our AirBnB. Rosman is a very small but nice town, and it was a relaxing couple days before the long drive to Sarasota. 

To “keep it real”, traveling can be stressful, traveling with family can be stressful, and being together all day for weeks on end can be stressful … all that to say, we had a family meltdown en route to Sarasota. No details necessary, but just a reminder that this is not all sunshine and rainbows despite only capturing smiling faces on the photos we post.

Pre-South America: Washington DC

We spent what amounts to a long weekend in DC. This included an afternoon with three of Kelly’s friends plus their children … which ended up being 21 people, including 13 kids. They had a nice pool where the kids played and one of the dad’s worked the grill. Kelly had a great time catching up and talking with her friends. 

Derek caught up with his former boss from Nashville schools and we spent some time visiting the National Mall and surrounding spaces. 

We experienced our first travel roadblock while in DC when we found out Gidget would not be allowed to travel on our JetBlue flight from Ft. Lauderdale to Lima due to CDC guidance on dogs coming from (emphasis added) Peru to the US. Apparently there is some issue with rabies in Columbia, Ecuador and Peru and JetBlue was enforcing a policy of not allowing dogs coming from or going to. Despite Derek's in-person questioning of a JetBlue agent at Reagan Airport, we would need to either not take our dog (not an option) or book new flights on a different airline. While we knew there would be challenges, this first stressor sent Derek into a tailspin for a couple days. Fortunately, Kelly is the cooler head when these sorts of things happen. More on the solution en route to Asheville.

Finally, we sold the Ford Escape to Carvana, which offered a better price than CarMax. It was a relatively simple and straight-forward experience. The CarMax experience would come in Miami, which was not as enjoyable.