Peru: Parque del Amor, San Antonio's & Catacombas

I'm back in Evanston and raring to go. Honestly, I don't really have much of a choice because my flight got in at 11 a.m. yesterday morning and I was sitting in a classroom going over the syllabus for Digital Art by 1 p.m. I skipped my first reporting class in three quarters, which I do not consider a great way to kick off the quarter, but I could have not asked for a better way to spend my spring break than doing service with Northwestern Rotaract (Please excuse the mess. I started to revamp the site).

Volunteering with Pisco Sin Fronteras, we met a great group of people whose travelling stories reminded me that it is totally acceptable to slow down and simply enjoy life sans extravagant luxuries and constant to-do lists. Many of these wonderful individuals spent weeks travelling South America and the weeks quickly turned to months. I soaked in my eight days without internet or phone. I lived in the here and now and I absolutely loved it. The entire experience was rejuvenating for my soul and my encounters taught me so much. I am definitely going to go back in the future. The work that PSF is amazing and it's wonderful to be able to talk to locals (or gesture and smile awkwardly, which is my case due to my lack of Spanish language skills) and see their reaction to the work we have done.

But before all that happened, we enjoyed a quick tour of Lima after we met Amanda at the airport. A Northwestern alumna, Amanda was an absolute godsend. The fact that she had spent the past 15 months in Lima on a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship made it possible for us to fly to Peru. She helped make every day run smoothly, communication between both the Lima and Pisco Rotaract Clubs as well as PSF.

At five in the morning, no breakfast joint was open, so she told the bus driver to take us along Costa Verde to Parque del Amor in Miraflores. The view was absolutely breathtaking, at least it was once the sun cast its morning rays over the city. I cannot remember the last time I was looking over the Pacific Ocean and the smell of salt in the air just made my heart melt. I could instantly feel all the stress that had been weighing me down all quarter lift and just roll off my shoulders.

We ate a delectable breakfast at San Antonio's, where I shared a macedonia de frutas with Liz and drank jugo de maracuya. In the early afternoon, we received a tour of the city plazas, walked through the Museum of Peruvian Literature and saw the Palace of the Government. The best part of the first day, aside from finally being by an ocean, was the Museo del Convento de San Francisco de Asis de Lima, which carried so much art history from its architecture to the paintings hanging on the wall that were brought in the 17th century from various countries. It was also my first time seeing catacombs underneath a church, and seeing the femurs and skulls of the dead piled up underneath the church was just as eerie as it sounded. Unfortunately, photography was prohibited and I could not capture any bit of it, aside from the blurry shot I sneaked before walking out of the catacombs. I won't be posting that because I still feel like I somehow cursed myself by doing such a thing.

Then we ate traditional Peruvian food, buffet-style, at Kasa Mama to round out our first hours in Peru before heading of to Pisco and settling into our hostel. Unfortunately, it's late. While I could go on and on about how amazing the trip is, I have plenty of days to do that and have sleep to catch up on.

Cheers.