1st Place!

1st Place!

We finished the race to

Peru

and arrived in 1^st place – placing us 1^st overall!

Both squads flew from

Nicaragua

to

Peru

on the same flight and the race didn´t start until we were all in

Peru

.

AIM’s local missionaries dropped us off in the center of town with instructions for 10 destinations and challenges.

We started at

10:00am

and weren’t expected to finish until

5:00pm

.

We ran about a mile to the first location – a dilapidated church overlooking the

Pacific Ocean

(with a historic bust in front).

We arrived at about the same time as Salt (our arch nemesis), snapped our photos and hopped a taxi to the next destination – El Parque del Amor.

Amorous couples´ names graffitied the mosaic wall, also containing tiles of different lovers.

We were expected to find two lovers names´ – Edgardo y Liu.

We found the tiles before the other teams, but by the time we arrived at our next destination, Salt was already well into the third challenge – a relay swim of 200 yards in the thrashing waves to tag a buoy (making for a total swim of 400 yards). I swam second, absolutely one of the hardest physical things I’ve ever done – it was fantastic!

I immediately gulped down a mouthful of salt water (disgusting); my arms began to tire within minutes and my breath burned from just having sprinted.

I finally collapsed on the beach, incapable of movement.

My teammates put my clothes on over my suit and I crawled up the steep incline to scope out the next destination – our lunch.

We needed to find Manos Morenos and order Anticucho.

Salt and the Unnamed team passed me on my return from the search; Eric, Bri and Jon had finished swimming and were on their way to meet me.

We passed Salt in the jog to the food court and arrived at the same time as the Unnamed team, unfortunately for them, they didn’t have their money on hand – so we ordered and got our food first.

Our food looked normal enough, but we discovered, much to Bri’s chagrin, that it was in fact cow heart.

I thought it was surprisingly tasty and tender.

The meal came complete with a drink, a slab of potato, corn (that looked like it was on steroids), some yucca fries and two skewers of cow heart.

By the time we finished eating Salt had also finished eating and the Unnamed ones were hot on our heels.

We darted to the taxis (Salt got one first) and raced for the catacombs buried beneath the San Franciscan Monastery, our 6th stop.

Carlos, our driver joined our excitement in the race and with some fancy maneuvering, managed to get us to the monastery a full 7 minutes before Salt arrived.

Our elation soared.

After hitting the Catacombs within the monastery we needed to find Barrio Chino (

Chinatown

) and order a Mim Pau.

We found our Mim Pau (a ball of dough with sugary filling), shortly after the Unnamed team – whom mysteriously got ahead of us…and ran, food in hand, to the oldest town plaza for a carriage ride around the park.

Only one carriage was in sight and the Unnamed team was headed straight for it.

Jon pulled into full gallop, crashed past the team, dove into the carriage, slapped money in the driver’s hand and we were in first place again!

The Unnamed team wasn’t long in finding a carriage either though and by the time our driver pulled into his parking spot the others were pulling into theirs.

We knew it could go either way at that point – it would depend on whoever got the next taxi first.

We found a taxi and started to pile in and the Unnamed ones came up and explained, rather hurriedly, that they’d in fact flagged the taxi down from the carriage.

We gave up the taxi and ran in search of another.

Five minutes later we were on our way, certain we were in second place, but congratulating ourselves on at least beating Salt.

But, half way up the mountain we looked behind us to see the Unnamed team!

Somehow they had fallen behind and we were in first place, again!

Our car rolled onto the platform, I skipped, Eric cartwheeled, (Jon and Bri just ran) and we made it to the foot of the cross first, in first place!!! Celebration ensued!