Peru, Peru, Peru is on fire!

This is a rather quick update, but this week has been so awesome that I felt it would be the right moment to update my blog.

Lima, city without sunshine, but lots of contamination. Too much traffic, but no green areas. All these things about Lima are true. But this also is:

Lima, city with a sea, cultural importance and millions of possibilities. Last week I grabbed two of these possibilities, the first one on Thursday when I went to a David Guetta concert and the second one on Saturday, when the Black Eyed Peas made 33 000 people go crazy in the night of Lima. And I was one of them!!! And boy, I went crazy!! It was easily the best live show I have ever seen. On top of that, the Peas performed their 100^th and also last show of their world tour in Lima, which could be easily noticed. The energy they transferred was incredible and addictive. Their theme of the night “Peru, Peru, Peru is on fire” and their constant involvement of the crowd by speaking Spanish made everyone head over toes and completely lose themselves. Their last song of the night “I got a feeling” with confetti raining over the crowd was the perfect finale to an incredible night. You might thing: great, what’s got to do this with Peru? You can go to a BEP concert in every part of the world, you don’t have to be in Peru for that.

That’s right, but for me it was as special as for the Peruvians here. I was reading the newspapers today about this concert and all different Peruvian newspapers agreed on the fact that this concert was the biggest and most spectacular show Peru has ever seen by any artist, and knowing that I was a part of that makes me feel pretty great. Although it might sound a little bit crazy, but yesterday I felt proud like a Peruvian for hosting such an event.

But let’s change topics and let me tell you something about the travel possibilities in Peru. I must start off by saying that Peru is a country with one of the highest biodiversities in the world. You can relax at nice beaches in the North, have an adventurous trip in the Amazonian jungle, do hiking tours in the snow-covered Andes and go sand boarding down the dunes in the desert. All of that is possible in Peru.

I for my party enjoy the mountains the most. Perhaps it is because in Holland and my hometown in Germany there are no mountains. Another reason is that the air is so fresh and clean compared to Lima, that whenever I am in the mountains I feel like I haven’t breathed in a long time. Living in Lima for six months probably has the effect like 10 years of smoking would have on my lungs. Yay, great that I haven’t smoked so far, so I still have a buffer!

It is pretty easy, cheap and safe to get around in Perú. To all the major cities there are good bus connections. Of course it depends on the budget you would like to spend, but for a pretty decent price, you can get excellent service here, which is not at all comparable to buses in Europe. It is sooo much better. The buses here are what the Hiltons or the Marriots are in hotels. But then, I wouldn’t really know that, I have never seen one from the inside. On the buses you get served food, watch poorly subtitled movies and play bingo. Of course if you decide to take the cheaper option, you might end up in a pretty shitty motel, but even that might turn out to be a fun ride. Sitting in a cramped bus, which is only suited for Peruvian bodies (man, their legs are short); old, fat, but really nice Peruvian ladies trying to hook you up with their sons and after hours having a sore back and legs. But in the end you don’t really mind, because you saved a great deal of money and had some fun at the same time. This is why I love Peru. Everything is just a little different here, often unexpected and mostly fun.

At the end I just would like to mention my friends here in Peru, who make collective reading sessions with my blog here. They deserve special mentions, because mostly they are the reason I am having so much fun here. So the special honors of this blog go to:

Eva, in this blog you don’t even have to make up your name, I am gonna do that all by myself. Thank you for eating clowns for breakfast and making us laugh!

Elisabeth, I always think it is great to be pushed to my limits, but seriously, that riding horses session in Cusco was way too much even for me!

Emilia, thanks for sharing my passion for consuming. Without it, we would never have found out about the delicious “tart aleman” in Papa John’s!! I have never come across anything as German as that so far. By the way, when are we going there again? Or to Starbucks? Or to the movies? Or anywhere really?

You all rock!

Besos de Lima,

Katrin

Here are a few pictures of what Peru has to offer:

Well, it seems like once again my Internet connection here is too weak too handle the enormous task of uploading five pictures, so I have to delay that until tomorrow when I have a better connection at uni.