Putting my feet up in Lima

Or just the one foot, to be precise ...

I got to Lima on Monday night - the journey took 10 hours rather than the official 8. Nobody else seened bothered; I still have a few things to get used to here in Peru! This was because we had to drive very slowly through hail and rain in the mountains ... and now I'm in a heat-wave in Lima - it's a country of extremes, weather and all! And since I've been here in Lima, my foot has become red and swollen again, which is a pain ... literally. I don't think it's yet recovered from the stingray and it's probably infected or having an allergic reaction to whatever the fish left in my foot. I am really paying for those 2 minutes in the sea!!

Luckily I'm staying with some very lovely friends (Ana and Francisco) of my friend Natalia from Madrid, and they brought a doctor friend of theirs round to inspect the foot on Tuesday. After much poking and squeezing, the doctor announced that he wasn't going to need to cut my foot open (I hadn't been expecting anything of the sort!) and he has prescribed cream and a further load of antibiotics - I probably didn't take enough the first time round.

So I'm now having a day 'at home', catching up on e-mails and blog. I have finally added the missing photos and tidied up my blog entries from Christmas 0nwards, so take another look, if you're not yet too tired of all this. And I'm trying to not to move the foot so that the cream and antibiotics can do their stuff. I want to be fit for next week's tour of Cuzco, Puna, Arequipa, Colca Canyon - it's going to be a bit of a marathon! Luckily, for my foot, I'd decided not to walk the Inca Trail! There wasn't really time, and January is one of the worst months to pick as it's so wet. I definitely want to come back and do it sometime soon though, so let me know if you want to join me!

So I haven't really seen as much of Lima as I'd have hoped, but it's also been nice to have a few quiet days after all the rushing around in my last week in Ayacucho. It's also giving me a bit of time to start to think about life at home, and to acclimatise to the concept. I'm really looking forward to catching up with everyone, but am a bit apprehensive as to how I'm going to feel when I'm back in Oxford without my job ... though I haven't been missing the job at all while I've been here!

Meanwhile, back in Lima, which is a huge sprawling city with very crazy traffic, lots of pollution, never a clear sky, and it's surrounded by desert on 3 sides and coast on the other. There are some obviously very rich parts in the centre and along the coast - some parts very modern, others colonial, and after Ayacucho it's been odd seeing such a concentration of shops, cafes, restaurants, cinemas, tower blocks, etc. There are also loads of very poor suburbs that have sprouted up as more people have migrated here, and things have expanded at too fast a pace and the city's infrastructure can't cope. There are huge problems here with lack of sanitation, water supply, jobs ... the basic necessities.

I've managed to see a bit of the city - Ana has very kindly driven me along the coast, the Costa Verde, and around Miraflores, San Isidro, and Barranco - very nice neighbourhoods near where I'm staying, in Magdalena.


Along the Costa Verde - where surfing started in Peru


Looking out to sea, from Parque de Amor in Miraflores

And on Tuesday I met up with 2 other volunteers from Ayacucho - Phil, who was en route from Arequipa to Quito and then home to the US, and Celisse, who's here until the weekend before she goes home. We met up for a drink in a bar where I put my foot up for a few hours, followed by a trip to a sushi bar for dinner where my foot got another rest, so not much sightseeing, just catching up!

Wednesday I went to the Museo de la Nacion for the morning and tried once again to get my head round all the different ancient civilisations - there's a whole lot more than the Incas, who didn't last long at all! And in the same museum, there's also an exhibition on the findings of the Truth Commission that was carried out in 2000, after the Shining Path horrors were finally stopped. It was especially moving to see all the photos as I recognised some of the places. I think I can appreciate now a bit better than before how totally horrific it all was, after having got to know Ayacucho and to have talked to people about their personal experiences during the time of the Shining Path.

Then I met up with Phil, Celisse - and also Marisol from CCS who's conveniently (for me) in Lima on holiday - and we all managed a quick lunch before Phil rushed off for his 18-hour bus trip up to Tumbes, on the Ecuadorian border. Phil's going back to live in Ayacucho for a while in March, and he's going to keep an eye on the primary school for me!

Then I spent the rest of the afternoon catching up with Marisol, and we later joined her family down on a surfing beach. I, sadly, had to sit and watch the swimmers - even though there are apparently no stingrays along this part of the coast, my foot isn't ready for another dip in the sea as yet. And even sadder, I then had to say goodbye to Marisol, who's been absolutely fantastic to work with, an inspiration, and a really lovely person. I'm going to miss you, Marisol - please keep in touch!!


Last afternoon with Marisol, in Miraflores


Marisol, with her son Sebastian


Sunset at Playa Makaha (the black blobs are surfers)