It was our first week in Lima and being as anxious as we were to be in a whole new country and ready to learn and see as much as possible a group of ten of us headed towards the center. The center of Lima is a great place to be, if you know your way around. To begin our journey we all made our way onto a faded orange 1960’s school bus that for some unknown reason was still running. It took us roughly an hour and a half to make it to the center after also having caught a taxi to take us in a little closer. Once in the center I believe we all got the sense that we were now in a completely foreign place. There was so much going on all around us that there wasn’t one particular thing that really grabbed your attention. You could hear numerous people honking their horns at the same time in the background, kids zooming around you, people coming up to you asking to purchase their merchandise, stepping over water flowing on the street, hurdling dogs. It was chaos. After a few moments we composed ourselves and were able to continue our adventure. We saw many great things that day, street performers wearing their traditional outfits resembling that of jaguar hide and necklaces of sharp teeth about an inch in length. We also saw artists that would create stunning portraits with a white sheet of construction paper, paint cans, and a lighter. After having witnessed a numerous of new things we continued to walk and actually wound up in the middle of an enormous protest. Although I would have liked to stay and witnessed the outcome we had to continue moving and head home. Many of the girls didn’t enjoy the trip to the center of Lima due to not being aware of our surroundings and the vulgarity of the people, but the center of Lima is a great place to be, if you know your way around.
On March 5th at approximately 7:30 A.M. or bus from Cruz Del Sur company made its way out of Lima, heading towards Ica for our trip to El hotel Las Dunas, Las Islas Ballestas, y Huacachina. El primer día de nuestro viaje no habíamos hecho planes para que disfrutáramos del impresionante hotel. Las chicas se broncearon mucho de la tarde al lado de las piscinas al cual tiempo nosotros chicos nadábamos. En la tarde el hotel tenía diferentes actividades para los huéspedes y esa tarde de el primer día estaban ofreciendo sandboarding gratis en una de las dunas cercas al hotel. Todo el grupo menos la profesora Anita y Monica fuimos a ser sandboarding. Después del sandboarding tuvimos una fiesta en un café cercas del hotel. El próximo día temprano fuimos a Las Islas Ballestas. Allí hicimos un tour de las islas y vimos muchos diferentes tipos de aves y animales del mar. Tuvimos la oportunidad de ver muchos lobos del mar que creo era unas de las mejores cosas del tour. Esa noche todos nosotros de UNK salimos a una discoteca. Allí conversamos con mucha gente de Ica y nos contaron y enseñaron mucho de su cultura. Era una experiencia inolvidable. El sábado en la mañana me levante a las 10:30A.M. y me cogí un taxi hacia Huacachina. Antes de venir a Perú vi una foto de Huacachina y me quede fascinado. Desde ese tiempo supe que tenía que ir a Huacachina no solo para ver la impresionante vista del oasis en el desierto si no que también quería tomar la oportunidad de ir sandboarding y tomar un tour del área en un dune buggy. Disfrute todo del viaje.
It’s been a few weeks since my last blog post and since then there have been a number of things that have occurred. I will try to cover just about everything I’ve experienced or done throughout these last 3-4 weeks.
Week 3 Our conversation/grammar professor took us to Matucana, which is a small town in the Andes to go on a hike to Antakallo waterfall. We began our journey by leaving UPC bright and early at about 8 A.M. reason being we had a two-hour bus ride ahead of us to Matucana. On our way we had to cross much of Lima and little towns. We were able to see first hand why people say 70% of Lima is composed of shantytown communities. Although we’ve had the chance to see those communities from afar before, this was one of our first times going through such areas. Although they say people in these communities are usually the happiest, it makes me thankful for all I have and have taken for granted. Once we arrived at Matucana and gathered ourselves we began our hike on the side of a mountain towards the waterfall. It was a great experience, I had always wanted to go on an actual hike and knew I would enjoy it, this trip made me realize that I was right! After a little less than two hours we arrived at the waterfall. The sight was breathtaking. Dark green vegetation covered everything surrounding the falls with the rocks directly under, being the only exception. Spring Break Spring Break week was nothing but beach, beach and a little more beach. Jacob and I had previously gone to a beach with his hosts Americo and Carlos with big waves and unlike San Bartolo that is rocky, had soft fine feet soothing sand. We gathered just about the whole group and headed towards the beach most of our free days that week. I found the place with the best ceviche so far for the best price! 20 soles, which would be the equivalent of $6.60 for an appetizer and the main meal! |
Daniel Peñaflor21 Years old. Studying Abroad in Lima, Perú.
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