Loving Lima

Yesterday was both the most fun, disturbing and beautiful day of my recent life.

The fun part: I went to a beach with my host sister Margarita and a couple of her friends, about 30 minutes from my house called Playa Silencio (the name is a very inaccurate description of the place). It was streaming with people and I spent a very enjoyable 4 or 5 hours lying on the beach while eating ceviche and swimming in the ocean. This is the life...

The disturbing part: Something that I have only heard vaguely about so far on my trip I finally saw for myself: on the outside edge of Lima is, literally, a sea of cardboard boxes as far as the eye can see. It is a sea of the houses. They are placed up on huge dirt hills around a petroleum refinery. Everything is the same color of gray dust except for the clotheslines where bright red shirts and blue jeans hang to dry in the blistering air. The whole place looks dead, and there is not one movement. Garbage is in piles taller than I am and the dust seems to be suffocating everything. This is not exactly the Peru I had imagined or wanted to believe in. And even though everything in me wanted to do something to help these thousands of people, I must keep reminding myself that I am an exchange student and I am not out to save the world just yet.

The beautiful part: After Playa Silencio, Margarita and her friends decided to show me some other beaches as well. Each beach seems to have it's own interesting characteristics. We first went to Punta Hermosa, which is geared more twords tourists, but it was very pretty. The second stop, however, was my favorite. Playa Pucusana is a little fishing village full of colorful little fishing boats floating in the middle of a cove. Along the edge of the water there are children swimming and many stands where people are selling fruit or cooking meat. It was so post-card perfect that I couldn't help but jump up and down I was so happy. This is my favorite beach because it was so cultural and it gave an accurate view of average Peruvian life. I forgot my camera yesterday which made me want to scream, but I will be going back soon.

Anyways, we girls walked around for a bit and then payed a local fisherman to take us out on his boat. It was bright blue and orange and had little mussels stuck all over the sides. We putted around for about a half an hour and saw sea lions bobbing up and fish jumping all around. When we got out of the cove... I almost died. It was so beautiful that I wanted to cry. There were birds flying in every direction and pelicans flew so close to the boat I could have touched one. They skimmed over the aqua water so gracefully and every once in a while one would land on the tip of our boat for a rest. On horizon the sun was setting behind a couple of sail boats coming back to the harbor for the night. I have never seen anything so perfect in my life.

Sorry about the incredibly long description - I am so frustrated because I don't have any pictures and words just aren't enough. I suppose it will just have to stay in my memory.

Right now I feel completely in love with anything and everything Peruvian.