Lima

We made it to Lima!  It's so strange to be outside of Costa Rica, but as soon as we stepped off the plane it was apparent we were somewhere new.  The weather here is breezy and cool, which is awesome (to be fair we did arrive at 8pm).  Let's backtrack a bit.  First of all, to leave Costa Rica they make you pay an exit fee of $27/person.

Kind of a dick move, if you ask me (pardon my French).  Then we went through security and waited at the gate awhile.  The flight was about 4 hours, and the time change is now 2 hours ahead of California, whereas Costa Rica was only one hour ahead.

To get off the plane, you have to walk down the stairs outside, which is always kinda cool (I've only ever done it a few times in Hawaii):

It kinda makes you feel like a celebrity on a private jet, except you look and feel like shit because you sat in coach with some assholes in front of you that reclined their seats all the way back, but hey it's still fun for a minute.  Here's our lovely plane:

We took a shuttle to baggage claim, where we went through immigration and customs (barely any lines!) and then out to find our ride.  Our driver had my name on a sign:

How fun is that??  I've never had a driver with my name on a sign!  He was a super nice guy, very professional:

It took us about 30 minutes to get to the hostel from the airport, which is pretty far, but there was a lot of traffic.  Apparently the airport is kind of out of the way.  We tried to snap pics, but we were driving so fast, it was hard:

It just looked like any other Latin American city, but there were more gothic-style buildings randomly sprinkled into the mix.  Here's our hostel, 1900 Backpackers Hostel:

It was one of those gothic buildings, but a bit unassuming from the outside.  The inside was beautiful!

That is our dorm room.  There are 5 bunk beds, 10 beds in all.  It's not much, but perfect for the night.  The place reminded me of an old, crumbling Victorian mansion, with beautiful light fixtures, super high ceilings and lots of crown molding.  There were a bunch of different sitting areas, some inside, some in a courtyard, some sofas, some chairs and one big, cozy bean bag.  There was a bar/restaurant and game area complete with foosball, pool, a balcony and TV.  And lots of long hallways filled with giant rooms.  Pretty fantastic place!

After we settled in, we were starved.  Since it was after 10pm, we didn't have too many options.  The chick from the hostel said there was a Chinese place down the street, which seemed strange because we just arrived and wanted to eat local Peruvian food, but we were also maddeningly hungry.  Hmm...dilemma!  We ended up having to go to the local mall to get local currency from the ATM.  Aaron loves his candy!

This is 100 Soles:

100 Soles is about $30 and things seem to be relatively cheap here.  We went to the Chinese place and had no idea what we were ordering because everything was in Spanish and none of the words were recognizable except pollo (chicken), so this is what we ended up with.  We started with wonton soup:

The broth was amazing!  Then I ordered what I thought was lemon chicken (it was key lime chicken):

It was interesting because the chicken and breading were good, but the sauce was so syrup sweet, it was kinda shocking at first.  Once I got used to it, I ended up liking it (I scootched most of the sauce to the side).  Aaron got a "combo," which turned out to be noodles, rice and chicken:

Insanely good.  Best fried rice I've ever had.  The table came with this homemade spicy sauce:

Too spicy for me, but Aaron seemed to like it.  The local soda is called Inca Kola:

It tastes like drinking bubble gum.  I'm not sure how people drink this with food (let alone at all), but they were.  We paid with our 100 soles, so we got change:

In total, with drinks and 2 entrees, our entire dinner was $7!  Crazy cheap!  Then we went back to the hostel and had a drink on the balcony:

Aaron really liked this because it was super hoppy.  This was called Cusquena Roja.  I guess they have other types, but he just tried this and liked it.  It was huge!  Almost like a drinking a 40!

Now it's midnight and I still need to shower before flight #2 tomorrow, so I'm off!  Except....I have to share the HILARIOUS thing that happened to Aaron this morning at our hostel in Alajuela.  It's so disgusting and embarrassing, so if you have a weak stomach TURN AWAY NOW!
So, Aaron went to the bathroom this morning and tried to text me a BUNCH of times for toilet paper, but I didn't get the messages until hours later (for some reason my phone was being weird at the hostel and not getting service).  I screen shot the texts because I was laughing so hard, I knew I needed these in my life forever.  I wasn't planning on sharing, but it's just too funny and gross!

OMG could you die!?!?  Anyway, have a good night and try not to dream of my boyfriend stuck on the toilet.