INCREIBLE!

Wow...where to begin. I don´t know how this past weekend could have gone any smoother. Actually, esa es una mentira - it could have been better if I hadn´t been taken under by an 8 foot wave and 4 sommersaults later left the ocean with about 7 pounds of sand in all those fun places in your bikini! Yes, that was the low point.. but worth every second!

But I´m getting ahead of myself...disculpame...

I arrived at my Lima hotel Friday night around midnight. I decided to stay at the Marriott in Miraflores after Juan decided at Blue Devil Weekend that I was high maintenance and he was worried about my safety anywhere else. I´m not going to lie, it´s always nice to be comfortable that first night arriving anywhere...and my poofy bed, steamy shower and a full view of the ocean and up and down the coast of Miraflores was just that. Jamie joined me after her red-eye the next morning, and we had a quick bite before heading out to see Lima with Juan and Jenny, another Peruvian girl who will be with us at Duke this fall. Both are super great and I´m so excited to spend more time with them these next two years!

It was Semana Santa, so the downtown, historic area was packed with everyone visiting all the cathedrals. Everyone has off Thursday and Friday to visit the cathedrals, and then at noon on Friday everything closes and the rest of the weekend is spent with family. So we walked around a bit, and then stopped in at the Maury Hotel for our first Pisco Sour. With my egg fetish, I was somewhat apprehensive about the egg-white part of the drink, but I just didn´t think about it. And it was sooo good, I LOVED it! (which could get dangerous..pisco is bastante fuerte). Pues, off we went to lunch with a little one-drink buzz...

We went back to Miraflores and had a great lunch of ceviche, fish and passion fruit pisco sours at Rosa Nautica, which was out on the tip of a pier. We enjoyed a wonderful view of the coastline, which reminded me a bit of South OC or San Diego. Lima is definitely a city of contrasts, but in my opinion (sure, after one day of being there..with two locals), is that it certainly warrants a visit. So many tourists by-pass it completely, which is a mistake.

We then said good-bye to Jenny (I plan to see her again when I´m back in Lima on the 21st)..and headed 98km south to Asia, a coastal resort town for the wealthy of Lima. The drive reminded me a bit of Baja California, or even further south like in Cabo - it´s definitely the desert. Quick side note: if you look at a map of Peru, you can generalize that it can be divided into thirds. The desert along the Pacific Coast, the highlands down the center (including Machu Picchu, Cusco, Lake TitiCaca, but also glaciers and the northern highlands), and the jungle\Amazon along the eastern region.

So we arrived at his Juan´s family´s beach house, which they had rented for the month of March thru Semana Santa. We met his wonderful family and were immediately very welcomed. The weekend we were there turned out to be like our Labor Day - last weekend of the summer, so all of Juan´s friends were down there with their families as well (what are the odds..) Friday night, many of them came over for drinks...and it was so interesting talking to them. Most had gone to British, American or Swiss schools growing up, and their English was great. They all looked very European; certainly a contrast from the crowds we had seen downtown that morning. They were all articulate and bright, and understood how different their lives were from the vast majority of Peruvians (a "very small bubble" I heard a couple times). But they had the same pride in their culture and people. Daniella, an adorable girl (with an equally adorable boyfriend!), told us how she often gets taken for a tourist, and particularly in touristy places, like Cusco, her "own people" will speak English to her. She then responds "No, no... I´m one of you! We´re the same people!" She was preciosa.

Saturday we spent just chilling on the beach and talking...the weather was perfect. Then came the whole wave incident.. like, I should have taken the hint when I was the only girl going in, right?! Ah well.. And then Juan fired up the parilla and made the most amazing meal for us all, and we just sat out on the deck, had some drinks, and listened to music. It was heaven! Saturday night, we ventured to the Boulevard, which is where all the action is. Asia is made up of private residental communities, and then the main area, with all the shops, clubs and restaurants, is called the Boulevard. Basically, for all you SoCal folks, it was like Triangle Square or the Block. Oh yeah, and everyone LOOKED like they were from OC as well. It was the most bizarre thing...I kept thinking I was seeing people I knew from home. So we danced for a bit, but then Jamie and I called it an early night (3am) - que gringas somos!

Such an amazingly unique weekend to spend with locals, learning about their lives and culture in such an intimate environment. Such wonderful, wonderful people... But for now, we´re back to being tourists.. and we´re off to Cusco!

Sfor the delayed updates..some technical challenges on the road (and I thought Bally was bad!).. To answer many of your texts\emails, no I havent been kidnapped or trapped in an Inka ruin!