Adventure to the Costa Verde!

Hola, amigos! As my second full week in Peru comes to a close, I thought it was time to give an update on what's been going on.

Tomorrow is the last day of our Advanced Intensive Spanish class, and we will spend the entire day taking the final exam. It's been two weeks of Spanish Boot Camp, reviewing grammar, practicing reading, writing and speaking, all so that we don't fall flat on our faces when we directly enroll in classes alongside Peruvian students. Here at PUCP, international students get the chance to observe classes before they actually enroll in them. So next week, I will be going to as many classes as I can to see which ones I like, which professors are worth it, and which ones I can cross off my list. Then, on August 25, we will all wait in line for hours with hundreds of other international students from around the world to officially register in our fall semester classes.

Academics aside, today we got to leave the university early, and so another girl from the program and I ventured down to la Costa Verde, the rocky beach immediately below the towering cliffs on which Lima sits. To get down, you have to take this steep, winding stone staircase that has been cut into the cliff side. Once at the bottom, we were able to clamor over the huge rocks to see the ocean and feel its spray against our faces. A little further along, there was a smoother beach area where I got the chance to shuck off my shoes and dip my feet in the Pacific Ocean for the first time. The water was shockingly cold, and yet the not-so-distant white-tipped waves were dotted with dozens of valiant surfers, all taking advantage of the huge swells that advanced towards the coast. After taking our fill of the ocean, we clamored back up to the main beach road. The beaches along this section of the coast were more like the rocky shores of England or Scotland as opposed to the warm sands and bright blue water of the Caribbean, but the ocean was still a beautiful sight to behold.

On our way back to the trail to climb back up the steep cliff, we got our first taste of Peruvian inquisitiveness. A surfer who was getting ready to head out paused what he was doing to stop us and ask us where we were from, why we were in Peru, for how long we were staying, and how we liked the country so far. Back in the US, an interest like this would be perceived as unusual if not actually suspicious, but we have learned that most people in Peru are immensely curious about foreigners and are very willing to help them and ask them about where they are from and how they discovered this country.

The view from the top of the cliff looking down towards the beach

This is the path you have to use to get down to the beach. It winds along the cliff and cuts into the rock with steep inclines and an intense number of stairs!

This was out on the rock jetty. You can see the metropolis of Lima stretching along the top of the cliff and extending across the picture. 

My feet in the Pacific Ocean! The sand was rough, the water was freezing, but it was still amazing to stand ankle deep in the water and look out across the vast ocean!