From what I have seen of Lima I think that it is a very nice city. I love the parks and little green spaces that I have seen so far and the old style buildings. It was really interesting how different neighbourhoods changed which made me think about what Rama talked about in the Ordered City. It made me wonder about how the different neighbourhoods were designed, for whom, and why. When I was walking to the city centre yesterday you could see where San Isidro ended and the new, less high end area began. The buildings got less modern looking and became older and more colonial looking. It was like modernity was clashing with the past that was still holding on. And as we left San Isidro the buildings were not the only thing to change. The streets got much busier and louder with bumper to bumper traffic and the side walks were swarming with people. I did find that I preferred the architecture outside of San Isidro because I find that modern buildings do not have the same beauty or warmth that old buildings do. There was more life and personality to the areas so I quite like being able to walk back into the past.

The different museums we went to were very interesting and now I want to learn more about the Shining Path. I had not heard about them before so I would be curious to look them up and learn the different takes on them. The guide called them terrorists and at the end when she talked about the two police officers who caught the leader she said that they are heroes for protecting democracy. This just stuck with me because in my experience with studying Latin America the police are not protectors of democracy but of dictatorships. The other museum we went to was also very interesting and I loved the ear pieces for the tour. They were perfect and made it really nice and effective to get the tour.

I can’t remember what it was called but there was a museum around the city centre that I was only in briefly but that was really interesting. It had stuff about most of the authors that we are going to be reading which made Jon very excited. But it was cool to see stuff from Guaman Poma, who I read last semester. I was not expecting to see his stuff there. One thing that I do miss is the late setting sun in Vancouver. The sun sets so early here and I would love to have more daylight, especially on days where we are doing more exploring. I have seen so many cool and beautiful things that I want to buy I just know that my bank account will not be happy with me when I get home. But I definitely will be. I will just have to pack very well to get everything back home because my bags will be stuffed!