So today started off late. I tried to wake up at 8, but that didn’t work out. So I got up at 9, got ready, and went downstairs for breakfast. A lot of the UGA people were downstairs already so I sleepily headed down. Breakfast was similar to what we had every day in Ecuador: jam, butter, bread, eggs (with ham), coffee, and tea. I made a beeline for the coffee and poured 90% of the small container into my cup, added milk and sugar, and drank that shit. “It’s weird that this coffee is cold,” I thought. More people woke up and joined us. Todd sat down next to Judy and I and Sophia joined us shortly after. Sophia taught Todd how to drink the coffee. Apparently what was in the small container was coffee extract and extremely CONCENTRATED. You were supposed to add a little coffee, hot water, and milk and sugar. At this point, I’m realizing I just drank the equivalent of 10 cups of coffee in about 5 minutes. I keep eating my bread and eggs but start to feel really awake. I sat down talking to people for another 45 minutes and headed upstairs to get ready for the day’s activities. At this point, I start feeling sleepy again. Now I know for SURE that I’m developing caffeine tolerance.

Amparo, one MEDLIFE staffer, takes us to this shopping mall and plaza on the cliffs overlooking the beach. The view was AMAZING and BREATHTAKING. We wandered around trying to find a place where we could exchange money, but there was nothing open. We cleared Starbucks out by trying to exchange our dollars for soles. Since we couldn’t find anywhere that was relatively inexpensive (it was a tourist trap) and that took American dollars, we had to eat at TGIF. Horrible. We’re in a foreign country and we’re eating at TGIF. Still, given the circumstances (we had no soles and needed to go to a place that would exchange with us), it was whatever. We then took more pictures and headed back to the hostel.

At the hostel, we pretty much just hung out for two hours by the pool since it was so hot. It was nice just chilling and recuperating from our “stressful journey.” At around 4:30, we started our meeting, which divided our enormous group into Berkeley + others versus UGA + others. It was self-explanatory; they talked about what to do at stations, what stations we were assigned to, etc. They also went over their safety policies and how we were not allowed to go out without a chaperone. Everything was much stricter than in Riobamba.

After the meeting, we hung out in the lobby and played cards. I taught people how to play German (also called Shithead apparently) along with Big 2 and Egyptian War. I won Egyptian War :) and they also played spoons while I looked at a map of Miraflores and looked for places we could explore. Afterward, we got Papa John’s pizza for dinner. It was uneventful and not very delicious. I’ve eaten SO MANY CARBS since this trip began. After dinner, I took my shower, which was a lot better than the one the night before, and sat down to type out my journal and just relax for a bit. I was pretty tired so I turned in for the night after.

I’m so amazed by how different Lima and MEDLIFE in Lima is from Ecuador. Everything in Ecuador was much more relaxed and less structured; we could go out whenever we wanted and clinic wasn’t as organized. We didn’t’ get an orientation or anything of the sort. In Lima, there were more MEDLIFE staff and everything was organized. I can’t help but keep drawing comparisons between Ecuador and Peru, even though I know I probably shouldn’t.