Ma, Pa and Bra have departed. Jimily is ensconced in blogging and fooding in their Lima apartment. Time ticks on…
… far too quickly for our liking!
We’ve had a curry cook up, ate that for a few days. We’ve watched some movies. We’ve washed our own clothes, and dried them!! Jim’s enjoyed the rubbish chute. Ahem. Its nice playing house again, domestic bliss.. just what we wanted. And yet, its REALLY odd. The juxtaposition:- home, doing home things, but in a sunny, warm, high-rise city with a lovely pool on the roof. Its not exactly disconcerting (it’s bloomin’ marvellous!) but something nags at you… “You don’t live here. You can’t have it this good”. If only.
We’ve fallen for Lima a little bit.
Its a high-rise city, lots of traffic, with posh suburbs that defy their surroundings. BUT, it has posh suburbs ;-). It has nice high rise buildings with pools on the roof. It is set on the coast and you see the afternoon paragliders soaring along the Malecon and surfers in the (very cold) water. It has fabulous food (we’ve had our share of ceviche, lomo saltado, empanadas, anchucos etc). It is sort of ‘low key’.. on Sundays / Holidays there is barely any traffic, the city is calm and quiet, the shops close. The whistle goes for the construction (which is constant in this booming place) workers at 5pm to end the day. Unassuming. Unpretentious. Beguiling. Eminently liveable.
Although, we’re mindful that to preserve an unfettered view of Lima we need to carefully separate nostalgia for travel and foreign places as our minds gear up for the homeward journey. And we have been getting nostalgic:
“Ohhh, we’ve done so much stuff haven’t we?”
“Yeahh, a lifetime’s worth…
.. and now I’ve got nothing to live for :-)”
Its like a debrief session. Thinking over things. Preparing for life back home. Reflecting on lessons learned, outlooks changed, anecdotes gathered, friends made. We’re going to post a “Best of” blog when we get home.. the awards for Central and (some of) South America. The “Jimilys”.
On our last day we hung out by the pool after locking up the apartment, and then went for our final pisco sours on Calle Berlin. Then it was off the airport.. and “Goodbye” to our Latin America adventure.
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