Estupendo amor amar el mar

Hola estimadxs, que tal? Todavía les extraño tanto.

Yesterday was heaven on earth, with a slice of karma to keep me grounded in reality. Remember how I said Lima doesn't get much direct sun? I lied. Don't take my word for anything. I literally got here 72 hours ago and I am an expert on nothing, as yesterday proved to me–no matter how much I'll pretend otherwise.

We woke up Thursday morning to sun and blue skies, which meant only one thing to me: beach day. My pretend life as a limeña is luxurious: I slept in, ate a whole mango for breakfast, and did nothing with my day except bask in the sun. Nohelya and I decided to trek down to Waikiki Beach after eating, while Aiden stayed behind to work a bit. We walked through the lovely streets of Miraflores for about 15 minutes until the calle opened up and we were suddenly overlooking the cliffs of Lima. To our left was a large ravine lined with lush trees and unruly vines, with clay tennis courts (Nathan and Clayton I wish you had been there) and tall, glittering buildings on the other side. To our right was the famous Parque de Amor, lleno de vibrant mosaics and lovely messages inscribed in tile. I hadn't seen the coast since my uber drive from the airport in the wee hours of the morning, so I had no idea what to expect, which was wonderful, because it surpassed all expectations.

Lima is situated above the sea, so we climbed down many steps to reach the actual beach. While Lima proper is green and crowded with trees, the cliff faces that look out onto the ocean are bare and brown. Apparently, because of the way El Niño winds hit the cliffs, nothing can grow on their faces. So from the beach, you look up at the clean-shaven cliffs and see only blank dirt, with a little green grass stubble peeking over the top, and from there the city begins. The beaches lie directly in front of a carretera, so we crossed a few bridges as well in order to get down, but it's pretty straightforward. It was early afternoon, so the sun was already bearing down on us, so of course Nohelya and I had to stop halfway down to buy some chupetes–they got one of coco, and mine was maracuyá (passion fruit). It was perfectly refreshing, fortifying us for the rest of the journey down.

Your nose will tell you once you've arrived at the playa if your eyes don't: the smell of the ocean is so strong, it feels like you're breathing in pure salt, with sweet, tangy notes of kelp underneath. The beach itself isn't very large, and it's a pebbled beach, so shoes are a necessity if you care about your feet at all. It can get packed on the weekends, but there were still a good amount of families and couples sunbathing out on Thursday, as well as a few surfers and paddlers.

The ocean never fails to fill me with joy, and one of my favorite things in the world is to swim in it. I felt a little self conscious stripping down to my bathing suit and running in as one of the only gringas there–half the people on the beach were older women and men with leather for skin, and here I was, looking like Nohelya's chupete de coco: so white I was gleaming. One man, with a goatee like a blue devil, had brought his black dog, dressed in a bright orange life jacket. I watched the dog shake himself out on three separate people before he came my way and sprayed me with wet-dog droplets! Many of the older women would crouch where the pebbles met the surf and scream every time the waves broke against their tanned knees. Others, like me, plunged past them straight into the water. The drop off was sharp and fast–just a few paces past where the waves broke against the shore–giving the optical illusion that the shallow beach extended farther than it did. I ended up swimming way past everyone else, past even the cluster of large rocks that jutted out into the ocean. Out there, floating with the tide and looking for waves big enough to bodysurf (a la Christian Arandel) I met a limeño named Rubén, and we got to talking about food, the geography of Peru, and my time here. I've never made a friend while treading saltwater before!

I swam and frolicked long enough for Aiden to walk down and join us (he brought us towels, thankfully!), so eventually I stumbled out of the waves and switched places with him and Nohelya so they could swim while I dried off and watched our stuff. This might be where the sun took its revenge on me for underestimating it in my last post. I'll confess here that I've been avoiding sending pictures of my face to my mother for the last few days, because it's been so pink I knew she would yell at me. But I promise I put on plenty of sunscreen!! I've just been blessed with hindsight instead of foresight, and didn't cover up while I was drying off. I hope she feels better knowing my back, not my face, got the brunt of it. Either way, I would do it all again in a heartbeat. I don't even remember the rest of the day; I've only been thinking about how much fun I had swimming in the ocean! We passed out super early that night, not only because we had to wake the next morning at 4:45 AM, but because the sun and the sea had tired us out so completely. It's such a delicious feeling to crawl into cold, clean sheets after a day in the water, letting your heavy muscles drop, and closing your eyes immediately because your eyelids burn from the strain of a long, active day. Stay tuned for updates on our day trip to Ica....I'll try to post everything tomorrow, and many surprises are in store for you guys!

Xoxo,

Chels

1. View of the beach from the Parque de Amor. The mosaic reads "Soñará el amor intenso como el mar." "They'll dream of a love intense like the sea."

2. The steps back up from the beach, and the brown cliffs behind them.

3. Waikiki Beach!

4. A lil picture of me, in front of a mosaic that reads "Tu de este lado y yo del otro como dos remos" or "You from this side and me from the other like two oars."

5. More mosaics from the Parque de Amor. This one says "estupendo amor amar el mar" at the top, and "me quemo para no ver el sitio vacío de tu cuerpo" at the bottom. Top: "what a stupendous love it is to love the sea" and bottom: "I burn so I don't have to see the empty space of your body."

6. A statue of two lovers besando, as befits the Parque de Amor

7. The tennis courts in the ravine I was talking about earlier!

8. View of the ocean from the street level in Lima.