Beautiful Lima

I never thought I would say these words, but Lima is truly beautiful right now. Summer definitely agrees with this city. It was so nice to come back to blue, sunny skies and warm temperatures. I think it also helped that Marc was with me and I had someone to show around Lima. It is a big deal to have my first visitor and show him my life here. We were only in Lima for a total of 4 days, between our trip to the jungle and Marc's trip to Machu Picchu, but we walked around and saw as much of the city as possible.


These photos are from our walk from Miraflores to Barranco. Miraflores is the district I live in, which is right on the ocean, and Barranco is the district directly to the north, also on the coast. The walk along the bluff from Miraflores to Barranco is really nice. We had fun looking at all the apartment buildings and pointing out the ones that were for rent or sale. I'd love to live directly on the coast at some point and Barranco would be a fun place to live. Who knows...
Barranco is the former beach town where all the wealthy Limeans would go during the summer. They built beautiful houses and took trams from Lima to the ocean. It still has an old beach town feel. And lots of people still spend time at the ocean there. We watched people walking up from the beach as we crossed the Bridge of Sighs.








The main square in Barranco is really beautiful. There is a lovely church and lots of neat buildings surrounding it. It appears that the square is the place to be on summer afternoons and evenings. It was packed with people when we were there. It is fun to see everyone just hanging around, enjoying the summer.


I could definitely get used to summer in February. It has been so nice to wear sandals and skirts and just be outside as much as possible. The whole feeling in Lima is different in the summer. Everyone seems really carefree and laid-back. They spend the days at the beach, then come back into the city at night to enjoy the restaurants and bars. It is a great vibe!

Welcome to the jungle...

My friend Marc and I spent 5 days in the Amazon jungle and had an amazing time. We flew to Iquitos, which is in the heart of the jungle, in the north of Peru, then got on a boat and went down the Amazon to the Explorama Lodge. This lodge is where my school takes the entire 8th grade for a class trip in December and I had heard great things about it. The lodge was fabulous!! We had the same guide, Orlando, with us the entire week and he was great! We spent 2 nights at the lodge, then went to another lodge the company runs, Ceiba Tops. Ceiba Tops is essentially the Disney version of the jungle. Our first lodge had no electricity, no flush toilets and only cold water showers. Ceiba Tops had all the amenities, including air conditioning, and a pool and jacuzzi. By the end of the week, it was actually really nice to just hang out in the pool and jacuzzi after being sweaty and hot for 4 days.
As much as we enjoyed Ceiba Tops, both Marc and I liked the lodge better. It just had a great vibe to it. I felt like I was at Wanakee, but in the middle of the jungle. We met some interesting people and hung out with a really fun couple our age from Wisconsin. Everyone else was much, much older - lots of retired people on a South American adventure. The grounds at the lodge were absolutely beautiful and the weather was perfect. Amazingly enough, it didn't rain in the rain forest. We had sunny, hot, humid weather the entire time - it rained for about 10 minutes while we were on a covered boat coming back from the Canopy Walkway.


One of the highlights of the trip for me was the second to last day when we saw tons of animals. We had been seeing different birds and bugs throughout the week and our guide was great about pointing things out. But at the end of the week we went looking for pink dolphins. They are all over the Amazon and are pink because of all the shrimp they eat. We found a bunch of them and sat in the boat for almost an hour watching them play and jump around. It was so amazing. Then we went to see a sloth and an anaconda, which were both pretty cool. And we finished out the day by going to Monkey Island , where we got to play with the monkeys. There were tons of monkeys running around and they were very friendly. We had fun holding them and just watching them play. It was great to be able to have such close contact with the animals.

Overall, it was a fabulous trip. Orlando was a great guide and Marc and I had a lot of fun. It was a trip I never expected I would take. Who knew I would ever be living in South America and be able to go to the rain forest and see the Amazon. How crazy!! I'm so lucky. It is really
amazing to be able to see the different parts of Peru - Lima in the desert and on the coast, Machu Picchu in the middle of the Andes, and now the jungle and the Amazon. This is an amazing country!

The rest of vacation...

The rest of my time home in the States was wonderful. I had every intention of doing individual posts about the last few weeks, but it just isn't going to happen. So here is a brief overview. I spent a few days with Sarah and Reg and had a great time. Sarah treated me to a spa day that was heavenly. We have decided we are going to go to this spa, in Concord, twice a year as our birthday and Christmas presents to each other. I am already looking forward to our return to the spa in July!


I went up to Wanakee and spent 4 days with Jean and Mike and the kids and that was wonderful. I was lucky enough to be there for Eloise's first birthday and we had a lovely little party. Emerson, Alex and Eloise are fabulous kids and I had so much fun hanging out with them. Alex and I became good buddies and I can't wait to see them all again at camp in July. Jean and I got to spend some good time together, catching up and helping to get her life organized. Jean and Mike are working so hard at Wanakee and with their kids and they are truly amazing. My time with them was just so nice. Check out all the fabulous things they are doing at camp: http://www.wanakee.org/



I flew down to South Carolina the last weekend in January and spent 2 days with Eric. We hadn't seen each other since he was in Berlin last Christmas and I have only been down to his place in SC once, so it was nice to be down there for a few days. I got to meet his girlfriend Emily, who is very nice, and Eric and I just spent some good time together. We took a long, long walk along the river Saturday morning, then Eric made eggplant parmesan (his specialty, and my favorite - it is a little tradition we have to make eggplant when we are together - he cooks and I clean up since we all know I am such a fabulous chef!) and then we went to the South Carolina symphony. It was a quick trip, but so great to see him and to catch up.

The first weekend in February, I spent the night in Boston and went to a Josh Ritter concert with Karen, which was great. If you have never heard him, you should check him out. http://www.joshritter.com/ We saw him in Berlin last year and loved him, so I was pretty excited to see that he was playing in Boston while I was home. The concert was great and it was fun to see Karen again before I left. Saturday morning I got up and drove to New York to see Nathan and Jennifer. They have bought a house outside of Albany and I really wanted to see it, and them, before I left. Their new house is wonderful - it has tons of character and cute little features. And it was so great to see them! Nathan and I have been friends basically our entire lives and it is always great to hear how they are doing. We went out for yummy Indian food (Jennifer was very brave and actually liked her chicken curry dish) and just hung out with the dogs on Saturday. Sunday was the Superbowl, so Nathan made a big pot of chili with tofu (what a good friend!) and some of their friends came over. It was great to just chill out and be with them. I left Monday morning and drove 7 hours back to Maine, which felt like it took forever, but I finally made it. I spent my last week and a half with Mom and Dad, relaxing, writing papers for grad school, making plans for Marc and I's jungle trip and finishing up last minute shopping.

It was wonderful to be home for such a long time and I am so glad I got to see everyone. Home is very nice!! I always enjoyed coming home from Berlin, but this trip home felt even better. I'm looking forward to being back in NH in July and seeing everyone again!