Wanderings and Ponderings in Lima

I finally have some time to write about my first visit to Lima last week! Technically, Huaycan, the city where I live, is in the Province of Lima and is very connected to Lima, but its actually about 45 minutes or more (depending on the horrible traffic) away from the center of Lima. Lima is a massive city- it reminds me of Mexico City- and very spread out- there are hardly any tall buildings. It is extremely cloudy, cold and misty at this time of year in Lima (its winter here!) and I immediately realized how grateful I am that despite the quarks and dirt of Huaycan, we have sun almost every day. However, Lima does have palm trees, a few patches of green grass and flowers! I think that greenery and nature is one of the things I miss most from New England. The first thing we did in Lima was walk to the central downtown plaza to see the changing of the guards at the national palace at noon. I don't know much about the history of this ritual, but many people gather in front of the gates to hear the marching band play, see the elaborate hats and outfits they wear, and see them marching back and forth. Those guards can certainly kick their legs high in the air! All of the buildings around the palace are painted bright yellow (see photo in my previous Lima post) which is a cheerful contrast to the gray skies. We then spent a good while wandering about the downtown looking for the post office museum which Kendra, the person who organizes our excursions, had read about in the guide book. We were all curious to see what such a museum would consist of since the postal system here is extremely inefficient. After asking many people who shook their heads at us, we realized that either such a museum doesn't exist or no Peruvian has even been to it. It remains a mystery! When we were standing outside one of the churches in the city, the hundreds of pigeons that were roosting on the outside of the church suddenly took flight and circled low over our heads, surprising us. It was a beautiful and and startling experience (see photo in Lima post.) After visiting some other parks and churches, as well as walking past many mcdonalds, payless shoes, dunkin' donuts and other American chains, we took a bus to Miraflores, which is another region of Lima that is know to be touristy and nice. We also walked by an entire street that just sold dental chairs and dental tools. Very bizarre! Anyways, one of my friends from high school named Aaron Davis lived there this summer, researching Afro-Peruvian dance in a town nearby and working at the Peruvian Ballet and it just happened that my first day in Lima was his last. We met up with him a falafel restaurant (we were craving non-Peruvian food after eating it everyday) and it was delicious! It was really surreal and amazing to see Aaron in Peru and to share our Peruvian experiences. I am really hoping that we will get a chance to visit El Carmen, the place where he was doing his research! We took a picture in Parque Kennedy or "Parque de los gatos" (the park of the cats) because a bunch of cats nap there all day long. I'm not quite sure how we got back, but thank god Kendra can navigate the crazy buses here! There is no sense of a personal bubble here, so I oftentimes find myself in squished in spaces that I didn't think were possible to fit in and holding on for dear life. Everyday is certainly an adventure here!