The next day, after another set of morning lectures, I left the hotel with my friend Lucia to meet Tom Reily, a coworker of my Dad and the head of an ARD project in Lima. Having lived in Lima for many years and being a self-proclaimed "food lover", Tom took Lucia and I out to lunch at a classy and delicious seafood restaurant in Miraflores where he had us sample various local dishes including as ceviche (called ceviche Gandhi at this particular restaurant), swordfish and scallops. Coupled with a bottle of wine, some pisco sours and two delicious deserts the meal could most accurately be described as heavenly. Lucia, a 5ft tall, 100 pound college girl, out ate both Tom and I and spent the entire walk back to the hotel saying things like "Oh My God!" and "Yuuuuummmmm" and "That was the best meal I have ever even dreamed of eating", so I would venture to say that it was a successful lunch. Getting away from the group for some good conversation and a great meal could not have come at a more perfect time so I would like to extend my thanks to Tom for putting up with two ravenous college students for an afternoon and introducing me to the best ceviche I think I will ever have.
The next 2 days were spent touring the city and bar/club hopping up and down "Pizza St." which, on one fateful night, took us until 6:30am. Although exciting to walk outside a club only to be faced with sunlight and to eat a continental breakfast before going to bed, I am not quite sure that I will choose that again in the near future. Within 5 hours of going to sleep my roommates and I were woken up by a few girls who busted in and demanded we get out of bed so that we could go to the beach with them. Even though I had only rested for a few hours and knew that I was going to spend the entire day with sagging eyelids, I could not pass up another March beach opportunity. Its a good thing that I chose to hop out of bed and get moving because that day at the beach was one of the best days I have had while in Peru. Myself along with 7 other friends made the trek from our hotel to a nicer section of beach where we sprawled out and took a quick nap before rising to play frisbee. Not only did the fact that we were throwing a circular piece of plastic around attract stares but also the fact that most of the guys were wearing sleeveless shirts exposing our ultra-white skin created ample opportunity for the locals to yell "Gringo" and giggle as they walked by, such is life.
Towards the end of the afternoon it was finally time to venture into the water, take our chances and attempt to exit the ocean wearing the same color shorts the we entered it in. Now some of you didn't know me when I was younger, at the height of my obnoxious energy phase (which I believe I am still going through) but I have always loved playing in the water. Whether Lake Champlain or the Gulf of Mexico I could literally spend hours by myself just splashing around and diving in and out of the water. Since I left for college in Ohio, a land void of natural water sources to play in, my opportunities to indulge in my childhood fun have been few and far between so when I set my foot in that water in Miraflores and realized that it was warm and clean I honestly became a bit overwhelmed. For the first time in a long time I had the opportunity to splash around again and man did I splash! While my friends sat on the shore and mostly got their feet wet I had my own personal water party. The waves coming into shore were massively powerful and that mixed with the rock only ocean surface versus sand made the water party at times a bit painful but even that couldn't deter my joy. Finally after being bashed around by the waves for a while my friends dragged me out of the water, kicking and screaming, and we marched up to the edge of the cliffs overlooking the ocean to watch the sunset, a perfect end to a perfect child-like day.
Before we left Lima to return to Cuzco we spent one afternoon learning traditional Peruvian dances and practicing all types of acrobatic feats, most of which required lifting the other male students in strange positions and straining every muscle from my neck to my butt. At the end of the circus section of our lesson we put on some colorful, traditional ski-masks and spent a few hours dancing around in circles with a whip in hand. When we finally left the studio every student was sweating profusely, feeling outrageously tired but happy that they finally knew how to make a star out of whips and had the skills to acrobatically rival the Big Apple Circus. We were rewarded for our hard work with a dinner of Chinese food, FINALLY, and the freedom to spend our last night in Lima however we saw fit. By this point I was down to only 15 soles for the trip, not quite enough to fully enjoy a night out, so, thinking like the logical person that I am, I decided to visit one of the many casinos in our area. Using 10 of 15 soles to buy one hand of cards at the blackjack table I prepared myself double my money, maybe even triple it and walk out of the casino with enough soles to enjoy the rest of the night. Well, as is the case with most hands of blackjack, not including Rain Man and Alan from The Hangover, I lost all 10 soles immediately and left the casino with just enough money to buy a bottle of water the next day at the airport, you win some you lose some.
Even with the losing hand of blackjack and a number of bruises thanks to the combination of waves and rocks, I left Lima happy, relaxed and ready to hit the ground running in Cuzco. I have now been back for 3 days and it almost seems as if I never left, I didn't miss a beat getting back together with my host family and with classes staring up fully on Monday it will not be difficult at all to get back into the swing of things. In a few more months I'll be back in the U.S. of A and things like getting bashed around by waves and dancing in colorful masks will be exactly the kind of things I'll be missing from Peru, the little things, the important ones.
alpaCasey
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