My time in Lima, October 6-10

I was met at the airport by Joanne and her husband who were sent by i-to-i to meet me, I received a huge welcome from them and felt at home already, they could speak some english and told me the host family where I would be staying did not speak any english, my first experience with immersion.

I experienced the traffic in Lima on the ride from the airport. Lima is a city with 8 million people and lots of taxis and old cars that spew out pollution. I was tired, I had been travelling for 12 hours. I was greeted warmly by Mercedes and Abraim when I arrived at their home in San Miguel ( a neighborhhod in Lima) about 20 minutes from the airport.

The next day I explored the neighborhood and then two other volunteers arrived so I had other people to do things with, Tanika from England who had just spent 5 weeks teaching English in the Galapagos Island and James from England who was going to be volunteering in an orphanage in Trujillo ( north of Lima). Tanika and I would be volunteering at the same school in Lamay.

We went into the center of Lima and visited some the sights, the Cathredal which is situated in the Plaza de Armas ( all cities seem to have a Plaza de Armas). The Cathredral was built by the Spanish ( los conquistadores), very impressive and massive, we took a guided tour, lots of gold and beautiful wood, they incorporated the beliefs of the Incan population with the Roman Catholic Church, used many of the symbols that were meaningful to the Incas in the statues, e.g. the sun, Inti Raymi. There is a huge festival honoring Inti Raymi every June 26th.

On Saturday, we had an orientation at Fiorella´s home in Miraflores (in country host for i-to-i). We also met all the other volunteers with i-to-i, most of whom would be staying and volunteering in Lima, at schools and orphanages. We had a wonderful lunch at a private club, I had ceviche which I loved. Afterwards, we took a tour of Miraflores by bus, it is a very pretty part of Lima, lots of parks along the ocean, good for surfing.