Lima

So, here I am in my first days in Peru, which I´m sure will not at all resemble what most of my days here will be like, and I´m getting more excited by the minute. My flights went smoothly and I was blessed by the airplane neighbor gods with interesting people who wanted to converse and therefore who made the trips feel considerably shorter. On my flight to Miami I sat next to Hector, a {gorgeous} Cuban yoga instructor, who was full of wisdom and humor. We became friends in short time and ended up pouring our hearts out to one another about this and that. He gave me some great advice and made me feel positive and happy about everything in life, which I already pretty much was anyway, but anyhow, thanks Hector, wherever you are.
Yesterday I spent the day exploring the city a bit, or at least the areas that were dubbed ¨safe¨to me by the reception guy at my hostel. I went to a beautiful Franciscan church which, in its basement, contains the bodily remains of over 70,000 people. The bones are all arranged by type and then placed in geometric designs. Weeeird.... I had never seen anything like it before and it was really pretty spooky... thousands of skulls laid out in concentric circles, huge piles of leg bones, etc, etc... the church itself was absolutely gorgeous. I didn´t wander far into the poorer areas of town, as I had my camera and a bit of money on me, and didn´t feel like parting with either of them. The city is, for the most part, extremely flat, except a few hills at the end of town, which rise up suddenly. On the hills there are little communities of poor folks, with brightly painted corrugated tin houses that look as though they could blow over in a second. I didn´t dare wander into these neighborhoods, but I have to say I was intreagued and would have liked to have a more personal glimpse into the way that more than half of this country lives. As it is, I´m staying in the nicest part of town, a suburb called Miraflores, where the majority of tourists live, and where the more well-to-do Limeños live. Things are still shockingly cheap, especially with my backpacker mentality of going to supermarkets instead of restaurants (although I scoped out a vegetarian restaurant that I´m going to go back to tonight as a celebration for my last night outside the jungle) and to make myself an avocado tomato sandwich it runs me about 40 cents. The cabs are also really cheap, about $2 for a half hour trip into the city center (and I´m sure that´s the gringo price).
Today I dropped off my suitcase of Costa Rican beach gear at the appartment of the Guacamayo (Macaw) project leader, Carolina, who spends half her year here in Lima, and the other half in the jungle. She was super sweet and we sat and talked for half an hour or so mostly about what to expect from my next three months. She gave a very very good impression and our conversation left me more excited than ever. I now know that there will be about 5 other assistants working the same time as myself, along with about 5 local guides, and another few women who do the cooking. It sounds as though there´s a good comradery among the project crew (she said they often organize soccer games on the ¨beach¨beside the river and that everyone has an attitude of making the best of the situation). I will appreciate positive attitudes, as I´m sure it will not all be peachy...
Anyhow, I´ll stop there, and write more about TRC once I´m living there and getting a better feeling for things for myself. For now, I´m going to go luxuriate with my vegetarian meal and then I´m going to watch some Spanish TV and get to bed early for my big day tomorrow.