"Dude, what's he saying?"

Please keep in mind that this story is told from my perspective, which a lot of times is told in a sarcastic or dramatic way. :)
This morning my wonderful parents got me up at 8:30. Boy, I love that on a Saturday morning! *groan* Then they went to do some errands. By the time Mom and Dad came back, all us kids were ready to go to Callao.
Callao is another part of Lima (kind of like Barranco is). It's also where the airport is, so I kind of knew what to expect (what it looked like and stuff). Callao kind of reminds me of Huaraz except a little more spread-out and cleaner. Kind of like a slower-paced part of Lima. Callao is pronounced "kiyow." Say it with a karate stance, and it helps. KiYOW!!
Anyways, we rode in a taxi to a very old fort in Callao. It was built to keep out pirates and other such "bad guys." Think Pirates of the Caribbean. So we got there and were met by a group of four soldiers, some of who were holding rifles. Friendly place, right? We were told that the next tour was in 30 minutes, so guess what we did? Following family tradition, we wandered around around, of course! You know that's right.
My family and I walked down a street, guided by a lady who maybe worked for the city...or the fort? I actually have no clue who she was, but I think she was a city guide or something. She took us down to a police memorial/display site. It was filled with statues of policemen wearing their various uniforms and holding various guns and standing in front of various tanks and SWAT (SUAT ha) trucks. It was pretty interesting, but we had to get back to the fort to get on the tour.
Braving the extreme humidity and intense heat, we made our way back to the fort where we got inside (not before roasting ourselves outside--all the bricks make the place like an adobe oven!). To start the tour, we watched a movie--all in Spanish. Of course. We were all like, "They could have at least put English subtitles!" But alas, it was not to be. At one point I asked Emily, "Dude, what's he saying?" She was like, "I....don't really know." That pretty much sums up the whole tour--not understood at all. We got to see some replicas of uniforms, paintings of generals, and artifacts from the fort, though. All that history was pretty cool. It truly did remind me of Pirates of the Caribbean. The parts I did understand were things like, "Follow me," "let's go," "silence please," and some other words thrown in with the tour. I did understand a lot more than I had hoped though. They talk really fast in Lima, so that makes it more difficult to follow. One funny thing was a guy pretending to be a mannequin and then scaring people as they took pictures of him. Then he was just creepy. It didn't help that I had NO IDEA what he was saying.
A really awesome part of the tour was going up into one of the towers and getting to see the city. There was a 360-degree view of Callao, very beautiful. I wondered what the fort was like when it was being used. Pretty cool, although the guide apparently said that they had an outbreak of bubonic plague. Ew.
By the end of the tour, we were thoroughly educated on the fort and baked to a crisp. And hungry because it was 3 o'clock! So we hopped into a taxi and drove off for the Larcomar, a mall by the ocean. (It was probably more like dragged and crammed ourselves into the taxi. We have to cram 6 of us in the backseat--no seatbelts or anything. Lucky Dad gets the front seat.)At Larcomar, we went to Chifa, a Chinese restaurant, for Emily's half-birthday. She is 16 and a half :) (I have been there 3 times before while on the mission trip.)We sank into the seats and ate. And ate. And ate. I promise you, it's the best Chinese food I have EVER eaten. I love it. So it was a great ending to a great day with family. My crazy, adventurous family. :)
Mags:)