Tsunamis, Construction and Catacombs, Oh My!

On our first real day in Lima, we woke up early to start our 12 hour on and off bus ride Lima tour day. We woke up in a paint fume smelling hotel (the joys of traveling), and I checked my phone to see a text from Falconi at approximately 3 am telling us that what we had just (or had not, hard sleepers I’m looking at you) experienced was a high magnitude earthquake in Northern Peru.

Lima is on the coast, and the neighborhood we were staying in, Mira Flores, was directly on the coast. The minute we boarded the bus, Falconi began telling us tsunami preparedness tips just in case. This is all to say, our first true day in Lima was quite the adventure. After our tsunami prep course, and the anxieties about the early morning earthquake had subsided for most, we took off for our first stop of the day for us wimpy Americans: coffee. From there we toured one of the few ruins (not Inca) in Lima, and then a walking tour of the city. It was here that the differences between Cusco and Lima were most pronounced. Outside of the church there were blind men and women, a badly burned man, and different people suffering from physical ailments begging for money, a swift change from the incessant masaje women in Cusco. The city was also far more like a city in the States or Europe, than Cusco was. There was lots of hustle and bustle, and many the tiendas. We saw the beautiful church in the Plaza, and were not permitted to access any of the government buildings because we came to find out that the President of Bolivia was in town on diplomatic business. Again- not something you see in Cusco ever. Falconi also explained to me on one of our bus tours that day that Lima was the reason that Peru had successfully evaded the past two global recessions with few financial casualties. He explained that though Lima is not known for one particular industry, the bank and finance industry is largest in Lima compared to the rest of Peru. He explained that they handle things really well, even given how we in the States regard Peru as a ‘developing country.’ From here, we visited the catacombs in downtown Lima. This was incredibly interesting, as the skulls and bones were methodically arranged in almost like artwork arrangements- with no real reason as to why. Though the catacombs were a bit claustrophobic, they were incredible to see still intact and directly underneath a place of worship. There were aerial vents directly into the room where they were doing mass, that us lowly catacomb tourists could peer directly into.

Though this day was mildly exhausting, it was one of my favorite days in Peru. I felt that even though we were not in Lima long, I truly understood some things about their day to day life. And the purpose of all of this is to say: traveling requires flexibility! A train may seem like it goes off the rails due to language barriers, a hotel may not be finished in time, there may be earthquakes and tsunami threats- but you cannot truly see the world and understand it without accepting the requirement for flexibility and a positive attitude.