from the airport

I am sitting at the entrance to security checkpoint drinking my coffee and waiting for time to pass before walking to the gate. The drive to the airport this morning was strange and sad and nostalgic all at the same time. As we drove down the carretera, past Parque del Amor, past so many familiar sites, I thought about my first taxi in Lima from the airport to the hostel that we all met at in Miraflores. I remember being so nervous taking a taxi *alone* at 5am in a strange city (which makes me laugh now after a semester of having taken random colectivos down Arequipa and hoping on combis that have actually broke down while I'm in them). I remember paying $20 for said taxi which looking back I'm kind of like smh Jessica how did you pay that much?? I remember making conversation with my taxi driver, attempting to understand what he was saying and string together coherent sentences. I remember him describing the different districts of Lima as we passed him and me listening politely while knowing that there was no way in hell I would be able to remember any of what he said.

Today, as we drove down the cobblestoned path that leads down to the carretera I thought about my first weekend in Lima where I threw caution to the wind and went running at 10am in full Lima summer heat (apparently dehydration was not my concern??) and then ran down the steps to the beach. I thought about when Jackie and I thought it would be fun to run along the beach at dusk and instead learned a powerful lesson in avoiding surfer dudes at all costs because they are, in fact, The Creepiest.

This drive to the airport also made me think of all the drives before it with Jackie and Eve, leaving at the crack of dawn for trips with our study abroad program: tired but happy to have made it out in time. Driving down the carretera first thing in the morning is so peaceful, the sky is still purple and there’s no one on the road and the air smells of salt and all you hear is the sound of waves crashing. It reminded me of driving up the same way with Paula and Camila after our last amazonian ethnography class with the illustrious Erik Pozo and Oscar Espinosa in order to celebrate by eating at Amaz, a restaurant with bougified versions of dishes from the Amazon. And how we bought a really expensive meal but then stayed true to our 20 year-old roots and left our entire tip in change (sorry again to our waitress).

Saying goodbye to my family this morning thankfully was not as difficult as I thought it would be thanks to the really strange itinerary I’ve planned that involves me seeing them twice more before I leave! Once will be on my birthday which will be nice, I’ll get to spend it with my mama and my host family.

There is a long, long list of things that I will and already do miss about Lima. I’ll miss passing that purple on purple house on the T that always let me know when it was time for me to get off, and then passing the giant New York casino while on the 209 on the way back from school. And later passing Beer Chicken before hitting the traffic circle. I’ll miss sitting on combis that were on the edge of falling apart and on combis where the driver and cobrador were both jamming out to music. I’ll miss getting really, really good food at the stands outside of my university for less than $2. I’ll miss Kaldis and Kulcafe and always passing that really hot barista in that one other cafe by Parque Kennedy. I’ll miss being in Iquitos with Jackie and Eve and sitting in the hammocks, tired happy and peaceful. And then Jackie winning a free maracuya sour and all of us living vicariously through her success. I’ll miss pulling up to that flooded lodge in the Amazon and climbing up to the top to find a meal waiting for us after our guide had spent the whole morning telling us we wouldn’t be eating unless we caught piranhas to fry up (we caught like 4 lil bite-sized fishes aka nothing lol). I’ll miss swimming in the Amazon while trying not to think about fish or parasites swimming into my vagina or about pink dolphins carrying me under. and I’ll miss later on when we sat on the rooftop in our hotel in Iquitos drinking crazy sweet Peruvian wine and watching the sunset. And then later when we had a girls night in our room and basked in the rejuvenate qualities inherent in a night of wine, chocolate, and talking (bitching) about boys and body image. I'll miss walking around Parque Kennedy with Eve and Jackie petting kitty cats and people watching and finding sneaky places in the park to drink wine (which is technically illegal) since our study abroad program told us we weren’t allowed to have alcohol in our host family’s houses (can you hear the salt in my voice). I'll miss coming home to my host family every night and filling my host mom in on my day, and my host dad teasing me about my sweet tooth and chocolate obsession, and bitching with my host sister about how stressed out we were (student struggle bus) and watching Friends and Silvana Sin Lana together at the dining room table. I'll miss sitting in the kitchen with Marie Luz joking with her about random things and hearing stories about her life. I'll miss hearing Peruvian Spanish every day and stopping in random tiendas to satisfy Sublime cravings. In a really weird and twisted way that I never thought would happen, I think I'll miss the combis the micros the buses with destinations all painted along the side and cobradores calling out stops to anyone who would listen and the "Subesubesube!!" and the mountain of bus tickets that I had collected by the end of the week. I'll miss running along the water with Jackie and sprinting up the mountain of steps leading down to the water and zig zagging in and out of people meandering around Larcomar. I'll miss how buildings are all different colors in Lima and how I've grown to feel so comfortable there.

I wouldn't say that Lima is a pretty or even inviting city, but it's a city that'll always have a piece of my heart. Thanks for everything Lima, see you soon.