Home again from Lima, Peru

I’m still (mentally) processing the week in Lima with my daughter, which was mostly amazing. The bad parts:

• Two very long days of travel, particularly the coming home day, which consisted of 24 hours and three flights.
• I am sicker than sick. The first night home I spent running to the bathroom, followed by a day of fever and constant sleep. Two days later I feel a tiny bit better, but not much.
• I only shot 8 rolls of film and I definitely screwed one of those up. There were places I didn’t feel comfortable shooting–not because I felt unsafe, but because I felt like it might not be polite. People don’t walk around with cameras there like they do here in the states.
• My daughter got injured while sandboarding on the massive dunes of Huacachina, and I swear, watching that happen and not being able to do anything about it probably took a few years off my life. She is a trooper and it didn’t stop her from carrying on, and we both had a blast.
• I missed my dog. My husband, too, but the dog…
• I’m too damn sick to take my 8 rolls of film to get developed.

The good parts:

• I just vacationed for the first time in a decade.
• I just spent a week with my daughter, which I haven’t done since she moved off to college.
• Lima is loud and fast and totally unlike other places I’ve been I’ve been in the U.S. And although I felt out of my comfort zone, I think it’s a good to do that periodically. It reminds you that there is so much more out there to experience.
• It’s amazing how much you can communicate with others when not speaking the same language.
• Lima is nowhere near as scary as what I’ve read online. I mean, I expected that. Read stuff online about Detroit and you’d think you can’t even step foot within city limits. I figured as much but still wanted to be prepared so I read anyway.
• We ate some amazing food.
• We saw some amazing things in and not too far out of Lima.
• Pisco sours are the best.

I know there’s more, but I’m kind of having a hard time putting it all together since I feel only slightly better than death. I can’t wait to get my pictures developed, but unfortunately I will have to wait until I feel well enough to get film out to be developed.

Overall, I’m glad I chose to bring film cameras as I would have only taken pictures in the really touristy areas with my digital camera since it’s big and conspicuous. Hopefully I have some shots I like, but ultimately it was the experience.

And now I’m going back to sleep.

I don’t even care if I’ve made typos in this post. That’s how sick I am.