Emily Augenbraun in Peru, Fall 2018

So first off to begin this post (it’s going to be a longer one this time, sorry for those of you who get bored reading), I just want to say I can’t believe that another week has gone by and in just about three weeks from now I’m heading home! Everything is really starting to wind down and come to an end… Yesterday was actually my last day volunteering at the Hospital de niños in San Borja and Thanksgiving is already behind us. I won’t be doing a whole post about how we celebrated Thanksgiving here in Perú; however, I will say that we did have a little dinner with my study abroad program and our host families were invited to attend as well. Although it was definitely different being so far away from my home this year for Thanksgiving, it was really nice that my study abroad program made sure to put something together for all of us who are so used to spending this holiday at home with our families and loved ones.

Anyways, as this semester is coming to an end and in just about a week I’ll be starting to study for my final exams I realize how important it is for me to catch up on my blog posts now while the most recent experiences are fresh in my mind. I probably will be absent from the blog for a while starting this coming week as it’s going to be an extremely busy time for me with my finals and everything. In good old Bryn Mawr College fashion, I’m for sure going to be making myself a “Done-Is Good” list so that I can be motivated to finish my semester here strong.

Now about the topic for this post: Pachacamac, El Carmen, and las Islas Ballestas! Last weekend was my final weekend excursion with my study abroad program and as a way to close our time here together we had a pretty relaxing trip to El Carmen in the Chincha province of Ica (the same Ica that I went to for a different weekend excursion back in October; however, Chincha is in a different part of Ica than Huacachina). Chincha and more specifically the district of El Carmen is known for it’s Afro-Peruvian residents and culture. The main reason we went to El Carmen was to learn about this Afro-Peruvian population and it’s traditions. During the weekend, we had the opportunity to learn a few traditional Afro-Peruvian dances (including one called zapateo). We also discussed other elements of Afro-Peruvian culture such as the music and instruments that are utilized. One of these instruments is a drum that is shaped like a box called a cajón and on Saturday we were given lessons on how to play the cajón (see photo below playing the cajón). 

I almost forgot to mention that on our way south towards El Carmen we made a stop at the archaeological site of Pachacamac located here in the southeast part of Lima. Pachacamac (in Quechua: Pachakamaq – “Earth Maker”) was the name given to the creator god who was said to have lived in this part of Perú before the Inca conquest. There are many myths regarding Pacha Kamaq. Of the many pyramids that can be found at the archaeological site, the one that was most impressive to me was the Temple of the Sun which you can see in my photos below. This temple is 30,000m squared and we were actually able to walk to the Southern side of it during our guided tour.

Finally, on Sunday morning several of the students from my program had fallen ill (we still don’t know the exact cause or reason why many people got stomach bugs; however, it was most likely food poisoning from dinner the previous night). The planned trip was to go to the Islas Ballestas in Paracas. Luckily, I wasn’t one of the students who got sick so I was able to go to see the Islas Ballestas. The Islas Ballestas are a group of small islands located near the town of Paracas (in Ica). Paracas is a district within’ the Pisco Province of Ica on the Peruvian coast. The islands are inhabited by many animals such as penguins, seals, and sea lions (all of which I got to see during my tour of the islands). The islands are also known as an important area for the accumulation of guano. Guano is the excrement from many seabirds and bats which is used as a fertilizer (it smells HORRIBLE and I blame the smell of it for making me feel nauseous and miserable during my tour of the islands). The tour we were given was by boat so while the boat was stopped at the islands I became a bit sea sick and nauseous, not only from the smell of the guano but also from the rocking of the boat. Despite my sea sicknesses (and I know you are probably wondering if I vomitted but I DID NOT), I don’t regret my decision to go on the boat tour of the Islas Ballestas. It was really another wonderful experience and is one of the top visits that ecotourists take during their time in Perú.

Now I’ll stop talking and leave you with some pictures from my journey.

Pachacamac: 

El Carmen, Chincha, Ica: 

Learning to play the cajón in El Carmen: 

Boat tour at las Islas Ballestas, Paracas: 

There are sea lions in this picture (although maybe hard to see): 

Hi everyone! I know I’m a little bit behind on blog posts but you’ll have to forgive me, I’ve been so busy between my excursion last weekend to El Carmen (an Afro-Peruvian village, which I’ll be posting about as soon as this post is complete) as well as finishing up the semester here! There’s been a lot happening but so little time to actually sit down and blog about it. I’m going to keep this post short so that I can devote more time to a longer post following this one to talk about my weekend excursion to El Carmen in the Chincha province of Perú.

As you may remember from a previous post of mine about my visit to MALI (Museo de Arte de Lima), I mentioned the Museo Larco as another site I was hoping to visit before leaving Perú this semester. I was lucky enough to be able to go and visit this museum last Thursday along with my IFSA-Butler Advanced Writing and Peruvian Culture class.

To give a brief explanation and some background (before I post up some pictures below), the Museo Larco (Larco Museum) is a beautiful privately owned museum full of pre-Columbian art. It is located in the Pueblo Libre district of Lima and is about a 5-minute walk from the university that I’m attending this semester. This made it a very easy and convenient trip to do during the school day with our entire class. The museum contains a variety of galleries that display Peruvian pre-Columbian history and one section of the museum that caught everyone’s eye was the pre-Columbian erotic pottery gallery. The pre-Columbian erotic pottery gallery is really quite fascinating in that it showcases the many objects that Rafael Larco found while he was doing research on sexual representations in Peruvian art.

The museum also has many permanent exhibitions. One of these permanent collections has ancient Peruvian textiles while another contains the jewelry that was used by rulers in pre-Columbian Perú. The ceramics on display show how the Peruvian cultures used certain archaeological objects to represent their own daily lives. It’s pretty amazing how all of the objects that have been preserved at the museum contain so much history!

Overall, this museum visit was totally worth it and I would give it a 10/10 (definitely recommend).

Here are some photos from the different galleries in the museum:

Museo Larco from outside 

Inside the permanent collections gallery

pre-Columbian erotic art gallery (sexual representations in Peruvian art) 

Hey there everyone! I’m back again with another blog post. I know I don’t post super frequently on here anymore and most of my blog posts have been recaps of visits from a prior week than when I am actually writing them but I hope that regardless of this you continue to stay tuned!

The days are winding down and believe it or not, there’s only about 5 weeks left until I begin my journey back to the states. I’ve been starting to reflect on this more lately and it seems incredible to me how quickly this experience has been going by. I am savoring every single day as it all begins to come to an end.

With this being said, as it gets closer to December it continues to get increasingly warmer each day and usually by about midday the sun is shining bright in the beautiful blue sky (finally, a blue sky in Lima, I thought the day would never come). Yes, that’s right: Spring is here in Lima! By the time I leave this place in mid December it will be full on summer and I’ll be going back home to frigid Philadelphia for the beginning of the winter season.

But instead of thinking about going home right now, I’m going to focus this post on describing a really unique and special opportunity that I had last Thursday right here in Lima.  Thursday, November 1st, was another “Feriado Nacional”(national holiday) here for Día de todos los santos (“All Saints’ Day”). “All Saints’ Day” (also known as: “All Hallows’ Day” or “The Feast of All Saints”) is a Christian festival that takes place on November 1st in order to honor all of the saints. One of the common traditions on “All Saints’ Day” is that families will often visit cemeteries where their loved ones are buried in order to put flowers and candles on the gravestones.  With my Peruvian Social Reality course this semester, I had the unique opportunity to visit one of Lima’s cemeteries (The Nueva Esperanza cemetery) and commemorate the dead on Día de todos los santos along with other limeños.

The Nueva Esperanza cemetery is located in a poorer, outlying sector of southern Lima in the district of Villa María del Triunfo. It was created in 1961 and is the largest cemetery in Perú as well as the second largest in the entire world. On November 1st (Día de todos los santos) the cemetery has one of its largest crowds, as families come to celebrate their dead loved ones. I witnessed something like I had never seen before at any other cemetery I’ve been to in my life. I was overwhelmed by intense emotions during my time at the cemetery from what I was seeing, smelling, and hearing. It was not the typical cemetery experience where one feels sad; however, I cannot entirely put into words or describe what my feelings were while being there.

Both inside and outside of the cemetery was very crowded. There was traditional music playing at the grave sites and lots of food vendors as well as people selling all kinds of Peruvian dishes inside of the cemetery. The graves were literally on the hills of the cemetery and people were celebrating while eating and drinking at the site of their deceased loved ones.

The whole experience was just spectacular and I feel very fortunate to have been able to go to the cemetery on Día de todos los santos. To me the whole idea of celebrating the dead in a way to almost bring them back to life seems very paradoxical. Having seen something like this makes me think more deeply about death; it is almost as though those who are dead have never really died because we keep them alive and with us through our memories. This spiritual bond that exists between both the dead and the living is so powerfully apparent from what I saw last week during this grand festival that took place at the cemetery. This is definitely an experience that I will never forget.

Below are some photos that I took from inside of the cemetery.

¡Hola todos! In this blog post, I am going to be sharing about my experience at MALI (Museo de Arte de Lima) as well as my visit to the Circuito Mágico del Agua or Parque de las aguas here in Lima last weekend.

I was REALLY looking forward to this trip with my program because my host mother kept mentioning the Circuito Mágico del Agua as something that I must see before leaving Lima (it is one of the more touristy things to do here in Lima from what I understand) and it definitely fulfilled all of my expectations! However, before I get into all the details about the Parque de las aguas, let me first begin by talking about Lima’s wonderful art museum A.K.A. MALI!

Lima’s art museum, MALI, located in the Palacio de la Exposición in Lima’s historic center traces back from early history (the Andean civilization) until contemporary times. On the first floor of the museum the temporary art exhibits can be found while on the second floor the permanent collections are held. The current exhibition that was on the first floor when I went last weekend with my program was called Plata de los Andes (see pics. below from the exhibit). We also had a guided tour on the second floor of the museum in which we learned about the various portraits and images in Peruvian history. We were asked to do an activity at the end of our tour in pairs, in which one person in the pair was to draw while the other person had to give descriptive directions of what the other person should draw based on a large painting that was in front of us. Once we finished upstairs touring the permanent collection we went to the museum café on the first floor for a little coffee break before heading over to the Parque de las aguas. I am planning on going to another art museum here in Lima sometime within’ the next month called Museo Larco which I have heard really good things about so stayed tuned for a post on that before I leave Perú.

Now, about Circuito Mágico del Agua A.K.A. Parque de las aguas! Also located in downtown Lima, this park inaugurated in July of 2007 and consists of 13 different interactive fountains. You can even walk through some of these fountains without actually getting wet like the one I am pictured in below which I just found out is called the “Tunnel of Surprises”. Since it was evening time and pretty chilly out when we went last weekend, I decided not to get super wet and only walked through the fountains that seemed like would keep me dry. There were kids there though that were having the time of their lives walking through the fountains and getting wet. At night time the fountains are lighted with different colors and it is really a magical sight to see. With my program we stayed for the first show at 7pm and got to see the magic happening right before our eyes (see photos below!).

Inside of MALI: 

Plata de los Andes exhibit 

Touring the museum’s permanent collection  This is the image that we were asked to work with for the drawing activity at the end of our tour:

At the museum café for our much needed coffee break! 

Circuito Mágico del Agua – Parque de las aguas!  Walking through the “Tunnel of Surprises”: 

A truly magical show!

As I mentioned at the end of my previous blog post, I headed away from Lima this past weekend for a small excursion to the city of Ica and visited the village of Huacachina.

The city of Ica is about a 4-hour bus ride away from Lima and is located on the Ica River, near the desert coast in the southern part of Perú. Near Ica is an oasis built surrounded by the village of Huacachina (which is the popular tourist spot because this is where you can find the Ica dunes for sandboarding and sand buggy rides). Ica is known for their winemaking, specifically for their source of Pisco (a type of brandy produced here).

I left for the city of Ica by bus on Friday afternoon (Cruz del Sur bus service, I would highly recommend it – they give free snacks and a beverage during the ride). The bus trip to get to Ica was about 4 and a half hours or so and it was a direct trip. I went with two other girls from my IFSA study abroad program so we all split the price for staying at our hostel in the city of Ica (we stayed at El Huerto Hostel, which I would also definitely recommend – there was free wifi and breakfast was included). The owners of the hostel, Juan and Olga, were both extremely kind and helped us in arranging our tour on Saturday to go to El Cañón de los Perdidos.

On Saturday, we woke up early to leave our hostel at 6:45am. We headed even further south, for about a 3 and a half hour long car ride away from the city of Ica to get to El Cañón de los Perdidos. El Cañón de los Perdidos (“Lost Canyon”) is located in the southeast of the district of Santiago in Ica province. Even though it was a long trip to get to the canyon, it was definitely worth it! Walking through the canyon was such a surreal experience (at times I literally felt like I was in the movie Holes because we were basically in the middle of nowhere in the desert). Up above me I could see the black vultures flying around and seeing the lagoon in the middle of the canyon was spectacular. I don’t really have words to describe the experience of walking through the canyon so I’ll leave some photos below so that you can see just how amazing it really was.

We left the canyon around 12:30 and got back to the city of Ica at about 3pm. In the evening, after recovering from our long trip to and from the canyon, we decided to head over to Huacachina and catch a glimpse of the sunset (See photos below! It was INCREDIBLE!). We then went for a Pisco tasting in which we had the chance to sample 6 different kinds of Pisco. The two that I remember best are the Rosé and the straight Pisco shot. The Pisco shot was disgusting and burned my throat (even though it was a tiny amount, it was super strong). After the sampling and information on how the Pisco is made, we were able to buy the different liqueurs if we wanted to. My friend took advantage of the opportunity and bought a bottle of the Rosé for only 30 soles (that’s $9 USD, pretty cheap for a bottle of wine… you aren’t gonna get those kinds of prices for a bottle of wine back in the states that’s for sure).

On Sunday we spent the entire day at the village of Huacachina. This might have been my favorite day thus far in Perú because of the dune buggy ride and just in general, having the opportunity to be at the sand dunes. With the sand dunes surrounding the oasis, Huacachina is a place that just feels so calming and picturesque. The dune buggy ride was like being on a roller coaster. Our driver, Ricardo, went so fast (I guess my screaming didn’t bother him too much because he was NOT slowing that buggy down at all). I’m not gonna lie, I got scared to do sandboarding once I was at the top of the sand dune and looked down. I saw how steep the slope was and I just could not get myself to do the sandboarding; however, my friends both did it.

Now that I’ve described all of this in such immense detail, it’s time for some pictures (the best part, of course)!

El Cañón de los Perdidos

Sunset at Huacachina (it was even more incredible in person, trust me)

The oasis at Huacachina  

Pisco tasting…

Huacachina and dune buggy riding Ricardo (our driver) is the guy in the middle 

 

Hi again everyone! I am back with a new blog post (finally!). I apologize for not posting anything in the past week and a half or so but I’ve been extremely busy with studying for my Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú midterms (which are now over – phew).

So instead of making a super long post about each day in the past week, I decided I’ll just give a brief summary to touch on some things I’ve been doing (outside of studying for my midterms, of course).

Since I did need to study a lot last weekend because the education system is different here from that of my home university (Bryn Mawr College), I didn’t really get a chance to explore anywhere outside of Miraflores; however, I did have the opportunity to find some interesting new food places around my neighborhood.

Last Saturday I took a little study break midday and had my first Peruvian taco experience! (See photo below – sorry this wasn’t the highest quality picture of my taco but it was honestly such a good taco, the photo does NOT do it justice). It was different from a typical Mexican taco because it was much larger and they really stuffed it inside with a lot of chorizo and chicken (I got a “Taco Mixto” so it came with chorizo, chicken, some beans, cheese, and some other fillings). There was no sour cream in it but instead there was mayonnaise and even ketchup for some reason (not really complaining though, it was still pretty delicious!). To me, it was more like a burrito than a taco.

On Sunday, my entire IFSA group went out for dinner together. We had “Comida Arabe” (Arabic Food) at a place called Tierra Santa right here in Miraflores (See photos below!). Half of our group ordered the banquet style dinner to share several different dishes. I was loving the grape leaves – they were probably my favorite part. Oh, and the hummus with falafel of course! Nothing could really ever compare to the falafel I had when I was in Israel but all in all, it was still super tasty!

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I had to take my midterms at college but now that they’re over, I can finally relax a bit for the weekend. I’ve decided to take a small weekend trip (or should I call it a vacation?) to Ica and Huacachina this weekend until Sunday so I will be sure to post upon my return to Lima to give updates and details about how my trip went!

FINALLY… here are those pictures of the delicious foods I mentioned in the above post:

Taco Mixto  Grape Leaves!  Comida Arabe The HUMMUS  Group Selfie… 

This past weekend was a longer weekend here in Lima because yesterday (Monday, October 8th) was a “Feriado” (Holiday). It was “Batalla de Angamos”, a battle that was fought between the navies of Chile and Perú at Punta Angamos on October 8th, 1879.

Since it was a longer weekend, I decided to take advantage of some of my extra free time and visit another district here in Lima: La Punta. La Punta is one of the seven districts that makes up Callao. It is a pretty cool spot here in Lima because it is practically surrounded by water (the Pacific Ocean). It was extremely quiet and empty there this weekend when I went. I am not completely sure if it is always as quiet as it was this past Saturday but I honestly really enjoyed the serenity and peace I experienced while being there. Perhaps due to the cloudiness there were less people at La Punta than usual. It’s definitely a place that I’m looking forward to returning to as the sun starts to come out and the weather warms up.

The beach at La Punta is different from the typical sandy beaches that I am used to back in the states. This is because the beach at La Punta is “una playa de piedras”, composed of little pebbles and rocks. I wasn’t able to actually go into the water this past weekend because it’s still a bit too cold for that. Nevertheless, the view of the water from La Punta was spectacular and I’m so glad that I took the time to make this trip this weekend.

From Miraflores, it was about an hour and a half bus ride (took two buses to get there).

Below are some pictures I took while at La Punta. My lunch pictured below was a plate of Arroz Chaufa con Pescado (the tastiest fish I’ve had here thus far!).

La playa de piedras – Punta, Callao, Perú (you can see what I mean about how cloudy it was…)  Another part of La PuntaLunch: Arroz Chaufa con Pescado (YUM!) Some other photos I took while walking around Callao/La Punta:

My blog post for today will discuss my first day of volunteering at my NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) for my semester abroad in Perú.

One of the requirements (and benefits) of my study abroad program is that each student must meet a certain number of hours either through volunteering to work with a NGO (many of which have partnered with IFSA-Butler in past semesters) or doing an individual research project on a theme pertaining to Peruvian Social Reality. Each volunteer organization that partners with my study abroad program focuses on different aspects of Peruvian Social Reality, making it easier for students to find an organization that will be best suited for them and their own personal interests. The goal is that by the end of the semester, each student will have gained enough understanding regarding a certain theme in Perú to be able to develop and give a final report on this topic (this final report makes up a significant part of our final course grade in our Peruvian Social Reality class this semester).

Originally, I wasn’t entirely sure about what I wanted to do for my volunteer work this semester while in Lima. I knew there was an option to go and work at the Huaca Pucllana (an archaeological site here in Miraflores – see my previous post “Miraflores – my home for the semester” for more info.). While I knew that the Huaca would’ve been convenient and a great experience I wasn’t completely sold on the fact that it was going to be the volunteer work best suited for me. I was also thinking a lot about potentially what I may want to do after college and even though I’m really not at all certain at the moment about what that will be, I do know that a career in teaching might be a possibility. For a teaching career, I know that having experience with working with kids is never a bad idea. This is one of the reasons that ultimately led me to choose to volunteer at the Hospital de niños in San Borja.

The Hospital de niños is located in San Borja in Lima. The children who come to this hospital are mostly from poorer areas of Lima or are children who have been referred to this hospital from other hospitals within’ the country. These are children who need serious medical attention and most likely have come to the hospital in San Borja because it is one of the few hospitals in the region where they can receive this kind of proper care.

As a volunteer at the hospital, my job is quite simple yet still extremely rewarding. Basically, we just have to entertain the children as they wait for their appointment in the hospital. Upon arrival, we (myself and the two other volunteers from my program who come on Fridays) are asked to bring small tables and chairs to the hospitals’ waiting room along with some materials for drawing/coloring and playing games/assembling puzzles. While the kids are in the waiting room with their parents, we as volunteers supervise the kids as they color in drawing print-outs or assemble puzzles that we’ve provided them with.

Since the parents of the kids are there with them, we as volunteers are not really in any way babysitting the kids; however, we do interact with the children and make sure they are enjoying themselves while waiting to go in for their appointments. Going to a hospital can be a very scary experience and dealing with any kind of sickness is no fun so it made me really happy to see the many smiling faces of these children as they were coloring in their drawings this morning. Not to mention, the kids were all extremely creative. When we ran out of print-outs to color in at one point, several of the kids just took it upon themselves to use the back of the paper and make their own original drawings from scratch.

I am looking forward to returning to the hospital in the coming weeks as I continue with my volunteer program. I am particularly interested in learning about the children on a more personal level. I am also able to observe a lot from my surroundings when I am in places like this where I know that the children who are coming in come from more impoverished areas of the country. I will most likely add more blog posts later on to capture the details of my experiences at the hospital throughout coming weeks.

Here are some pictures from today’s visit to the hospital.  I didn’t take any photos of the kids in the waiting room as they were drawing because it didn’t seem appropriate.

Oh yes, and I forgot to mention… being on your feet and working with kids for 3 hours straight definitely makes you hungry so I went to a “Chifa” (Peruvian Chinese Restaurant) along with the two other volunteers from my program afterwards. See photos below!

View of hospital de niños, San Borja from the bridge I walk across at Rosa Toro:

Ready for our first day of volunteering (the orange aprons are required for volunteers to wear so they can identify us while we are there):  “Chifa” lunch afterwards… worked up quite the appetite: 

Sopa de Wonton 
Chaufa con Frejolito Chino 

Today after finishing my class at the university, I had the chance to stop by a museum right here in Miraflores – El Lugar de la Memoria, la Tolerancia y la Inclusión Social (The Place of Memory, Tolerance and Social Inclusion). I had been wanting to check this museum out ever since seeing Claudia Llosa’s film La Teta Asustada (The Milk of Sorrow) in my IFSA-Butler Advanced Writing course and learning about the violence that took place in Ayacucho (an area in south-central Perú) as a result of the Sendero Luminoso and MRTA (Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement). Before visiting the museum, I had been thinking a lot about how we recuperate memories of the past and the importance of looking back at the past in order to be able to reflect on history and ultimately improve for the future. Despite the difficulty that is presented to us upon looking back at the ugly parts of a country’s history, it is ultimately what helps us to fully understand and be well informed about society.  For this reason, going to El Lugar de la Memoria was a very enriching experience for me, as I was able to enhance my understanding of Perú’s past through the photographs I saw and the audios that I heard.

The museum consists of three floors and a basement. The first floor is devoted to Perú during the years of 1980-2000, showing the origins of this violent era as well as how it impacted the educational system. Also, something which I really liked on the first floor was that there were testimonies from actual people who were victims of the violence inflicted by terrorists in the country. Hearing people from different communities throughout the country share their own stories in these testimonies was really moving to me because they were speaking their personal truths (See the photo below to read brief descriptions of each person’s testimony).

I actually spent a lot of time checking out the first floor today and decided that I am going to return to the museum another day in order to check out the second and third floors more thoroughly. I will probably make another post later on that connects to this post so that I can follow-up and describe more about the second and third floors.

As I already mentioned, the museum itself is a lot to take in at once considering that this was a very difficult part of Perú’s history.  Thus, it can be extremely tough for Peruvians to revisit this traumatic past and even my host parents here have made it very clear to me that they have absolutely no interest in visiting the museum.

Here are some photos that I took during my visit to the museum (not too many actually because it didn’t feel like the kind of museum visit where you really want to take pictures). The first photo I’ve included is the one with the descriptions of different victims testimonies, as mentioned in the above post: 

In this second post, I wanted to talk a little bit more about the district of Lima in which I am staying for the semester, Miraflores.

Miraflores is one of the more touristy districts within’ Lima Province with restaurants, bars, cafés, nightclubs, and plenty of shopping too of course. San Isidro and Barranco are neighbors to Miraflores, just a short bus ride away. Additionally, La Huaca Pucllana, which is a pre-Incan ruin is located in Miraflores and at the beginning of my program I had the opportunity to take a tour of this archaeological site. I wish I could share some photos I took during my tour at La Huaca Pucllana but unfortunately, my phone with the pictures from la Huaca got stolen during a bus ride into school one morning last month. I guess this just gives me a reason to go back to visit la Huaca at some point during the next two months while I am still here!

One of my personal favorite spots to go to in Miraflores has to be Parque Kennedy, which is literally a five minute walk away from where my house is located. I love spending weekends walking through the park and looking at the exhibitions that are going on. There is also an amphitheatre towards the center of the park where often times you’ll find music playing and couples dancing.

By far, one of the best parts about living in Miraflores and specifically where my house is located has to be the view of the Pacific ocean. This is a view that I realized I haven’t really been taking full advantage of during my time here just yet, which is probably due to the fact that it’s still been pretty chilly here in Lima. However, as it warms up I am sure that I will start to seriously appreciate how close my house is to the water.

Picture time now! Take a look below to see some photographs of the places I’ve been spending my time at while here in Miraflores: