This past weekend, Alan, Eli and I joined Yves, Valerie and their two children at the their beach house which is in an area called Asia about a 1.5 hour drive from Lima. The beach is really the main attraction for residents of Lima during the summer. And that is probably because 9 of the 12 months out of the year, Lima is in a cloud and there is no sun to speak of. Because Lima is stuck between the Pacific Ocean and mountains, the moisture gets trapped in the atmosphere, clouds accumulate and have no where to go. However, because Lima is on a dessert, it never rains. It sounds crazy but is apparently true. Now we see plenty of sun and thank goodness this is the time of year when we moved here. Peruvians tell us that summer is the best time here, everyone is happy and in a good mood and it is no wonder. Imagine being surrounded by clouds for 3/4 of the year! So obviously, soaking up sun at the beach makes up for all the months with little Vitamin D. The wealthier Peruvians own or rent beach houses. There are also community beaches, even right in Lima, where the less financially well-off also enjoy the water and sun.
So we made our way there Saturday morning. Alan drove Eli and I in our company car which we will use while we here. We followed Yves and Valerie there which was no easy feat because Peruvians drive like maniacs!!! Well, I guess no different than Ghanaians drive but trying to follow another car is near impossible. After we made it out of the congested city, the road became a highway and traffic moved along at a nice clip. The scenery was bizarre and very barren, like a dessert should be I suppose. We did drive along the coast for some of it and so the scenery varied a little. Billboards lined the highway though advertising everything from shampoo to soda.
The community where Yves and Valerie have their house is made up of a conglomerate of town homes clustered very close together with a shared pool, playground and sidewalks linking all the town homes together and leading to the beach of course. The beach was nice, clean but unfortunately the dark almost black sand made it impossible to walk barefoot. Eli loved playing in the sand as expected and this time he got really into the waves washing over his feet. The water was a bit cold so we didn't go more than knee deep but he loved waiting for the waves to come towards him. Eli got taken for a ride in Yves' bike basket which he loved and we did a lot of relaxing!
We did go out Saturday night to The Boulevard which is the entertainment area for the region. It is a little like Atlantic City I would imagine...lots of restaurants, shops, bars, game plazas, etc. We ate fast food sushi which in Peru is just as good as the expensive kind apparently. Being right on the ocean means fresh fish and there is a huge Japanese population in Lima so Sushi is pretty popular.
All in all it was a fun weekend. Unfortunately, Alan's back is still bothering him quite a bit so that put a little damper on our fun but hopefully he's on the mend after seeing a doctor today back in Lima and getting some clarity on the diagnosis and treatment options. Will update more on that later...but now it's off to apartment shopping!
So we made our way there Saturday morning. Alan drove Eli and I in our company car which we will use while we here. We followed Yves and Valerie there which was no easy feat because Peruvians drive like maniacs!!! Well, I guess no different than Ghanaians drive but trying to follow another car is near impossible. After we made it out of the congested city, the road became a highway and traffic moved along at a nice clip. The scenery was bizarre and very barren, like a dessert should be I suppose. We did drive along the coast for some of it and so the scenery varied a little. Billboards lined the highway though advertising everything from shampoo to soda.
The community where Yves and Valerie have their house is made up of a conglomerate of town homes clustered very close together with a shared pool, playground and sidewalks linking all the town homes together and leading to the beach of course. The beach was nice, clean but unfortunately the dark almost black sand made it impossible to walk barefoot. Eli loved playing in the sand as expected and this time he got really into the waves washing over his feet. The water was a bit cold so we didn't go more than knee deep but he loved waiting for the waves to come towards him. Eli got taken for a ride in Yves' bike basket which he loved and we did a lot of relaxing!
We did go out Saturday night to The Boulevard which is the entertainment area for the region. It is a little like Atlantic City I would imagine...lots of restaurants, shops, bars, game plazas, etc. We ate fast food sushi which in Peru is just as good as the expensive kind apparently. Being right on the ocean means fresh fish and there is a huge Japanese population in Lima so Sushi is pretty popular.
All in all it was a fun weekend. Unfortunately, Alan's back is still bothering him quite a bit so that put a little damper on our fun but hopefully he's on the mend after seeing a doctor today back in Lima and getting some clarity on the diagnosis and treatment options. Will update more on that later...but now it's off to apartment shopping!
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