Peru 2016: What Holy Week Means In Peru

Holy Week takes on a whole new meaning to the people my age here in Peru. I like to call it the "Unholiest of Holy Weeks". We don't have classes Thursday or Friday and most college kids take advantage of this break and go to the beaches an hour and a half south of Lima. We were invited by a friend to stay with him in his house in Punta Hermosa so Thursday morning we headed there at 7 in the morning to beat traffic. My host dad told me that all the people in Lima travel that weekend so we had to leave early in order to make it to the beach in a reasonable amount of time. Three of us girls went together that morning and spent the whole day relaxing on the beach waiting for our Peruvian friends to come. When we finally got to meet them that evening, I had managed to burn the entire front side of my body really badly. I had sat under the umbrella all day but I hadn't put sunscreen on because I thought the umbrella would protect me. Big mistake. There is not enough aloe vera in the world to take away the pain of that sunburn. I never learn. Anyway, that night we stayed in the house and two more of our girls came. There were about 7 Peruvians there that night and they were so fun to get to know. We got to practice a lot of Spanish because none of them spoke very much, if any, English. It was a really fun night and we got to make a lot of friends, which has become one of my favorite things to do in Peru. I have never enjoyed meeting new people as much as I have the past 3 months here.

Friday we went down to the beach together and I decided to lay on my stomach to let the backside of my body get tan. Another huge mistake. I burned my back almost as badly as I had burned the front of my body the day before even though I had smeared on the sunscreen. I seriously never learn. We laid around for most of the day and then got ready to go out. We went to a disco at another beach called Asia and danced for a few hours before coming back home because we were exhausted. It was a very impressive place but everything was incredibly expensive. I am pretty sure that everyone works all week and then goes to Asia and spends their entire paycheck there. It was way too expensive for me.

Saturday was my favorite day because there were about 25 of us in the house that day and there was always something going on. I didn't let myself go to the beach so my skin could try to heal. We laid around and got to know the newcomers. That night we went out to a disco close to the apartment and we got to dance to American music for the first time since we have been here! The DJ played music in English from 11:30-1 or so and then switched to Peruvian music for the rest of the night. I got to dance until early in the morning and it was such a great night with all of our new friends. I am really getting good at dancing to the different types of music here finally :) We somehow managed to fit 25 people into the 5 beds and 5 blow up mattresses to sleep that night. It was quite the slumber party. Needless to say I spent Sunday sleeping since there wasn't much sleep to go around this weekend.

It was a really great weekend, but seeing pictures of my family at home made me a little bit homesick on Sunday. It is hard to miss out on holidays and spending time with the people I love the most, especially with my cousin's baby growing so quickly. But I am enjoying every minute here still because I know I will see my family soon enough. The next 5 weeks will fly by and then I will be so sad to be leaving.

Missing all of you at home more than you know.