Sunday, May 18, 2008

Lima

Finally, somewhere where I am a visible minority, and people keep telling me that, don´t worry, once you get in the sun, you´ll tan and be brown.

HA.

Lima is a very exuberant city - it rests by the South Pacific and is home to 8 Million Peruvians. It doesn´t feel that big, though, because the city seems so divided into different ¨quartiers¨. Wading around in the ocean was fun; half the group went in the water in their underwear. Even though it is winter here, the ocean is much warmer than I´ve ever experienced it. What a treat. It´s also neat seeing all sorts of greenery which I don´t normally see, such as Palm trees and countless others which I could not identify. The best thing about the greenery is that it´s all over the city! Trees and bushes line all of the roads - it is so refreshing, compared to our cement and no-tree-to-be-seen cities.

Of course, the city is very loud (Peruvians are in love with their car horns) and the extreme difference between rich and poor is very apparent. Seeing young children sleeping on the side of the road and then trying to sell you some candy is very difficult to swallow, especially when the other end of town hosts a five-star, valet-parking Marriott Hotel.

People drive like complete maniacs here. The buses are interesting too - they look like massive vans, except with a door on the side and a guy manning this door. He is constantly yelling out where the bus is going, so if you want it, you wave it down, pay him the fare, and hop inside.

I love the constant language medley of English, French, and Spanish that I am immersed in. Can´t wait to get a better grasp of this language. Today, I had a semi-conversation with a 12-year old girl, so that must be a start!

Tomorrow, we are off to Cuzco. We will not be arriving in our host community until Monday, after a 10-hour long bus ride up and down windy mountain roads.

Today, we were served a mango smoothie for breakfast - I will continue to look forward to this!

1 comment:

Gordon said...

That must'a been one gigantic smoothie to serve twenty-odd people ( and twenty odd people too, for all I know on the matter)

you have a good style in terms of descriptive narrative, I don't know that I've ever read anything you've written before. I look forward to "hearing" more