Larcomar and Beach

I've been in my new host family about 4 days now I think, and things are going fine.  Two days ago we walked all the way down the coast (Costa Verde) and made it all the way to Larcomar (like a shopping/entertainment area, I don't know how to call it...there are restaurants, shops, theater, bars, park areas).  I would say it was about a 40 minute walk from our house.  It's a really cool area, lots to do, just a fun place to hang out.

Here are some pictures of Costa Verde during our walk (I'm thinking it was about 8 o'clock):

And here's Larcomar:

We ate at Bembos (a Peruvian fast food restaurant, similar to McDonald's but with bigger, more exotic burgers..and by that I mean that some of them have some interesting ingredients, including bananas!)

Waiting for our food at Bembos

My new host sister

And then we walked back down along Costa Verde to the house.

And then yesterday, we got up reaaaally early (5:45) to put together our beach bags and we took a taxi to some spot where we got on a bus which drove us to the beach.  The beach we went to is south of Lima, and it was called La Tiza.  At first it was actually kind of cold and cloudy, but later it warmed up and the notoriously strong sun set out to burn me.  I don't think I burned at all on my body...unfortunately, this time my face took the blow.  It would have been okay but I think the reason my face got burned was because at one point, after my friends convinced me to change into my suit and go swimming, I got taken under by a strong wave and I think it washed my sunscreen off.  It was really scary actually, we were only like 8 feet from the shore, the water was only up to mid chest on me I'd say, but a big wave came and I was facing it, I tried to stand and like, I don't know, 'ride it out' but it kind of flipped me around and sucked me under aha...It was scary, swallowed a bit of salt water (first time in the ocean, HAD NO IDEA HOW STRONG THE WAVES ARE OR HOW DISGUSTING THE WATER TASTES).  It was so strong!  Made me realize how dangerous it can be, I was practically only stomach deep and the wave took me out!  Anyways, after that, I stumbled back to my towel, choking on the salty water and my eyes burning.  And I did put some more sun screen on my face, but just a bit on my cheeks and nose, and I guess it wasn't enough...in total we were at the beach like 6 hours! 

Tami and I!  I can't believe I finally look tan!

It was funny because we didn't even know Tami was going to be there.  In a city as big as Lima, running into people you know, especially so far outside of Lima (remember we were south of Lima, at one of the MANY beaches) is, I don't know, kind of significant.  We joked that it was like a scene from movie, both of us strolling casually along the beach, and then we see each other in the crowd of the hundreds and hundreds that had come to this specific beach today, and in slow-motion with dramatic music, we run towards eachother and leap into eachothers arms. hahahaha.

It was not only a beach, it was also kind of a club, with pools and stuff.

Tons of people-and to the right, even more people

So we ended up leaving the house to travel to the beach at about 7:00, and returned home from the beach at about 5.  It was a reaaaally long, tiring day (but also fun, of course).

Beach activities included:

• napping on towels in the sand
• swimming out to the floating dock
• jumping and bobbing on the waves
• choking on salt water
• licking our arms after we had dried to see if we were still salty ahaha
• eating choripan
• eating raspadillas (like snowcones)

 Well that is about it I suppose.  Goodbye people!
-Ginger

Oh P.S:  my return date has been picked.  June 28th.  It made me feel extremely weird and depressed when I had to send that confirmation email to the travel agent, picking the day that my exchange year will end, the day my peruvian life will end.  I don't like to think about it.