Cock a Doodle Doo!

On this trip I will only have two nights in Lima, one on each end.  For the first time ever for me, we stayed in a neighborhood other than Miraflores.  The hotel is fine, just what we need to an overnight stop on our way to Arequipa.  It is just a few blocks from the Magic Fountain Park that I will write about later, as well as the new stadium.  The trip to the airport was the usual length.

Last night my flight arrived about a half hour late due to a minor maintenance issue.  We thought it was going to be longer because as soon as we pushed back from the gate in Miami the plane turned off.  The lights went off, the engines shut down.  We learned at the end of this 10 minute delay that something was overheated from the first delay combined with time spent idling in the Miami heat.  This initiated an automatic shutdown.

Thankfully immigration was very fast. (The lady officer told me she liked my hair now better than my passport photo! This should not be a big surprise, my passport photo was taken after I battled through a rain and wind storm with no time for retakes in order to get my renewal back before my passport expired).  Baggage claim and customs were nearly as good.  But by the time we made it to the hotel I was exhausted.  The room could have been the size of a closet with a rock hard mattress and I would have slept just fine.  Sleep I did.

Early in the morning, before dawn I was awakened by a sound outside.  I couldn't place it at first, then I realized it was a rooster. Keeping chickens is becoming popular in the United States again and it always has been in Lima.  Two things struck me about my early, early, wake-up call: 1) roosters really do go "cock-a-doodle-doo!!!" and 2) they do not just crow once at dawn like in the corn flake commercials.  That rooster went on for a good hour, sometimes waiting as long as a couple minutes, giving me just enough time to start to fall back to sleep.

I think it is great that these animals give families access to fresh eggs and poultry, it's just that I have now added another must to my house hunting list for Lima: a no chicken neighborhood!