Lima

---

Spent 6 hours walking around Lima today, surprised by how cold it is and also how developed bits are! (saw a Starbucks). Miraflores, the part of town where I´m staying is very nice and modern - totally liveable. It´s also right on the ocean and apartments are very cheap!

I mustered up the courage to hope on one of the local minibuses so that I could get to central Lima - to buy a bus ticket and to check out the older part of town with government buildings, etc. Miraflores is almost like a suburb - Lima is a bit like LA in the layout of its neighborhoods. Saw the US flag flying over our embassy on the way!

I bought a bus ticket to Ayacucho (10 hours, $13) - I´m heading generally towards Cuzco, near Machu Picchu. I didn´t realize until after I bought the ticket that although the Lima-Ayacucho route is half the distance of the Ayaucho-Cuzco route it is twice as long. I deduce that the roads aren´t paved, but I decided to go this way for the scenery and take the other route back.

At night, my new Stanford friends picked me up at my hostel! There are two Peruvians going to Stanford, and they are actually friends previously. They´ve never lived outside Peru before! It was quite the funny contrast that after picking up me, we went to get our other classmate (American) who was in Peru for a week with his wife. So from my hostel we went to one of the nicest hotels in Lima, very high class even by US standards. The five of use went out to a couple of very fancy bars (I was underdressed). I almost forgot we were in Peru except the drinks were cheap! It´s always great to get an insider´s perspective on a place, and I got lots of advice from the Peruvians and will probably continue to email them with questions throughout my trip. All of the classmates seem very cool and we got along well. It´s really amazing that my classmates are really all over the world this summer, and meeting up in tons of different places!

---

Photos

Peru Woman
Not the best picture, but it´s not rare to see traditionally dressed women here, many carrying things (like food or babies) on their backs in the sling-like thing.

Comments

[Bahar]

you were underdressed???
James! so good to hear you're having fun! i'm waiting for pictures so don't forget to post those too. i miss u and am thinking of you often. stay safe! xoxo