Familia

A few things about Lima:
It never rains in Lima, ever.
Limenian food is top ten in the world, specialties include Cuy (guinea pig) and ceviche (raw fish)
Pisco (the local liquor) is Peruvian, no matter what the Chileans say.
They take pride in keeping their city clean, and you will find street crews sweeping the streets daily.
Lima is like Las Vegas, Casinos on every street corner.
Theres a fountain in the city center that they fill with Pisco on their Independence Day and turn it into a giant free bar!

My host family here consists of Amalia (Mami!) and her three children who are all older, Amalia, Ana, Carlos and her grandson Willy who is my age and just spent a couple months in Colorado as he is training to be a chef.  Absolutely love them all.  Mami is super up on all her health food, so we get fresh fruit juices every day and low fat soups, etc which are soooo good.  We also tried Anticucho which is cow heart, glad no one told me what it was before I tasted it, don't think I would have been able to stomach it knowing what it was, but, having said that, it was really good! There is also an abundance of fruits that I have never even heard of before, Granadilla, Guanabana, Lucuma, and a bright orange fruit that no one seems to know the name of.  They also have Passion Fruit everywhere which I eat at every opportunity! However, this sugar addict is currently missing all her cakes, cookies, and brownie batter.  I'm being spoiled rotten, if I lift a finger to help clear plates Mami comes running over and tells me to leave it all, I told her that my own mother is not going to like the person she is turning me into! We spend hours sitting around chatting, my spanish, I am happy to announce is markedly improving.

Guanabana

Granadilla

The first two days in Lima we spent on full day walking tours of the city, getting to know the area we are living in and the center of the city!  I am living in a barrio called Lince and am only about 8 blocks from the Pacifica University where we are studying.