Certified Stamps

I am not in Cajabamba anymore, or Kansas for that matter.

Lima. Capital City. The one and only mega traffic, pollution, noise, oceanfront cement meca in Peru. I was not looking forward to my trip to come to Lima to get some wedding paperwork all straighten out, but I have to tell you I had a fabulous day.

The morning started with a trip to the U.S. embassy. They sent me to the office of an official translator who couldn´t help me, but who sent me to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the central part of Lima, where they could help me. Not only did I spend more than $70 on my official birth certificate with a special letter from the Secretary of State in MN that took a roundtrip to Chicago and back to visit the Peruvian Consulate to get a special stamp - but I had to go to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Lima to get my birth certificate and consulate stamp legalized? Seriously. Does the U.S. make you go to 5 different offices to get your paperwork done before you get married? It doesn´t end there, because I also have to go to a different special translator office tomorrow to get the whole shabag translated into spanish.

Along the way I made friends with many taxi drivers, but never letting my guard down.

Then in the afternoon I took a walking tour of possible hotel options for the big January Lima visit with the family. I was pleasantly surprised at the beautiful, unique and group discount options that I found. So if any of you are looking for Lima accomodations I now feel like an expert. Ask me.