PERU - Lima

It’s already one week since I landed in one of the hearts of South America – Peru. And I can already feel that this country can tell and explain You a lot... You just need to listen.
Peru is the place where richness of nature still embraces its people. So many  personalities who I was happy to meet very often were related to poetry and some can even still translate what nature can say – isn't it unbelievable?!

Few facts I got to learn about this place from locals:

1)  Did You know that mountains here keep their greens only in some places where the fog stays? Every next day closer to summer fog evaporates and mountain becomes much more drier with not a single sign of the fact that it was green few days ago as the only way how plants get water there is through leaves by the moisture of  fog. You can even follow the process by Your eyes.

2)Did You know that Lima (capital of Peru) actually is desert with artificial watering system and mostly the nature survives because of the most powerful climate force on Earth

 „El Niño” which not predictably happens around every 5 or more years and it happens that the Pacific suddenly turns warm and it starts to rain like never. It creates floods and takes away villages. Also the scientist of Biology of Marine, who I met in hostel, said that it is incredible act of nature which is so crucial for this place. It was interesting that the boy who hosted me for few first days stopped in front of one village and by shaking his head continued to say: „That is not good”. Because people who lived there, at appearance of El Niño would suffer a lot. But I guess people swallowed by poverty do not have options to think about what happens after today.

3)And did You even suspect know that it is not good to run in the crowd of hundreds of seagull, because from the first few wingspans You might catch some fleas on Your body. But tourists still do it?
Not only these facts but also explanation of earthquakes, the awareness of glacier disappearance and so much more people here find as their responsibility to spread as an understanding from generation to generation. They even mention that it is the common reason why in families they have 4 or more kids, because parents need to keep sure that their view of life and knowledge will be carried on.

I myself, haven’t reached the jungle yet, but I was already visited by little beauty called Calibri bird, when I opened the window of my room. In another walk near the coast the pelican almost tough my nose with his wing, but when I was on my 18h bus ride through misty mountains, impressive crowd of carrion birds sometimes made me think that they know that I am in the bus. Of course also can’t forget huge red crabs who are  giant and almost (in my eyes) pray to eat them and much, much more. 

   
           

 But the thing which is irreplaceable here – definitely - eating (I guess not a surprise).In this one week I already tried like 7 different fruits which I even never heard before. So now I know that there is actually a place where Berlin’s vegan people would live a beautiful life, because here is everything. Guanavuna – fruit which is like yogurt, (just much more delicious), granadiya (baby fruit – my new favorite), the cactus fruit – Tuna – tastes like water melon… and so much more. It makes the dream of paradise come true. And now I definitely understand the guy who went to Brazil just to eat some normal fruits.



And of course THE MAIN - people I meet here. In my understanding locals are the most important part of any possible place You want to discover.
The people I have met till today have made my trip till now as good as it is. Their stories and jokes, their care and friendliness, or as someone has tried to explain me - maybe I was born in a good amount of luck in my blood .
One of the most interesting conversations I had, was with an older man I met in hostel. He was born in Bolivia but later moved for his life to Argentina.  He was very knowledgeable "financial shark"lets say, with who was very interesting to discuss some global problem and unsolved philosophical questions. But the most interesting part was when he was telling me about his father adventures who was one of the Bolivia's best attorneys and responsible to create the law of air and space in Bolivia (as I understood, there is an association as UN for air and space laws where he also was a member).  So one day he took his son (my new friend) to the meeting - Air and Space conference (which was like 50 years ago) where were gathered the intelligence cream from all around the globe to discuss how to divide the moon between countries. The story was unbelievable, but in the end he was proud to announce that meeting finished with Argentina's purpose - to leave it as a property of humanity. This all made me a bit speechless but of course not for long.


That was my week in Lima, where I might stop by again in 2 month. For now - Arequipa, place with the world's deepest canyon (Colca Canyon) and many groups of active volcanoes. So the next adventure is to hike this canyon for 3 days. So of course this area is seismically very active and earthquakes with volcano erupts continue to form the environment. As I already heard from locals - the main volcano Misti erupts every 2000 years and last time it was 2000 years ago. So let's see how it goes!

   

Otherwise I am doing fine, just got over my super sunburn.
My camera today (hopefully finally fixed) will arrive from Lima, so than I will share some of my fotos, but for the moment I just try to google the images which goes one to one how I see the things here.

Besitos para todos,
Annita