Lima first thoughts

Trip Start Sep 24, 2008
1
12
41
Trip End Ongoing


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Where I stayed
Nancy's house
(Lima hotels)

Flag of Peru  ,
Monday, December 22, 2008

I have arrived in Peru...the weather is fantastic, the beach is a little bit different than expected, but all in all...I am safe and happy.  The home stay that I found is in the Miraflores district of Lima, the tourist section.  It is quite different here than in Ecuador.  The people seem a bit trendier, minus the trend.  Miraflores is less dressed up than touristy parts of Ecuador...it is poorer.  Skaters fill the streets, and a surfer attitude seems to run the motivations of the young crowd.  Running every morning will be such a blessing...there is a boardwalk that follows the top of a cliff leading down to the beach.  This morning was really refreshing...it was still cool with a brisk wind on the water front.  The beach reminds me of a combination of Washington and California...there are parts where shoes are definitely required...and others where the sand fills your toes.  My room for the moment overlooks the sunset, last night I watched it fall to the backdrop of large beachfront condos, still beautiful.  I look forward to discovering the parks and more of the beach that stretches for miles in the next month. 
 
I´m suffering a bit of homesickness right now...crossing the boarder was interesting... twenty-six hours on various packed bus´ makes for interesting thoughts.  I have found a volunteer opportunity to spend my time near the orphanage in Chaclacayo, just in case anything falls through...back up plan.  Tomorrow South American explorers are having a BBQ...I´m excited to get to know some other people whom will be here during my pass through Lima.  It turns out that Chaclacayo is about an hour out of Lima...thus a bus ride several times a week may be an option, but an expensive and time consuming one.  I hope to get in touch with Pastora Isabel soon, but have decided to hold off on a surprise visit until after Christmas...being that it is probably one of her busier times of the year.
 
After roughly twenty hours straight in a bus I stopped for the night in Trujillo.  It is a place I will most definitely return...I stayed in the city center and didn't do much of anything but sleep.  However, amongst my taxi rides to the bus terminal I discovered that there is a beautiful little beach situation just outside the city.  It is cheap and worth a return for a couple of days. 
 
The city here feels busier...it is louder than in Quito...it is also taller.  Lacking room to build out, architects have begun to reach for the sky, enabling the seven million people to grow with the buildings.  Condos line the boardwalks above the beach, and proceed along the sides of the more festive streets here.  I saw a billboard coming into the city that showed a before and after picture of the past four years...time and construction have provided the poor with jobs and the rich with luxury it seems.  Casinos also dot the Ikea idea housing along more trafficked avenues.  At first glance one can see that stratification and the gap between the rich and poor is also growing. 
 
I am stoked with quicker internet speeds that this social dichotomy brings when in the nicer parts of town...pictures upload quicker here than anywhere to date...happy day.
 
 
 
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