1st Couch Surfing Experience

Oh, I didn't know you were there. I can't hear knocking at the door from my room because it is on the other side of the house. So now we know that while we have been intermittently pounding on the door and sitting on the curb assuming that our host is not yet home, she has been upstairs in her pajamas,
contentedly watching television in her room on the other side of the house. For over an hour now, Gene has insisted that he needs to pound harder on the door. I have insisted that he has probably already awakened the entire neighborhood, and that obviously our host has not yet returned home. It was, after all, only 9 pm when we returned to the house.
Although we have hosted many travelers in our home, it is our first Couch Surfing experience as guests. So far, it has been, well, let's just say interesting. We had made a couch request a couple of months in advance, and then re-confirmed last month. Our host had said to just come. Don't worry about anything, she said. We had a private room with bath for a week, she said. Pretty luxurious for couch surfing. She apparently lived with her mother and a couple of half-grown kids. We looked forward to what sounded like a friendly family situation. She responded to my second email asking for directions with info on which Combi to take from the airport. When we get to the Ovalo near her house we should call her, she said.
A few weeks in advance of our travels, we sent emails requesting additional information. Our emails went unanswered. We decided that if things didn't work out, we would stay at a hotel or hostel, but based on our hosts' initial enthusiasm, we wanted to stay with her and her family if possible. On the day before our departure, when our emails had still gone unanswered, we knew that we should just plan on a hotel. But still we decided to give it one more chance. Since our host had already given us her phone numbers, we called Peru. Surprise! Our host is out of town and will return next week! But not to worry, says her mother. She has a room waiting for us and wants to meet us! OK, we decide. This seems a little weird, but the woman is enthusiastic and welcoming over the phone. So let's go. Worst case scenario is that things don't work out and we go to a hotel.
So here we are on our first night in Peru, sitting on the curb for an hour thinking that we would love to go to a hotel, but all of our stuff is inside this house. And once our host appears, we realize it's all a big mistake and we should have pounded harder on the door. And it may seem a bit odd that there are only wires hanging from the hole in the outside wall of the house where a door bell mechanism may once have lived, but who ever said that all houses had to have working door bells? Feeling guilty that I have been having less than positive thoughts about this lovely woman who has taken us into her home and who, earlier this evening, took us along with her on the Combi bus and showed us where to get off to go wandering around the central park area of Miraflores, I tell myself to get over it - and I collapse into bed, happy to be in Peru.
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