20 days in Lima...

My first 20 days in Lima have come and gone...

it feels like I just put my bags down for the first time, after an all night red-eye flight, to catch a cab to the university a couple of days ago.  Tomorrow, I leave for Cusco...the city of the Incas, the starting point for Machu Picchu, the tourist trap, a melting pot of catholic faith and indian mysticism....I'm excited to discover Cusco for who Cusco really is....past all the paparazzi fanfare, cultural consumerism and artistic facades....I'm ready to see what's behind all the doors when the lights go dim and the tourists go home....

but first, I need to reflect on Lima...it has truly been an amazing, life-changing, eye-opening experience...I've done a lot of traveling in my 30 years, all over the world, in a variety of uniforms and roles but I've never had such an enriching experience.  I'm still trying to put my finger on it and figure it out.....I know it will come...right now I'm just being present and living through this experience.

How do I describe Lima....it's dirty, loud, and definitely not the most attractive city....it's not as sexy as Paris, or as Gucci as Rome, not as romantic as Venice, or inspiring as Washington D.C. but Lima is attractive in it's own way...it has a pulse, a palpable echo of it's chaotic past and violent mixing of cultures, that's present in it's people, in it's politics, in it's food, in the way that each person walks through their day....it's a city as real as it's people, not always pretty, often times scarred but beautiful none-the-less when you know where to look and where to find it....and sometimes, it surprises you...

like some of the best all you can eat Sushi buffet..say what!!?? Yeah, I know! Who knew...
for those of you who are familiar with New Haven...think Mia's Sushi with all of it's freshness, creativity, tastiness + all you can eat buffet prices and you have Wasabi's in Miraflores - the best place for all you can eat sushi anywhere in the world....courtesy of some local Peruvian friends I met at the hospital.  Not a bad last night in town.  We crushed through 19 different rolls - including two dessert roles ;) Whoop!

Somehow in the middle of all that, I finished my research and met my sample size goals - crazy!!!

Next time I'll be on top of the world at over 10,000ft in Cusco....Whoop!