After deciding that Lima was an awful smelly city, and considering leaving early and spending shabbos alone in some small town, we decided to stick with it and give it another try.  We spent Friday walking around downtown Lima, which was surprisingly really nice.

We went to a vegetarian restaurant where we again realized that our lack of Spanish is going to be problematic.  The only word that looked familiar to us was tortilla, so we ordered that.  I did not know that a tortilla was actually fried eggs on rice…  Hmm…  At least I was able to communicate with the taxi driver by holding up nine fingers telling him I was only willing to pay 9 soles for the ride.

Bloom will write more about our Shabbos experience, but I must say that I have never felt more like a homeless bum than I did in the Lima shul.  I figured it was ok to look like a homeless vagabond, wearing hiking pants, hiking boots, a fleece and a skirt over the pants.  I felt like an idiot, but figured it would be ok.  When we got to the shul, I looked around and saw that all the other women were wearing fur coats and lots of fancy jewelry.  It was like walking into Or Torah in a track suit.  Humiliation.

I realized the humiliation was worth it when I saw the kiddush, which was actually fancier than our wedding.  There were tuxedoed waiters walking around with champagne, and then a massive fancy lunch.  It was crazy.

That kiddush made up for our awful hostel situation, which wouldn’t be too terrible if only our room had a window that opened to the outside and not to the hallway, and it didn’t smell like mildew, and there weren’t Europeans smoking everywhere, but yeah, other than that, it’s alright.

Tomorrow we are off to Huacachina, a desert oasis a few hours south of Lima.  We hope to go sandboarding there, and get some fresh air after being in the city.