Austin Hastings

The sounds of honking, traffic, pedestrians, flutes playing and Spanish speaking can be heard coming from all directions. The streets are peppered with Spanish styled municipal buildings, tiny markets, tall modern buildings, local grocers and restaraunts and even a slew of American brands such as Starbucks, Burger King and KFC. The locals have been gathering around one of the main avenues in Lima´s Miraflora district to celebrate and enjoy a parade, and I´m navigating through the noise, commotion and foreign yet oddly familiar landscape in an attempt to make it back to the Hostal in time to meet up with my girlfriend who has been traveling through Central America for the last month.

My first foray out onto the crowded streets of Miraflores was only 2 hours in length, but I feel like I really lived for the first time in a while. It is so easy to become entrenched in daily routine, and become so used to ones surroundings and tied to concepts of how to interact with life that some things lose their color. They lose some of their taste. The sensations which were one vivid, become expected, and somewhat dulled. I´ve spent so much time and energy in learning how to live within a certain environment, that even though it becomes mundane some days, it also grants a certain sense of security. It´s a trade-off that is willingly made for “quality of life,” but some times the sense of security, and some times the chosen concept of how to live within the world needs to be challenged every so often to be enhanced.

As I walk the streets of Miraflores, I´m struck with this realization. THIS is why we must travel. This is precisely why we need to make time to get away from work and routine, and get uncomfortable again. This is learning to live again; learning to survive and thrive within another culture, within what even seems like another pocket of space and time, and coming to an understanding of how other humans live their lives, and perhaps in some way, synthesizing a little of this into our own lives.

I can´t think of a better way of having begun my Peruvian adventure. My senses have been ignited, my thirst to learn and experience more is increased and I again realize why Travel isn´t just to go on Holiday and to piss away the time before getting back to work — Travel should be about connecting with other humans, sharing the experience of life and learning to value the diversity and beauty that can be found on this planet.

We´ll be in Miraflores for another day or two, then we´re off to meet up with some friends from Burners without Borders in Pisco who have been assisting in rebuilding the town for quite a while. Words can´t express how cool the BWB crew is, and we´re eager see them again and lend a hand. Then we´ll be off to Cusco, Machu Pichu, Backpacking, and hopefully many encounters with Alpacas!

Until next time,

Austin