Lima Adventures

It has been a while since our visit to Lima but I have been too busy to update until now!

Anyway, we left for Lima on Monday morning. Everyone was really excited for the change of pace and the opportunity to finally do some tourist-y things. The drive to Lima was actually terrifying. I thought the traffic in NYC was bad, but it is nothing compared to the traffic here. If there even are any traffic laws (which in most places it does not appear to be so) people do not follow them. Let´s just say that most of the time there are two lanes on the road and four lanes of cars. Yeah. Despite the fact that I was completely terrified and had to keep closing my eyes, it was at least a cultural experience and I will probably never complain about traffic in the US again.

In Lima we stayed in a very interesting hotel. I say interesting because on the third floor there was a dining area complete with and amazing view of the city and a collection of exotic birds. Although some of us are not exactly fans of birds, I think they’re really cool and I loved being able to see them up close like that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After settling in at the hotel, we left to visit El Convento de San Francisco, a church from the 1600s in the center of Lima. The church was absolutely beautiful and we learned a lot about the history. The best part was that we also got to tour the catacombs, which was a little claustrophobic but still very, very cool.

After that, we went to the Museo Larco, a museum of ancient artifacts from the Incan Empire. The museum itself was SO beautiful. There were gorgeous flowers of many colors draping over the sides of the buildings. We also had a delicious (and very fancy) lunch at the museum. I don´t remember what my meal was called (Tacu Tacu- something) but I know that it was phenomenal, and so was my passion fruit dessert.

 

 

After the museum we went to La Catolica, a university in Lima for a lecture on discrimination issues that exist in Peru. It was very enlightening and really put a lot of what we have been experiencing and seeing here into perspective.

The next day began with a ride on the Metro to the area of Miraflores, which is basically the rich side of Lima. Because I am a person who enjoys her personal space, the Metro was an awful experience. There were SO many people crowded into that bus. Every time I thought it would be completely impossible for another person to fit, five more people would squeeze in. It was an experience for sure.

When we arrived in Miraflores we took a Mirabús tour of Lima on a really nice double-decker bus- and we got to sit up top! It was really fun and at the end of the tour the bus dropped us off in front of a Cathedral which we then got to tour. The Cathedral was probably the most beautiful building I have ever seen. There was so much detail put into every aspect of it and the art was just stunning.

After La Catedral we were supposed to go to the Inquisition Museum but to everyone´s dismay it was closed for some reason. We were all very disappointed because we had really been looking forward to that museum but the good news ended up being that we had time for shopping! This was actually our first real shopping experience in Peru and it was a lot of fun! It´s really cool because you get to bargain with the shopkeepers to get the best deal and there are so many nice hand-made things for sale there. After a long day of tours and shopping, we got into our taxis and headed back to the Peyton center and thus ended our time in Lima (temporarily).

Wednesday was a pretty average day of service and classes and then on Thursday we headed back to Lima for another day of tours and shopping. We started the day by going to Miraflores again, this time to visit a very big, very expensive mall. The city is absolutely gorgeous, and the mall is situated right on the coast of the Pacific Ocean, which I got to see for the first time! We were all really excited to go shopping but it turns out we were in for a reality check.  All of a sudden it felt like we were the poor people in a city full of rich people and not the other way around as we had grown accustomed to. We were not in Canto Grande anymore. It was like we had been transported to another world. The city was beautiful, for sure. But it was a very interesting, enlightening, and somewhat humbling experience to walk through the shopping center in Miraflores. Since almost all our time up until then had been spent in the very poor area of Canto Grande, we were used to being the ¨rich Americans.¨ Turns out, compared to the people of Miraflores, we really aren’t. Being in the mall also made me upset because it really put some things into perspective. I kept thinking to myself, how is it that there are all these people here, spending ridiculous amounts of money on trivial things and displaying their wealth, when about an hour away there are people in Canto Grande without even the most basic necessities. Although I didn’t like the time that I spent at the mall, it definitely got me thinking about a lot of things and taught me a lot.

After window shopping and grabbing lunch at the food court, we headed to Pachacamac for our tour of the archeological site. Pachacamac was a really cool place. We learned that it is a site that has been around for over a thousand years before the Incas, and we got to see what remains of some of the important temples of the early civilizations. We also had our first llama sighting (!) but I don’t think it actually counts since we were at a tourist site and the llamas were on leashes (lol ).

 

 

My favorite part of the day (and possibly of my whole time in Peru so far) was a horse show that we went to at the end of the day. We went to a beautiful hacienda where they have Peruvian Paso horses, which are horses that have been especially bred for hundreds of years. The thing that makes these horses special is the way they walk, which is with only one leg lifted off the ground at a time. This special way of walking makes the ride completely smooth and does not jostle the rider like all other horses do when they are ridden. One of the riders even rode with a full glass of water and did not spill a drop! The riders and dancers were all dressed in traditional costumes and we got to see some traditional Peruvian dances but performed with the horses. The best part was that after the show we got to ride the horses ourselves! It was so much fun, and afterward we had a delicious meal which was prepared for us right there at the hacienda. After a long day and a big meal, we were all ready to get back to the Peyton Center to get some much needed sleep.

Today was a more relaxing day of service and homework and tomorrow we leave for the beach!

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